NHL Lockout Heavily Felt as Opening Day Passes Quietly

It’s not looking good for hockey fans. Everyone assumed with the lockout officially on, it was going to creep at least slightly into the regular season. But knowing it’s coming, and feeling the crushing blow that was felt yesterday – the day the NHL was supposed to begin regular season — are two different things entirely. And the fact that talks don’t look like they’re going anywhere soon doesn’t help.

The two sides have come to agreements on some of the issues. Those would be drug testing plans, as well as contract lengths and player assignments, but that doesn’t seem to be enough.

“Until we’re tackling the major issues, I’m not sure there is a real-time urgency on these other issues,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said after talks commenced on Thursday.

Those talks did seem to be breaking some ground. Both sides met for several hours two different times trying to hammer out the issues. But still nothing was resolved. And the fact that the head of the union, Donald Fehr, wasn’t present and didn’t make any attempt to contact NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, also doesn’t bode well for the talks.

However, Daly also said after the meeting, “We didn’t leave today’s meeting saying ‘This is ridiculous. There is no reason to continue meeting on any level.’ None of our discussions have led to that results, and I don’t expect them to at any time in the near future.”

Does that mean there’s still hope for this season? Perhaps it does.

Categorized in: NHL