from Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun,

We don’t know if that will be the NHL commissioner Gary Bettman or NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, but the clock is ticking and the sense is if a season is to begin Jan. 1, then a deal has to in place by Tuesday.

The word is that during a conference call last week, the players told Fehr not to pick up the phone or budge on the union’s position and, as a result, there’s been nothing but silence between the two sides.

The players aren’t happy that four months after signing a new collective bargaining agreement the owners have gone back to them asking for changes to escrow. When the NHL signed the six-year deal, Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly were hopeful by the time the season got under way there would be fans in the stands. Well, as we sit here today, that’s not going to be the case.

The NHL is a gate-driven league. The estimation is nearly 45% of the $5.2 billion in revenues the league brings in comes from putting people in the seats. Some teams want to play in their own rinks because they can sell seats but every province in Canada has gathering restrictions right now, the border with the United States is closed and the COVID-19 numbers in both countries keep taking a steady rise.

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