Nov 7, 2012; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins center Tyler Seguin watches the Boston Celtics against the Washington Wizards during the second quarter at TD Banknorth Garden. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-US PRESSWIRE
So, we’re As into day two of what looks like a marathon negotiation session between the NHL and the player’s union. There might be an actual CBA within the next few days. (I really don’t want to jinx it.) As of now, they’ve been going on for another twelve hours with a nor’easter bearing down on them. See, cancel the Winter Classic and Mother Nature gets angry.
It looks like another round of revenue sharing questions and answers were posed to both sides, with apparent consensus reached. That’s amazing. It’a a blood pity that Bettman, Fehr, et al couldn’t broker this kind of negotiation back in July? Well, no sense crying over spilt milk and lost games. Then both sides had a discussion and not the usual argument about the ‘make whole’ proposal issued at the last big series of talks/shouting matches.
At the time of this writing, the meeting broke up with neither side speaking to the media. First thought “Oh hell.”, but then look at their track record. If they had come to a major impasse the tone would have been something along the lines of “Hey, we’re trying here but the other side are being greedy, needy, a-holes.” (I’m paraphrasing, but you’ve seen the same video I have – not by much.) So, we’ve got two days of power meetings with a third scheduled tomorrow. Perhaps we should have mini-blizzards show up to all future NHL-NHLPA meetings.
On a different note, Tyler Seguin was in town tonight at the TD Garden. As much as we were hoping he was donning the B and lacing up the skates, it wasn’t. He was there to watch a Boston Celtics game. He was asked by CSNNE.com his thoughts on what could be the end of the lockout. “It’s all positive right now. We’re meeting and obviously people heard how long the meeting was yesterday and I think currently we’re in a meeting again. So it’s looking better and hopefully soon. I’m optimistic, but I’m also real about it. I was over in Europe and I heard the NHL offered 50-50 and I got my hopes really high and happy. Then I found out more details about the deal and kind of came back down. I hope we reach a deal here soon.”
Tyler has been having a great season for EHC Biel, but he definately misses his time with the Bruins. “Europe hockey is a bit different than NHL hockey.” said Seguin. “It’s really good, but it’s still not the same.”