NHL: Same song, different beat

                     Instead of competing on on the ice, the games continue in midtown Manhattan offices, four blocks apart.

                     In a sideways step in the NHL’s labor talks Thursday, maneuvering superseded bargaining while the league and NHLPA remained mostly apart after a face-to-face session with a federal mediator that had ended at 1 a.m.  

                     There was no full bargaining session at NHL offices in Manhattan, and at 9 p.m., a league spokesman said the mediator, Scot Beckenbaugh, was continuing to speak with each side separately and talks would resume Friday morning.

                      So, the activity on the 110^th day of the lockout was more about litigation than negotiation while the clock ticked on a deadline to salvage a season. Some players, including Rangers center Brad Richards, arrived on Sixth Avenue at 6 p.m., for a small group session, the second of the day. Pension issues were the topic and it ended about 7:45.              

                    Commissioner Gary Bettman repeatedly has said that the point of no return is a 48-game season that would start on Jan. 19, and the urgency is evident, even if the results so far are mixed. Stumbling blocks include how to fund pensions if revenues sink and a salary cap for 2013-14. The league wants $60 million; the players proposed $65 million. And the percent of year-to-year variance on long-term contracts is also being debated. The NHL reportedly did agree on two compliance buyouts per team prior to the 13-14 season; that money would not count against the cap, but be counted against the union's share of the revenue split. And there is commonground on a 10 year deal.
                    To keep pressure on the league to negotiate, Donald Fehr, the union's executive director and the PA's executive board asked for a revote among the more than 700 players to re-affirm the authorization of filing a disclaimer of interest starting at 6 p.m. last night and to be completed in 48 hours.

                    The players had voted overwhelmingly on Dec. 21 to give the board the power to disclaim, dissolve the union and form a trade association, which would allow players to file anti-trust suits, a tactic employed by the NBA in 2011.. 
                   But Wednesday's self-imposed midnight deadline passed without the union notifying the NHL of a disclaimer, so a re-vote would be required. Bettman said late Wednesday the word "disclaimer" had not been mentioned in the CBA discussions.

                     The union also filed a motion in U.S. District court in New York, which was required by Jan. 7, seeking to dismiss the league's mid-December suit to have the lockout declared legal.  The union argued that the NHL used the suit "to force the players to remain in a union. Not only is it virtually unheard of for an employer to insist on the unionization of its employees, it is also directly contradicted by the rights guaranteed to employees under…the National Labor Relations Act." Judge Paul A. Englemayer scheduled a status conference on Monday morning.

                   After a week of exchanging four proposals and closing the gap on some issues, the day began poorly. Beckenbaugh met for about an hour with NHLPA special counsel Steve Fehr and a small group of players at league offices yesterday morning to resolve a dispute over changed language lessening fines for teams who “hide” hockey-related revenues. Some players, speaking not for attribution, were unhappy, saying they were misled.   

                    The league said the changes have been in the documents for a week.

                    Games. Off the ice.

                    High time for all this hoohah to wrap up, fellas.  Time for closure. Put the game back on the ice.