- Aaron Ward via twitter: The NHL and NHLPA have yet to schedule a face to face meeting for this week.
- Renaud Lavoie via twitter: If the NHL locks out the players, there is a group of Montreal Canadiens who will ask the Quebec Labour Board to stop it.
- Dave Stubbs via twitter: The NHLPA says that the Ontario government has “paved way” for a lockout. Talks in Alberta are ongoing. The NHLPA is “exploring its options in British Columbia and Manitoba. Any move by the NHLPA to stop he lockout in the United States would likely have to go through the National Labor Relations Board, and there is no news from there.
- Dave Stubbs of Hockey Inside/Out: The NHLPA is not a certified union in Quebec, and the union says it would be illegal if a Quebec-based employer was to lockout its employees. Stubbs in the Montreal Gazette:
Canadiens players, through their Montreal-based lawyer, Michael Cohen, sent a ‘cease and desist’ letter to the owners of the Canadiens and to the NHL on Friday, Sept. 7. Unless they cease their threats to lockout, the players will make an application to the Quebec Labour Board this upcoming week seeking to stop the Canadiens from locking out their players.
If the Quebec Labour Board agrees, the NHLPA contends, it could order the owners of the Canadiens not to lock out the players or to end a lockout in Quebec if one has started.
“The NHL seems content to lock out the players if an agreement isn’t reached this week,” Cole added, “and we would like the Quebec Labour Board to step in and inform them that their lockout would be in direct violation of the Quebec labour laws.”
- Chris Botta via twitter: The NHL will not accept the NHLPA’s offer to go on with the season as they continue to negotiate. Posturing is in high gear.
- David Staples via twitter: Staples thinks the owners are divided, same with the players, with different groups with different agendas and attitudes towards the lockout.
- NHL.com: Ilya Kovalchuk has recovered from his back injury and is skating/working out in Russia. Defenseman Mark Fayne had surgery on his left wrist in June and would be ready in a couple weeks. Patrick Elias is 100% after he had surgery to repair a torn groin.
- Jesse Spector of the Sporting News: Spector presents a new NHL with a relegation league, NHL and and NHL2.