April 16, 2012; Washington, DC, USA; Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas (30) celebrates after the Bruins
Well, it appears the NHL lockout is going to effect the home office. Today, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman informed NHL staff that their work week has been cut to four days a week and they will recieve a reduction in salaries by twenty percent. The pay cuts will go into effect on October 1st. Bettman also announced that there would be no layoffs for the NHL this early in the lockout. The pay cut was intended to potentially avoid them later on. Bettman would not guarantee that the NHL staff would be unaffected by a prolonged work stoppage. During the 2004-2005 lockout, half the staffs in NHL offices in New York and Toronto were laid off for the season. (On a side note Bettman announced that he will not be paid while the lockout is in effect. Now, perhaps THAT will motivate him slightly!)
Now some of the NHL teams are making their lockout plans as well. The Washington Capitals are moving forward as if there is no lockout. They’ve kept their staff at their regular levels. Other teams, like the Florida Panthers and the Ottawa Senators however, are making cuts to reduce their overhead. As of now, no word on what the Jacobs clan or Cam Neely may or may not do with the staff over in Boston.
As of now, its day four of the lockout. No games have been offically cancelled yet, not even the pre-season. The league though is hemmoraging players to leagues and clubs all over Europe. Once again, Boston has been fortunate to this point. We’ve only lost back up goalie Anton Khudobin who is signing for a Moscow suburb team Atlant in the KHL.
Informal talks are supposed to happen today between the NHL and the NHLPA. Regretably, there is no word on any formal negotiations resuming as of yet.