I have no idea how the NHLPA apologists can say anything right now. They have defended the player's offer with the 25% rollback over and over, and now the NHL has said they will accept it and allow this to be the system with the cavet that if it does not hold salaries in check that the league will switch to the owner's proposal, to which the NHLPA flatly refuses. THEY HAVE REFUSED THEIR OWN OFFER!!! How do you defend that? Grasp at straws and say that the player's can't accept it because the NHL gets to call the shots? Something tells me that is not true considering that the same apologists yelled and screamed that the NHL's numbers have been wrong, yet the NHLPA's numbers match up to the NHL's, and that the NHL could not be trusted because of number fudging, yet the NHL has offered a guarantee of independent audits and huge fines for hiding revenue. Every single thing the NHLPA has cried about the NHL has answered in spades. What's next? What else can the PA possibly cry over?
Seems there is only one side of this debate that has been sucked in by a great PR machine, and its not those that support the league. The actions of the two sides speak volumes. Goodenow came to this gun fight with an empty clip and has hoped to bluff his way through it. The NHL waited him out and just filled him full of lead.