12 Feb 2005, Sat Calgary Herald (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)
National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman is not likely to break the hearts of hockey fans on Monday — Valentine's Day.
There's no way he wants to get tagged with the headline that, without a shred of doubt, will appear in every North American paper the next day: The St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
However, don't be surprised if Bettman calls a news conference as early as Tuesday morning to announce what everyone already knows: the 2004-05 season is officially canceled.
As the clock ticked down Friday, there was what seemed like a suggestion from the league that could forge a compromise. But it wasn't even taken seriously by the National Hockey League Players' Association because it was still a repackaging of what it has already rejected: a salary cap.
In an interview with a Toronto television station, NHL executive vice president Bill Daly suggested a salary cap at 55 percent not tied to league revenues may eventually offer a solution.
“I would say it's not a non-starter,” Daly told The Score. “It is a subject we could have discussion on.
“It's an interesting question and it's one that has become a hot topic over the last couple of weeks, and I don't know where it's coming from because it's certainly not coming from the players' association.”
What a cap would be tied to if not revenues was not clear — which is, of course, the salient point. But it didn't matter to NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin.
He repeated that the players are opposed to any salary cap — even without linkage.
“They've always presented it as one concept, not two concepts,” Saskin told The Score. “We're not interested in negotiating any arbitrary cap. If (Daly) has other ideas he would like to present, he should present them to us.”
But Daly said his suggestion could lead to a middle ground.
“I'm inviting that conversation if that's something the players' association is interested in,” he said. “The bottom line is, we don't know how much damage we've done to our business, and we have to make sure whatever player costs we agree to, in whatever form those player costs take, that they are supportable by the revenues of the industry.”
While this does indicate the sides may be thinking, there is nothing to suggest an agreement is even close and that lawyers would begin committing it to paper — the trigger Bettman said was needed by the weekend to offer a glimmer of hope. So the clock ticks inexorably toward conferring a dubious distinction on the NHL: the only professional league to lose a season through a labour dispute.