from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

So if you’re the PA, what do you do here?

On the one hand, players have long ago and predictably tired of Bettman -- name-calling and all -- so the opportunity to see him removed from the bargaining room seems like an offer too good to resist.

On the flip side, some people were quick to argue on Twitter Thursday night that the NHL has always wanted to find a way to split Fehr away from the players, so perhaps this was a chance to do it?

I’m not sure I buy that, but certainly you can make the case the NHL has long been concerned in this process that it hasn’t been able to properly get its message directly across to the rank and file players. So this would certainly present that chance.

If I’m in the NHLPA, as my ESPN colleague Katie Strang suggested Thursday night, I only agree on doing this if all 30 owners are invited to join if they so chose to.

I’d go further. I’d request that Jeremy Jacobs also join Bettman on the bench. Whether or not the kind of vitriol the players have for the Boston Bruins' owner is justified on all levels, the fact remains that he has come to represent all that is wrong with NHL ownership in the eyes of players. Get him out of the room.

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