Gary Bettman, Donald Fehr hold talks in Toronto after Regular Season Games get Axed -NHL Update
Just a day after the opening two weeks of the highly anticipated 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season were axed by authorities, league commissioner, Gary Bettman, and NHL Players’ Association executive director, Donald Fehr, met up in Toronto
on Friday, October 5, 2012, to discuss future plans on a new collective bargaining agreement.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time the two heads of their respective bodies are meeting alone, but have done so many a times in the past, especially when things get tense amongst the two sides. But, likely previous happenings, experts are not really
expecting any significant turnaround from their one-on-one discussion, while simply terming it to be part of the routine.
"Yes we had a meeting," Daly said Friday afternoon, according to NHL.com. "Nothing else to report at this time."
The only real progress that the officials in the meeting made was they succeeded in scheduling meetings for the future, which, according to some sources, may be as soon as next week, but there are still obviously many doubts.
With 21 days gone so far after the previous collective bargaining agreement came to an end officially on September 15, 2012, hope of saving the regular season is dying with each passing minute. Seeing the NHL and NHLPA getting back together for 90 minutes
on Friday to at least talk to each other was a positive sign in the eyes of fans, but unless and until something does come about soon, there is no point at all.
"We met (Friday). Nothing scheduled for the weekend other than follow-up by phone on some of the things we talked about," Daly added.
Core economic issues seem to be the biggest hurdle between the two sides to cross in order for a new labour deal to come into place and seeing how things have gone up until now, neither side is willing to budge back an inch on its stance.
Updates and developments on the lockout should be expected sometime next week as both sides seem to be realising how damaging the deadlock has been for the two sides up until this point.
Tags: