Speculation: So will there be a season?

Jaded-Fan

Registered User
Mar 18, 2004
52,446
14,304
Pittsburgh
So as of today there are 48 games left. We are rapidly approaching the halfway point of the season. Which actually will occur about a week and a half into the new year. So it is a good time to take a simple poll. Will there or won't there be a season, albeit abreviated? And as a bonus question, what do you feel is the drop dead cutoff point after which a season would be impossible? Halfway? 20 games? 16 like the NFL has? 10? Are we past it now?
 

Zero Pucks

Size matters
May 17, 2009
4,586
298
If either side had an once of common sense, this would have been done with much earlier. I'm not expecting to see 'common sense' to come around anytime soon.
 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Registered User
Sep 5, 2008
28,726
2,346
It blows my mind that anyone can even have hope for a season any more. To me, voting yes is unthinkable at this time.
 

Burgs

Registered User
Sep 10, 2005
6,761
7
If either side had an once of common sense, this would have been done with much earlier. I'm not expecting to see 'common sense' to come around anytime soon.

Common sense has been locked out too. Only 22 players voted against the NHLPA disclaimer of interest. Yeah go ahead and dissolve the union. No more CBA, no more guaranteed contracts, no more minimum salaries and no pensions. How could this ever harm more than 22 players out of some 750, right? Fehr must have been handing out the kool-aid by the gallon. I don't see this drama end anytime soon.
 

JTG

Registered User
Sep 30, 2007
50,369
5,670
The hope I have for them to come back goes down every single day.

The players did this by hiring Fehr. The owners retaliated by offering them a lowball offer. Both sides are sickening.
 

Ogrezilla

Nerf Herder
Jul 5, 2009
75,534
22,049
Pittsburgh
I drive by the Riverhounds new stadium every day for work. I think about switching to a minor league soccer fan every time. :cry:
 

WayneSid9987

Registered User
Nov 24, 2009
30,053
5,676
As much as both sides stubbornly have stuck to thier hardline positions, i feel one or both will compromise in the end to play half a season(Theres still 2Billion plus dollars up for grabs total for half a season). Theres still the question of how far Fehr is willing to take it cuz no one knows what his real end goal is. The owners end goal is clear but they are asking for a bit too much. I believe the league will bring in things like 1 amnesty buyout per team and move the contract years to 6/8 or so but like i said what does Fehr and the PA do then? Thats the ultimate question.

ETA: The absolute cutoff point for me is January.18th. They can't play 48 games past that point and they won't play any less than that. Most will tell you the date is more like January.10th though.
 

SprootsMasterFlex

Sprootsing 4 Life
Apr 20, 2004
3,638
115
Montreal, Quebec
There will be a season. I'm sure of it. These are all tactics to get a better deal. Daly said this week that. There will be one. The NHLPA's vote to dissolve the association is only a tactic to show the owners that themes business and a couple of players voiced their intentions about it. The NFL and NBA did the same thing and I believe it reinitiated negotiations and the NBA ended up agreeing to terms 10 days after.

Relax.
 

JTG

Registered User
Sep 30, 2007
50,369
5,670
The thing that needs to happen is that neither side can "win." It has to be a structure that sets up for future negotiations where hopefully new CBA's can very quickly and easily be passed and we don't have to go through this stuff again.
 

Sutter16

Registered User
Aug 17, 2012
1,080
0
Pittsburgh,PA
Yes there will be.The sides are just too close. They can't agree on contract lengths. If THAT is the main reason there is no deal, everyone should be gone Bettman,Daly and Fehr brothers
 

Gallatin

A Banksy of Goonism
Mar 4, 2010
2,951
541
Pittsburgh
The sides are not close, Fehr added a bunch of stuff after the owners and players got close. The PA is once again seriously underestimating the owners will. It's all doom and gloom if you ask me.
 

#66

Registered User
Dec 30, 2003
11,585
7
Visit site
Strange to say it but I'm actually hoping that they don't have a season. They have to learn that lock outs aren't the way to settle anything and when the league does have a lock out it means that its a complete and utter failure. Just another reason to laugh at the NHL.
 

mpp9

Registered User
Dec 5, 2010
32,613
5,067
I still think there will be a deal at the last minute. They're close, but the owners feel they went farther than need be. Tough to negotiate off of that.
 

Fordy

Registered User
May 28, 2008
26,799
2,935
The plan has always been to drag it out as long as possible. Both sides have too much to lose by missing another season.
 

Sivek

Registered User
Apr 9, 2011
3,268
4
No, having a season would be a huge blow to Fehr's legacy. He will end up with a deal that he could of gotten a while beforehand but at the expense of losing a ton of paychecks along the way. The best option for Fehr to save face is to hold out the entire season and then be removed from his position. He can then say that he stuck to his guns but the players folded.
 

Ugene Magic

EVIL LAUGH
Oct 17, 2008
54,151
18,550
Pittsburgh
No, having a season would be a huge blow to Fehr's legacy. He will end up with a deal that he could of gotten a while beforehand but at the expense of losing a ton of paychecks along the way. The best option for Fehr to save face is to hold out the entire season and then be removed from his position. He can then say that he stuck to his guns but the players folded.

If you look at it from both sides perspective, losing the entire season is in both sides best interest "except" for those that depend on a season and the fans.
 

Sidney the Kidney

One last time
Jun 29, 2009
55,518
46,235
Common sense has been locked out too. Only 22 players voted against the NHLPA disclaimer of interest. Yeah go ahead and dissolve the union. No more CBA, no more guaranteed contracts, no more minimum salaries and no pensions. How could this ever harm more than 22 players out of some 750, right? Fehr must have been handing out the kool-aid by the gallon. I don't see this drama end anytime soon.

This is the part the non-lawyer in me doesn't understand. How does dissolving the union help the players? :help:

It almost seems ass backwards. If anything, it would be the owners who'd love it if there was no longer a player union. I know in other business sectors, employees with unions do a lot better than employees who don't have unions (for instance, my mom's workplace had a union and she had a lot more benefits and job security than my dad, whose workplace did not have a union to represent their interests).
 

Darth Vitale

Dark Matter
Aug 21, 2003
28,172
114
Darkness
IMO this is going to end badly. There is unquestionably some hate in the players' tactics, not just typical negotiating stuff. Better than a 50/50 chance the season is done at this point. I'd put it around 65 / 35. The league will not announce more piecemeal cuts to the schedule. The next one will be all of it. Jan 14 is the current start date if they settle tomorrow. They need at least 4 or 5 days to get the legal stuff done if they start negotiating again and at least a week for players to gather and hold a camp. It's over IMO.

Only question now is if they both sue will this spill into next season and kill the NHL (which it would). BTW I'm canceling my Center Ice package (unless they're willing to give it to me for a couple bucks a month the rest of the way, should the season come back). FU NHL.
 

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