from Larry Brooks of the NY Post,
True enough, both the NBA and NFL lockouts were settled soon after the sports’ respective player associations opted to either decertify or dissolve.
But as the NHLPA contemplates its legal alternatives, it is instructive to recall big market owners such as the Knicks’ Jim Dolan pushed David Stern toward a basketball settlement last November while Patriots owner Robert Kraft was one of the central figures in urging Roger Goodell to end the football stalemate four months earlier.
The NHL needs such a hero or two (or four or five) to emerge from the ranks of the Board of Governors in order to put a stop to the madness in which hockey is enmeshed. When the board meets in New York on Dec. 5, the NHL’s survival as we know it will depend on practical men flexing their vocal cords in opposition to the cabal of militants who have seized the agenda and seem intent on committing what the Sabres’ Ryan Miller referred to on Friday as “brand suicide.”
It’s hard to believe the owners of the Maple Leafs, who stand to lose at least $100 million if the season is flushed, will stand by silently as the league seeks nothing less than unconditional surrender from the players. It is impossible to believe the owners of the Canadiens, Canucks, Flyers, Red Wings, Penguins and Blackhawks will continue to cede authority.
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