Mediator gets sides back to the table

NEW YORK — A federal mediator has finally been able to get the NHL and the players’ association back together Saturday for their first face-to-face meeting since talks broke down two days earlier.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly went to union headquarters for what a players’ association spokesman called a “small group meeting” with the sides and mediator Scot Beckenbaugh.

Beckenbaugh had already held separate meetings with the union and league Saturday before bringing them together.

Beckenbaugh spent more than 12 hours Friday walking back and forth between the Manhattan headquarters of each side — beginning at 10 a.m. EST and wrapping things up shortly before 11 p.m.

While Beckenbaugh never got the league and the union in the same room then, enough was accomplished to convince the sides to keep going.

“I’m looking forward to continuing the process,” Daly wrote to The Associated Press in an email late Friday night.

Beckenbaugh began Saturday by holding a meeting with the union and then walked over to talk to NHL officials. He then made the trek back to the players’ association for the group meeting shortly before 1 p.m.

With the hockey season hanging in the balance, Saturday could prove to be a pivotal day on all fronts. The sides have less than a week to reach a new collective bargaining agreement to save what would likely be a 48-game hockey season.

Beckenbaugh also took part in talks during the 2004-05 lockout, which forced the cancellation of the whole season.

The players’ association will conclude a two-day vote among its members at 6 p.m. Saturday that will determine whether the union’s executive board will again have the authority to declare a disclaimer of interest.

If the vote passes, as expected, the disclaimer can be issued, and the union would dissolve and become a trade association. That could send this fight to the courts and put the season in jeopardy. The disclaimer would allow players to file individual antitrust suits against the NHL.

Earlier this week, a selfimposed deadline expired on the first authorization that union members gave the board.