GAME OF FEHR

With his patience paying off, union chief holding out for more

There are a few optimistic refrains that surface to soften the blow whenever these NHL collective bargaining negotiations veer off track, as they did Thursday in Toronto, including the reassurance that league commissioner Gary Bettman and players’ union chief Don Fehr have a much better working relationship than Bettman and ex-union director Bob Goodenow did prior to the cancellation of the 200405 season.

No one who covered or participated in that lockout eight years ago will say otherwise. Still, it’s been interesting to watch Bettman and Fehr avoid making their dispute personal, even as they launch verbal grenades at one another and the positions they represent — or, as they would say, misrepresent.

For the truth is, 36 days into this lockout, frustrations are building. For example, while no one from the league will say it, Fehr’s presence at the NHL labor table is considered by some as much of a hurdle to a new collective bargaining agreement as any of the items being negotiated.

On Thursday, Bettman and the league did not reject all three of the players’ proposals simply because they were unsatisfied with their content. They also resented Fehr telling them the third proposal would go to a 50-50 revenue split when they felt the paper he had handed them read differently. (That’s why when Fehr explained his 50-50 proposal to the media, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly rebutted his claim in a pointed statement, concluding with: “The union told us that they had not yet ‘run the numbers.’ We did.”)

The league also appears offended by Fehr’s reluctance to respond to details within the framework of the NHL’s proposals, opting instead to make counteroffers that recast the landscape under the players’ own terms. Finally, Fehr’s slow dictating of the pace has irked the NHL — from waiting until spring to begin negotiations, to delaying meeting times, to making no CBA offers between Sept. 12 and Oct. 18.

One reason Fehr is ruffling so many feathers, though, could be that his tactics are working.

In early October, most critics — including me — called for the players’ association to make a new proposal because it was their turn, and no one foresaw the league making consecutive offers. Instead, Fehr’s patience paid off and the NHL caved and made its 5050 proposal on Tuesday, bringing a resolution closer even if it still feels so far away.

A bonus side effect for the players’ union was that several owners were upset the NHL went as far as it did with its most recent proposal.

“A number of franchises thought we actually went too far in what we offered to get the season going,” Bettman told reporters Thursday in an attempt to demonstrate that he wants what is best for the game, not just a few owners.

The fact is, though, more than just a few owners wanted answers about Tuesday’s proposal, a sign to the players’ union perhaps that there is anxiety on the opposite side.

Fehr’s tactics are sometimes frustrating, often effective and occasionally both, but they are difficult to question in the context of his responsibility to prevent Bettman (just call him ‘Uncle Lockout’) and the owners from reducing player salaries and contract rights.

Bettman is presiding over his third lockout as commissioner since 1994-95, including the cancelled 2004-05 season, and can anger a legion of players by barely batting an eyelash. Even though he was “thoroughly disappointed” with Fehr’s proposals on Thursday, Bettman’s decision to flippantly dismiss the union’s presentation after only an hour is the type of behavior that players and fans do not forget.

The one scenario in which Fehr would put a scare into the entire hockey world would be if he tried to eliminate the NHL’s salary cap. The 64-year-old served as executive director of the MLB players’ association for 25 years from 1985 to 2009 and helped baseball fend off a cap, but trying that in hockey now would guarantee the cancellation of this entire NHL season and possibly more, since he would be challenging 30 owners uninterested in returning to the pre-2004 uncapped days.

Negotiations have entered a critical stage. The NHL wants a deal by the end of Thursday to open a full 82-game schedule on Nov. 2. Otherwise, a shortened season is the best-case scenario.

Will Fehr step in and play the hero in the next five days? If he doesn’t, does that set him up for a run at the cap? Would the players support that? Will this drag on where no one wants it to go?

All we know is this will go wherever Bettman and Fehr take it.

NOT THE KATZ MEOW

Oilers owner Daryl Katz has been giving the Edmonton City Council fits, trying to squeeze more dollars out of a previously-negotiated deal to build a new downtown arena. In late September, his public flirtation with Seattle as a leveraging tactic infuriated Oilers fans, leading Katz to take out a full-page apology in a local newspaper. Then on Wednesday, Katz refused to attend a city council meeting to make his case for a $6-million annual subsidy to offset operating costs, leading the council to vote to cease negotiations. The Oilers’ lease at Rexall Place in Alberta’s capital expires in 2014, so on Thursday in Toronto, Bettman was asked about the Edmonton fiasco.

“I think everyone needs to take a deep breath,” Bettman said. It seems like Katz already has taken too many deep breaths, and now is full of hot air.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Nashville Predators defenseman Hal Gill, to The Tennessean, on hearing how poorly last Thursday’s meeting went: “I was sure a deal would be done. For it not to happen, it’s a bigger letdown than fruit-stripe gum. It’s really good, and then it quickly loses its flavor and it’s awful.”