This is how I feel, too.
I don't think the owners have made any genuine attempt to negotiate. They just started with a very extreme position and have come back with something slightly less extreme.
I think you would start to get more movement in the negotiations if the owners didn't demand an immediate across the board cut to salaries. It's possible for the HRR % to come down w/o cutting salaries - but until the owners move in that direction I'm not expecting any meaningful negotiations to take place.
You just defined negotiations. The only way it gets less extreme is if THE NHLPA ACTUALLY RESPONDS.
Until now they have just crossed their arms and shaken their heads like children who don't want to eat peas. Then when the NHLPA asked them..."well okay what do you want for dinner?" they replied "Chocolate cake with marshmallows." And that's what the PA has been doing....since July.
Look, the PA has not acted in good faith AT ALL through these negotiations. They've wanted a lockout since ****ing last year. The NHL wanted to get these talks underway last year and the PA said no, wait til the All-Star break. All-Star Break comes, and they say nooo let's wait til the end of the season. End of the season shows up and the PA says...well...let's wait til the finals.
They met for 10 minutes during...I think it was game 4 or game 6 in LA? PA said we'll talk more this summer. NHLPA says on July 5th ish I believe..okay we're ready to go. NHL makes an offer on on July 14th. NHLPA did not respond until AUGUST 14TH. One month. And it wasn't even a counter offer, it was an offer of their own that took nothing from the NHL offer into consideration. NHL made a second proposal that was less extreme on August 27th.
August 31st NHLPA comes to the table and presents THE SAME EXACT OFFER FROM AUGUST 14TH.
September 13th-15th, NHL makes a THIRD OFFER, even less extreme then the previous two. NHLPA says no thank you and offers THE SAME EXACT OFFER FROM AUGUST 14TH.
And here we are, October 1st, and the PA is still crying "We just want to play."
Reading that you can't tell me that throughout this entire process Fehr and the PA had ANYTHING less than lockout on their minds. They want to stick it to the owners for last time. They have had no intention and made no attempts at working cordially with the NHL Owners since last year so that they can solve their differences on this. **** if they really wanted to "Just play" like all these guys are saying they would have started the negotiations last year so that we could be "Just playing" right now instead of listening to the Krys Barchs of the world cry about how they have to buy Regular Unleaded for their BMW now instead of Premium.