They fooled you again!
Jul 08, 2005
Here’s the story you don’t want to hear – and I don’t want to tell.
But, in all honesty, I have no choice.
The fact is you – the hockey fans – have been fooled again.
“NHL DEAL IS ALL BUT DONE” screamed one headline.
Others, from Toronto to Los Angeles were equally loud – and wrong.
What happened is the same thing that took place on that “Stupid Saturday” in February when the NHL Players Association allegedly planted a story that a deal was done only to embarrass Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. When, in fact, no such pact was completed.
The twin icons were duped into coming to Manhattan on the assumption that the union was ready to cut a deal.
In my estimation, the NHLPA had hoped to embarrass the league into accepting a pact not of its choice.
“It didn’t work then,” one of the top league negotiators tells me, “And it won’t work now.”
According to two sources directly involved in the talks, the “deal-is-done” stories that broke Thursday in Los Angeles and were picked up in other precincts were similarly untrue.
“They are making it up” is what one of the negotiators tells me.
And, why would the stories be fabricated?
Step back in time for a moment and recall what I reiterated in these spaces over and over and over again since last September.
1 - NHLPA boss Bob Goodenow does NOT know how to make a deal;
2 - As long as he has power, he will do anything to scuttle a new CBA;
3 - Most importantly, he will pull an eleventh-hour ploy in an attempt to embarrass and coerce the league to accept an unfavorable deal.
“The stories of a deal being done – starting with the one Thursday in L.A. – were simply stuff that the union was leaking in order to put pressure on us [the NHL] to give up points we had made in the negotiations,” one of the top NHL CBA lawyers tells me.
“This thing still could fall apart.”
When I asked him about the best-case scenario, he replied, “If everything breaks right over the weekend, this could be wrapped up as early as Monday – or take another week. But we know that it’s not over until it’s over.”
None of the league negotiators with whom I talked are surprised about the leaks in which the NHLPA allegedly has been involved.
“This is their pressure tactic,” the NHL attorney tells me. “They like to play fast and loose.”
That said, what remains indisputable is the fact that for the past two weeks representatives for both sides have been working up to 12 to 18 hours a day.
In addition, an owners executive committee will convene in New York Monday.
“This meeting does not mean there will be a deal to ratify,” an NHL official tells me. “What it means is that if there IS a deal to ratify, the committee will make a decision.
“But if there is no deal to ratify, the committee will be told the reasons why and act accordingly.”
Much will depend on how much power and influence the militant Goodenow still maintains in relation to the moderates in the union.
“We’ve seen his pressure tactics before when he tried to get the owners to cave in February,” a leading league negotiator tells me. “You would think he’d realize that since it didn’t work in February, that strategy ain’t going to work now.”
For those seeking more positive news, this much is certain: The completed CBA will be close to 600 pages and most of it has been written already; and if the union realizes that it can not squeeze anymore points out of ownership, the armistice COULD be signed sometime next week – or the week of July 17.
“In any case – even in a best-case scenario -- it’s unlikely that the players will be able to ratify it before July 16,” one negotiator tells me.
So, what does it all mean?
Simply this: The pessimists have been right all along and the optimists remain wishful thinkers.
That is, until the deal is officially signed, sealed and delivered.
For my part, I wish that all those positive stories I’ve digested in the past few days tasted as good as they looked.
But right now – based on what I’ve been told – they are still sticking in my craw.
And once again, I hope I’m proven wrong and the CBA IS made official sometime Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.
Or, ANY day really, really soon!
