Now, we sit here on Friday with an agreement nowhere close.  Both sides are at daggers drawn yet again, accusing each other of dirty tactics and I’ve finally, emotionally had it with the lot of them.  Right now, I can’t picture being excited for Opening Night even if it were to somehow start in the next month or even ‘going’ to Opening Night.  If I do go, it’ll only be to see people I haven’t seen since this insane lockout began and I won’t be wearing a Devils shirt that night.  Granted, whether I don’t wear anything NHL related for a night or even sell one of my seats (for profit), while eating the other one and no-showing in a symbolic gesture, it’s not going to do much but even I’m fed up now.  My rationale for not taking lockouts personally is that they’re hurting themselves, not me.  I can always find other things to do and spend my money on, they can’t find other ways to make money.

It is not true that they’re only hurting themselves though.  Tweets from Minnesota Wild beatwriter Mike Russo sum up the state of affairs quite accurately and succinctly, as to just how many people are being hurt from this lockout:

Michael Russo ‏@RussostribI don’t like how Don Fehr strutted in front of the cameras with a BS “it’s over” msg tonight. Played with fans heartstrings. It’s shameful.
Michael Russo ‏@RussostribThis league is being destroyed. Employees will face layoffs soon. This is not a game. Hope players realize whom they’re listening to now
Michael Russo ‏@RussostribPlayers hire Fehr to potentially lose 100% of their salaries, precious time in a short career and decertify their union? #goodhire

Russo’s first tweet was in reference to Don Fehr’s astonishing first press conference last night, where he told the world the two sides were on practically top of each other and had ‘agreed on money’, stating the PA’s last proposal had addressed all of the league’s concerns all while waiting for an answer on a proposal he knew was going to be no because in fact, he was trying to negotiate off non-negotiable points of a deal.  Fifteen minutes later, Fehr had to get back up in front of cameras again and tell everyone there would be no deal and the sides had broken off talks after Daly left a voicemail on Steve’s phone during the press conference (yes, really!).

Soon after that, Bettman and Daly arrived for their own press conference where they outlined just how much the tone changed once the union wanted Fehr back in the room.  Not only that but they went chapter and verse through specific instances where the union ‘changed the goalposts’…meaning they needed one thing one minute before they would agree to a deal, then after that one thing had been agreed on demanded something else.  Fehr’s behavior even enraged the supposed moderates in the room, including Burkle who won awards for his dealings with labor in California.  Eventually the owners walked out when the players demanded Fehr come back in, and the owners’ concessions to the deal the last few days – keeping FA age and arbitration, adding more Make Whole money – were now off the table.

Long-time NHL insiders like Don Cherry admitted they never saw the commisioner as enraged as he was at the approximately half-hour press conference last night.  He and many other media guys were told that moderate owners had been turned into hard-liners themselves because of the results of the last two days and Tannenbaum’s scathing rebuke about how the process changed confirmed that.  Probably not a good idea to tick off the few moderates on the other side, if the object is to actually get a deal.  Of course, my fear with Fehr all along is that he doesn’t want to negotiate.  He’s more comfortable in front of a judge than at a bargaining table, just look at his baseball history.

After the almost inexplicable breakdown of negotiations, both sides went into full spin mode with Ron Hainsey stating that the owners called Fehr’s re-inclusion into bargaining a ‘deal-breaker’ (hence the players’ bizarre request for mediators shortly before their ‘adress the league’s concerns’ offer) and rightly wondered why they should have to broker an entire deal without their union head.  Granted, Don’s brother who is experienced in labor negotiations himself was in the room – and he’s currently slated to be the next union head – but still, that’s not how real labor negotiations work.  Clearly the owners have wanted to seperate the players from Don since October, with their transparent attempt to get around the union head by offering players a 72-hour window to call owners ‘requesting information’ about their 82-game proposal near Halloween.  And offering concessions without Fehr in the room that they weren’t offering with him there was clearly calculated.

However, the real reason why negotiations broke down was simpler and sadder than that, as one ‘unnamed depth player’ confided to Avs beat reporter Adrian Dater:

adater ‏@adaterFrom deep inside players side: “We were ready to play again. But Don came in (Wed.) and told us we could get more and to hold out”

That certainly explains the mysterious change in tone, doesn’t it?  Remember, this is the same union who thought all along they were getting the best deal in December and this was certainly around the time you figured the best deal would come before the NHL started losing sponsorship money.  Suddnely we’re in December now…and there’s a better deal further down the rainbow.  A perfect example of moving the goalposts again.

Well that does it…both sides can play their games as long as they want, if they’re not playing the game I no longer have an interest in it.  And when they do start playing the game it’s going to take a while for me to get the same emotional interest in it back.

In many ways social media is the worst thing for labor negotiations, with instant info and reporting of rumors from the poor writers and commentators who must be exausted from being taken for a roller coaster ride the last three days.  This is why I don’t like roller coasters…or politics for that matter.  If you changed Fehr and Bettman’s names you’d get Boehner and Obama.  CBA, budget – is there really any difference at this point?  All I know is I made the mistake of following all this the last two days from pillar to post.  Now I’m going into hibernation until after the holidays.