With Hartford's game postponed due to snow, with no new Ranger prospect report at the Rangers' web site, with most of American sports consumed with the start of the Super Bowl countdown -- and without even a single commentator weighing in at Slam! Sports -- there is almost nothing to report on today.
Except that both the AP and CP are saying today that the NHL invited the PA to a new set of talks this week, and the PA accepted. The meeting will be held at a secret location, and once again take place without both Gary Bettman and Bob Goodenow. One can only speculate that Trevor Linden's dire message to the players that all negotiations were at an end, coupled with reports that some team executives wanted to call a Board of Governors meeting this week to find out why Linden believed negotiations were at an end, led to Bettman taking the evasive maneuvre of asking to meet with the PA. Better to get slapped down by the opposition than by your own constituents.
It is believed that this time the NHL is set to propose a soft cap in the mid-30s that hardens in the mid- to upper-40s of millions of dollars. We believe a) with some players wondering why the PA wouldn't accept a hard cap if that was the best deal possible, and b) that a soft cap was the players' compromise goal all along, that such a proposal will form the basis for a new CBA sooner rather than later. Now the NHL has to come through, and not just present a new variation of a hard cap.
For the fifty subscribers affected by the USPS snafu -- replacement copies for those with current addresses went out last week and should have arrived at most destinations by now, while those with address changes, because of the higher processing time, all went into the mail today. Once again, our apologies for the delay.
Comments