LOS ANGELES — The NHL’s vision rarely extends past the 50 percent of revenue the league is guaranteed under the CBA, so it is no surprise neither the board nor commissioner can recognize the positive global byproduct of continuing to participate in the Olympics in 2018.
If it cannot be immediately quantified, the benefit does not exist for the Sixth Avenue operation, which has done scandalously little through the years to broaden its scope beyond North America. The most international of professional sports has willingly, if not enthusiastically and happily, limited itself to within its borders.
There is no larger vision for the sport beyond the losers’ point that allows general managers of truly lousy teams to claim winning records with the authenticity of a guy on Eighth Avenue outside the Port Authority Bus Terminal selling you a Rolex for five bucks; no vision beyond that of the referees and linesmen who peer into tiny tablets while confoundingly upholding or reversing their own prior calls.
Still, though, Gary Bettman has not issued a final edict regarding the Pyeongchang Olympics, which means the commissioner is negotiating in his own inimitable style, though it is unclear for what and against — I mean, with — whom.
Here is the thing that has never quite made sense: If shutting down its drone of games three weeks in order to play in the Games is so disruptive and potentially destructive as to be a non-starter, then why would Bettman ever have presented the NHLPA with a proposal to lock in Olympic participation through the next two cycles in return for an extension of the CBA?
And why is there a cadre of smart hockey people who now believe Bettman would authorize 2018 if the union pledges not to opt out of the current labor agreement following 2019-20?
I can understand why the players would not want to rush to extend this deal without proper review in the middle of a season, and I certainly can understand why the athletes believe they are operating under an onerous deal that takes a 15-percent-plus escrow bite out of their income.
But for their sake, I hope the players understand that agreeing not to opt out equates to receiving a guarantee they will not be locked out for the third time in 17 years. I hope they recognize such an agreement thus would guarantee no other give-backs, because once they are locked out again, that will be the inevitable result.
Their fight to eliminate or reduce escrow may be a worthy one, but it is unwinnable, for escrow is the mechanism that enforces the hard cap to which the union agreed in turning on itself and abandoning Bob Goodenow during the 2004-05 canceled season.
Again, the NHL’s resistance when it comes to 2018 largely confirms Sixth Avenue’s myopic world-view. But at the same time, it seems clear Bettman still is looking for something. If the players are given some time to reflect on it after the season, agreeing not to be locked out again might just be worth giving Sixth Avenue what it apparently wants.
Even if it always is wise to recognize he has been here for a very short time and has proven very little, there sure haven’t been too many guys around these parts in a long, long time who can bring you to the edge of your seat the way Josh Ho-Sang does whenever he has the puck on his stick.
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Ravings from Ottawa owner Eugene Melnyk about Sidney Crosby apparently come for free, though similar ones uttered five years ago by then-Rangers coach John Tortorella came at the cost of a $20,000 fine.
Ah, but coaches too must be part of the herd of NHL cattle grazing on the owners’ ranch.
And listen, Crosby escaping penalties — for spearing Ryan O’Reilly in the Buffalo center’s crown jewels on one night, then the next slashing Mark Methot across the hands while slicing off a tip of the Ottawa defenseman’s finger — merely represents business as usual in an NHL landscape where referees routinely allow blatant fouls to go unpunished.
Either the officials have descended to an unprecedented floor of incompetence, or someone in authority has instructed league refs not to make calls.
Neither possibility is particularly reassuring.
Scary to ponder isn’t it, if the Kings, who took Drew Doughty second overall in the 2008 draft, had used their second first-rounder at 13th-overall on Erik Karlsson rather than on Regina defenseman Colten Teubert?
The NHL has somehow turned offside into the equivalent of an NFL catch. After decades, no one quite knows what it is anymore.
And though our women’s national team has remained committed to the cause of equity, USA Hockey has gone off attempting to recruit a team of scabs (“alternate players” is the polite terminology used by the folks running the show) to wear the Red, White and Blue at the upcoming IIHF Women’s World Championships.
How American of them.