NHL Lockout: Restless Players Want Action, Bettman Hides in the Weeds

It's said that the players don't mind losing the public relations battle in the NHL lockout because the battle is not worth fighting. Neither side will adjust its position due to pressure from fans or media. When the lawyers and negotiators finally get down to details, well-intentioned outside voices are little more than white noise.

Still, nobody wants to be the least popular kid in school. You can bet some NHL players are stinging from the whacks they've been taking lately.

"The guys who are making the decisions (for the union) are making big money," says Brian Pothier of the Ottawa Senators, one of several union insurgents speaking out last week. "They can take three, four, five (years) or the rest of their lives off and they don't have to work again."

"They are scabs over here, replacement players, basically rented to put fans in the seats," Corey Hirsch, a veteran of the Swiss League, says of the NHL players working in Europe. "All these players they are stepping on over here will now be the first to stand in line if and when the NHL needs replacement players."

"Really, it's the role players on the team who are going to get screwed in all of this," adds Rob Ray, a 15-year NHL veteran. "Guys like Daniel Alfredsson and Zdeno Chara are going to get their money. Players like Chris Neil and Shaun Van Allen are going to get (bleeped). They don't stand to gain anything from this."

The complaints of a few pluggers and a long forgotten goalie might not count for much in a 700-member union. But you can bet Gary Bettman is loving it. As long as the players are grumbling, no one takes notice of the fact that the NHL has done nothing to restart negotiations or seek a compromise.

So are they getting uneasy at the NHLPA office? Not likely. Membership unrest is to be expected in any lengthy labor dispute, no matter how solid the union. People aren't working, they aren't making money, their hopes for a quick settlement are dashed. Some dissent is inevitable.

In the meantime, the NHLPA could calm its membership by articulating what Eric Duhatschek of the Toronto Globe and Mail calls a strategy for handling the worst-case scenario:

"There is every reason to believe that the 2004-05 season will be cancelled sometime between mid-December and mid-January, unless the NHLPA agrees to the NHL's demand for a defined relationship between salaries and revenues," writes Duhatschek.

"If that happens and if the NHL does try to implement a labour impasse strategy next summer, what does that mean for the every-day NHL player? What are his rights? What are his obligations? How can the NHLPA effectively combat the NHL strategy of using replacement players and how likely is it that their attempts will succeed? And most importantly, how long will the process take?"