from Larry Brooks of the NY Post,

This was Dec. 6, when Canceler-in-Chief Gary Bettman and deputy Bill (The Hill) Daly delivered their Angry Men standup routine at a press conference after a group of players had the temerity not to sign on the dotted line even after a handful of owners all but directed them to do so.

Bettman was asked about the possibility the NHLPA might decertify. After suggesting the players were more likely to file a disclaimer of interest, he analyzed the union’s potential legal maneuver as follows:

“We don’t view it in the same way in terms of its impact as apparently the union may,” is what the discredited face of the NHL said.

Well, OK, but then what was the NHL doing rushing to U.S. District Court on Friday afternoon to file a class action complaint against the union in order to prevent the PA from disclaiming and/or decertifying?

Disclaiming and decertifying are neither maneuvers nor tenets PA executive director Don Fehr embraces easily. This true believer in the power of collective bargaining has been loath to go down this route even while the rank-and-file has coalesced behind the process over the last month.

And yet here is the No Hope League, in court rather than on ice, filing actions to prevent the PA from undertaking an action of its own that the league is on record as believing would have negligible impact, anyway.

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