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You do realize that's all public posturing right? The league suggesting they are willing to negotiate and any time whenever the PA is ready is no different than the PA saying they are willing to start the season under the existing CBA while a new one is negotiated. I'm not sure why either side is really all that interested in getting public support on their side though, I don't see it as having any real impact on resolving any differences they may have. I'm not one of those guys that are against the players from the view that they make too much money, etc. If an owner generates $100 million profit off a player, is it fair for that player to get $5 million and the owner get $95 million? Extreme case, but some would look at the player and say "hey, you are making $5 million, how much do you need...suck it up and play".....however, I think that's hardly fair. That said, I think it's a fine line trying to determine what is fair and what's not. I'm not sure what math is being used to demonstrate that. I am more on the player's side right now though as their proposals at least attempt to address the issues faced by the NHL. I'm not sure about the fairness of the NHLPA's numbers, but their approach at least attempts to address the issues. The NHL's proposal, whether the sharing is fair or not is plain dumb as it does not address their issues.....all it would do it make the richer teams richer and the poor teams be a little less poor in the first year or so. My solution would be as follows: Determine an appropriate fair profit margin to be earned by the league as a whole (based on appropriate risk weightings and market data, etc.). If overall league revenues are $3.4 billion, all other expenses before player salaries = X.....after deducting X, you can determine how much should be allocated to a player salaries while maintaining an overall profit margin of 10% for example (not sure what that appropriate number may be, but it should be easily calculated, shouldn't be a number out of the air). In terms of then moving down to the individual teams, that's an ownership issue. You are going to having some owners profess their lack of willingness to share profits with other teams who aren't running their businesses properly, etc, which is fine, but if the league really wants parity, they have to figure out a way for the owners to share the wealth with each other......that should not be a player's concern.

owners of ranch = owners of NHL teams cows = players bettman = ? field = ice feed = paycheck supermarket = fans But wait... cows are fat... and players are in shape... !!! This just doesn't add up! I’m starting to think that Jimmy D didn't mean it as an exact analogy...

This, this, this. "Uncle Gary" lives for two things: cultivating patronage in hard-sell markets (e.g. Glendale), and lockouts. You know what lockouts are super-good for? Losing patronage in hard-sell markets.

They do have interest in playing hockey, otherwise they'd just be sitting at home and counting their tons of super cars. These guys are going to europe in order to play the sport they love endlessly. So yes I gladly sign with them instead with some billionaires who can't control themselves and an overpaid midget.

I voted for Fetisov....He's arguably one of the best Russians to ever play the game....he came here at the tail end of his career so he wasn't in his prime when he was with us, but if the question is "who is the best player?" and were looking at their whole career, not just with the wings, its gotta be Fetisov. Fetisov is often grouped along side guys like Kharlamov and Tretiak. if were looking only at time with the wings it's Feds hands down. Id put Feds as a very close second to Fetisov thou, even when looking at whole careers. If only the impaler hadnt gone down....i could see him becoming one of the best D-men of all time, and possibly better than all the other names here. his defensive abilities were out of this world to say the least. Lidstroms positioning meets Kronners hitting

But they do have interest in playing hockey. Just today Datsyuk had two assists and Malkin scored a goal and added two assists. Players just do want to play in NHL given the conditions owners are demanding.

Well, they're set to meet again tomorrow morning and hopefully the NHLPA will have another proposal to table to the NHL. I personally think it's fair for both sides to make a 50/50 split and if they don't get close to that sometime soon then i for one will be losing faith in there being a season at all. Someone in the organizations needs to step up and show all the numbers and try to actually prove to both sides where the middle point should be and that's where they should aim to close a deal on. Neither side wants to meet half way, they both just want to get a bigger piece of the pie than the other and it's getting really sad to watch and read about. The NHL lockout is quickly becoming a tradition and any new CBA that's agreed upon needs to help eliminate this in the future. There's already a lot of people saying that they aren't coming back or will not support the NHL anymore, even just on this site. The word is spreading on HF Boards too and the media with people saying they're done with the NHL. Imagine how poor the NHL is gonna be in non-hockey markets when their already small fanbase becomes essentially non existant. Maybe then Bettman will be more willing to move the teams and own up to his past mistakes. But in saying that, the players will need to take less money if those teams remain in the league or we will not be watching NHL hockey any time soon.

The players want to believe it does but in reality, the owners will win once again, just like every time we see a lockout in professional sports. Fehr has done a good job on convincing players that sitting out for a year or more will make the owners cave (Cleary's recent quotes are a good example of that) but it will not happen. The owners have the upper hand because: -majority of them have money coming in on other things besides hockey. they can afford to sit out longer than the players because the players income comes solely from playing hockey. - the owners know that the fans will come back, just like last time. I remember in the last lockout, everyone said they were done with hockey for good. Guess what? the nhl had record attendance the year after the lockout. the same thing will happen this time. Hockey fans are by far the most diehard and loyal fans in professional sports and the owners know it. you guys can huff and puff all you want about abandoning the nhl if an entire season is lost but i gurantee all of you will be back. I think the players are banking on the winter classic being the reason that the owners give in, but they will be in for a rude awakening when bettman pulls the plug in november. that's when the real negotiations will begin. just my 2 cents

If we're dealing with the current negotiations, either here or here.

the whole idea behind wearing white at home is to draw the colors from other teams in for the fans. face it, if your a islanders fan, and they wear colors at home...everyone comes in wearing white. no fun. come on wings...go back to white at home. they just look better.

i said last year i was going to go to a few griffins games but never did, i will for sure this year, their only 45 minutes away

Right. Because 20,000 people travel for miles and pay hundreds of dollars to watch cows graze several times a week. Buy cow outfits to wear with the brand of their favorite cow on the side. Watch cows grazing on television for hours on end. Totally a solid analogy. And if ranchers did that it would be collusion. The NHL is a pretty specific situation.

That was Grade A Datsyuk - well done Pasha! The guys will surely give him a ribbing for that one. Hopefully they can settle the union beef soon. I miss Dats' butchering of the language.

In Datsyuk's case, the "cream" always rises to the top. Or so I've "herd"

Datsyuk wont steer that team wrong...

In Soviet Russia, Radulov leads you.

Not bad, for cattle.

No kidding. I couldn't even imagine Radulov being a captain on a beer league team. Guess the KHL rewards guys that bail mid-contract on the NHL. Sent on iPhone using Tapatalk

A big-money contract? He signed a one-year contract with Avangard Omsk. He'd not have been in the RSL at all if not for the lockout, and he had repeatedly stated his desire to continue playing for the Red Wings. As for the contract itself, there was no transfer agreement between the NHL and the RSL, and so there was never anything to prevent him from playing for the Wings anyway; and most likely he signed the contract as a hedge against not being able to reach an agreeable contract with the Wings. After he and the Wings reached an agreement on a contract, he was on his way back to the team immediately. There was no funny business of any sort throughout the entire affair. Completely incomparable situations.