LOCKOUT: Day 73 – FMCS Arbitrator removed from NHL labor talks.

Well. This didn’t take very long to get weird now did it? Less than a day after being assigned to a three man team to help end the lockout, one of the mediators has been dismissed from the position. Guy Serota, a commissioner in the FMCS was removed due to an odd series of ramblings on his twitter account. Here is a few that were skimmed of the social media site until Mr.Serota took the site down. They are odd, and a little off kilter.

Guy Serota ‏@GuySerota
(1) @joshrthompson Does that mean you were playing with yourself?
(2)@SarahKSilverman And what do you remember from that age, smarty pants?
(3) What does fact Sarah is Jewish have to do with her being a terrorist whore? Racist! @SarahKSilverman f–k you to hell jew terrorist whore.
(4) @shadoestevens The Kardashians are what’s wrong with this country in a nutshell (or would nutsack be more appropriat

There are a few more, but they’re really creepy. As in can I get you a couch and a Thorazine drip to help exorcise your demon(s) kind of creepy. ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun was able to communicate with Serota, and Serota insists that his account had been hacked. OK, stranger things have happened I suppose. I guess this should be a lesson for all of us.  Watch what you say on social media, it will come back to bite you in the arse sometime later.

FMCS Director Cohen took action as soon as this came to light. (With a response time like this, maybe he should be the NHL commissioner.) “Accordingly, in order to immediately dispel any cloud on the mediation process, and without regard to the merits of the allegations, I have determined to take immediate action, namely to remove commissioner Serota from this assignment.”

Now, will the FCMS issue the warring parties a replacement mediator, or will it now be a two man group? I’m just hoping they can get the parties to see what has been lost. If the billion dollar mark hasn’t been crossed yet, I’ll be surprised.