NHL and Players: Back on the Merry-Go-Round

Three days after writing off the season, the NHL and NHL Players' Association have agreed to meet again.

They'll get together Saturday in New York, which suggets that a settlement to the NHL lockout is within reach.

TSN says the meeting will involve the second-in-command from each side: vice president Bill Daly for the NHL and senior director Ted Saskin for the players. There are reports that Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux will also attend.

Several players have gone public with criticisms of their own leadership in recent days. The collapse of negotiations left the Players' Association in a lurch.

If the players give a little more, will they sell out the interests of their weaker members? The Association does not exist to protect the interests of Mike Modano or Jarome Iginla. Those guys will get big money under any deal. It's up to them to look out for the third and fourth-line players who never make a million bucks during careers that are often over by the age of 30.

Pressure is surely building on the ownership side, as teams send out season tickets refunds, watch sponsorship dollars disappear and face the prospect of losing a TV deal with ESPN. But hard-line owners in places like Carolina and Edmonton will be watching the weekend with trepidation. Their public comments suggest they would rather leave arenas dark than see the league compromise any further.

All of the above is speculation. What is more certain is that new attempts at reconciliation are a response to frustration, disbelief and humiliation on both sides.

"I'm ashamed by what we did," Los Angeles Kings' president Tim Leiweke told the Associated Press after the season was cancelled. "Smart people should have solved this by today."

"I'm embarrassed to be a player in the NHL," said Carolina Hurricanes centre Rod Brind'Amour.

Whether any semblance of the 2004-05 schedule can be salvaged is almost beside the point. In the current climate, another round of failed negotiations would be public relations suicide. The two sides cannot afford to come together unless they are ready to cut a deal.