from Dan Oldfield at CBC,

It’s hard to believe that two parties sitting on a gold mine are wasting their time scratching through the tailings pile.

Other than the fact there is an expired collective agreement in need of renewal, there is nothing typical about these negotiations between the NHL and its Players’ Association. In the coming years, for labour geeks like me, this will make a fascinating case study about how not to negotiate a deal.

The angry drum beats and declarations of shock and disappointment are already flying, along with finger pointing. Commissioner Gary Bettman is going scorched earth, announcing all offers are off the table. Bill Daly claims player contract lengths are “the hill we are going to die on.”

Is he kidding? Really? More than $3 billion in revenue is being chucked over whether players have contracts that run more than five years?

In the meantime, union head Don Fehr seems genuinely surprised the parties aren’t as close as he thought they were. Perhaps excluding Fehr and Bettman from the meetings for a couple of days wasn’t such a good idea after all.

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