- Kevin McGran via twitter: John Shannon suggested on Hockey Central (sportsnet) the Donald Fehr has a proposal ready but the players don’t want him to take it to the NHL.
- Brian Lawton via twitter: Lawton has been told that the players will relent once they miss a paycheck or 2. Told the owners will relent by December in order to save the Winter Classic.
- Nick Cotsonika via twitter: Cotsonika is hearing there is a 50-50 chance that there will be talks in Toronto later this week. Both sides are waiting for the other side to budge.
- Adrian Dater of the Denver Post: The owners have taken a lot of heat, now here’s some for the players.
Now, players’ message to their union brethren seems to be: every man for himself. What happened to all that solidarity, the fighting for the common player, the “little guy?” Yeah, Joe Thornton and Rick Nash showed how much they care about the little guys among NHL union ranks, by running off to Switzerland last month for top dollar, living in a chalet in the Alps.
Fact is, they are the ones dragging their feet at the bargaining table right now. Say what you want about Bettman and his greedy cabal, but at least they DID make the last proposal, and it wasn’t as bad as it first seemed.
But the players are still basically just sitting on their hands right now. And we’ve now got more than 100 players over in Europe. It’s giving off the impression that THEY are the one that don’t care if the NHL season starts on time, or if there is one at all.
- Jonathon Gatehouse of MacLeans: Sept. 24th interview with Don Fehr.