I like this move by the NHLPA... I like it a lot.

Obviously it's never going to practically happen as the league would implode, but setting this tone definitely will accelerate the process closer towards a resolution.

It is important that the players show a united front right now in supporting this and that there is no wavering.

Absolutely true about the unification. However, it's not needed for the threat of decertification. It's gotta be making Bettman and his crew a little anxious.

__________________
Ultimate Dynasty League
16 Team Dynasty League H2H: G, A, P, PPP, SHP, +/-, PIM, SOG, W, L, GAA, SvPct, SHO

C: Stamkos, Getzlaf, Carter
LW: Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, Brown
RW: Iginla, Pavelski, Horton
D: Byfuglien, J.Johnson, Goligoski, Hedman, Hamonic
U: Mueller
G: Schneider, Hiller,
B: E. Johnson, S.Kostitsyn, Neil, Biron, Giguere
IR:
Prospect: Nail Yakupov, Tangradi

__________________________________________________ ___________________________
UHL Dynasty St. Louis Blues
...a bad team trying to rebuild...

the thing about every one of these negotiations is that we all know there is are area that both sides will be happy with. as time and investment into the negotiations goes on, both sides feel they have already sacrificed and as a result deserve more, so the overlap in acceptable deals gets smaller and smaller.

The threat of decertifications is really a classic "this is my ball, and i am taking it and going home", but a lock out is the exact same move on the other side. Once both sides have laid their cards out, and have shown that they will not fold, the hope is that both sides are willing to go back and find that deal that makes them all feel like they got something.

This entire process is marred by a bad deal the last time around: the NHL wanted a cap very badly, and sacrificed a lot in the raw numbers to get it. The players were sitting on a 57% share of revinue- most other leagues are much closer to a 50/50 split, and most of the other leagues have a much higher revinue (remember that the fixed costs are all fairly similar, and those things come out of the owners half). In the NHL with a smaller pie, and the teams getting a smaller part of a small pie, they simply could not make money. There are a few teams that did very will in this system, but most did not.

We get to these negotiations, and we now have a bigger pie, so it should not matter as much to cover expenses since they are still relativly fixed figures and the NHL overall still netted a profit off of the old deal. It did become apparent that some teams could not survive in this set up since thier fixed cost are above teh 43% they were receiving, so there was no way from them to turn a profit. Both sides came to the table to discuss solutions. The players wanted the rich teams to share their money with the poor teams. The league wants the players to just take a smaller portion. Both are solutions to the same problem. one has a few rich teams paying the bill, the other has the players paying the bill.

Decertification actully makes the leauges stance even sillier since there are no longer players at all, so there is no one to foot the bill. The reality is that the players are getting too big of a slice of the pie (50/50 is what every other league gets, since you are above it, give in and go to 50), but the league needs to expand profit sharing with other teams. in another 5-10 years they will be in this situation again, and if there is already revinue sharing owners will not complain about doing it more every time.

Both sides just have come to the point that neither wants to give up too much since they have already sacrificed. Personally i like the idea of a mediator or arbitrator in these cases since there clearly is an intent to be bound on both sides. they need each other to survive, it is just a matter of figureing out a way make both sides content (we are beyond a win win situation, we are down to nobody cries option)

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10 team Dyn
tavares rnh statsny
AO benn
kessel malkin
ryan purcell
green letang enstrom kulkov OEL ellis
lundy ward varly bernier lehrner
burmistrov hodgson michalek, ryan oreilly, turris okposo

16 team h2h
Spezza, Tavares
Vanek,doan
malkin, eberle
Doughty Letang, karlsson, weber
hall
green enstrom downie palmeiri kassain bogo
lundy price pavelec

weiters fielder kipnis wright hanley braun upton upton maybin victorino goldschmidt
kershaw, startsburg, greinke, bumgarner, price, neise, bret anderson
valverde, hanrahan, aceves, reed, guerra, storen

Actually being united is needed for decertification as they HAVE to vote by a majority to even start the process. Until the process is started the NHL will treat it like an empty threat. But as I said, if they start it, they better be prepare to live with the consequences afterward...most of these players need an education from someone other than the Fehr's.

__________________
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F: Stamkos, Benn, Kovalchuk,Ryan, Duchene,Landeskog
D: Byfuglien
G: Bryzgalov
Keeper League #2:
14 GM ROTO,Keep 8+4 Prospects
C: Stamkos, M.Koivu, Ribeiro
LW: Brown, Kunitz
RW: Iginla
D: Byfuglien
G: Luongo
P: Nikitin, Johansson, Josefson, Greening
Keeper League #3:
12 GM Total Points,Multi-Cat,Keep 8+2 (<83gms)
C: Backstrom, Elias, Jokinen
LW: OV, E.Kane, Conacher
RW: Semin, Heatley, Yakupov
F: McDonald, Dubinsky
D: Weber, Green, Wisniewski, Redden, Diaz
G: Ward, Bryzgalov
BN: Niemi, Ennis, S.Weise, Berglund, Okposo, Grigorenko

I bet my house that most players don't even understand the ramifications of "delinkage" let alone "decertification". I find it very convenient that Fehr has never used the former term in his leaked memos AKA PR stunts.

If the NHL calls the PA on this bluff, most likely half of the current NHLPA members (those 3rd/4th liners)will never play again in 2 years time. Guess what, I wouldn't give a rat ass about them because they are simply too dumb to understand the number Fehr did on them.

The league won't let that happen. It would cause chaos and the league would be in danger of falling apart.

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LW: Kovy(RW), Moulson, Kunitz, _
RW: Eriksson(LW), Clarkson, _, _
D: Pietrangelo, JJ, Streit, Spurgeon, Brodie, Nikitin
G: Lundqvist, Holtby, Harding
JV: Tarasenko, Bishop, Eakin, Killorn, Grigorgenko, Grimaldi, Collberg, Faksa, Lindholm, Irving

Not quite. Right now there are questions around unification because a couple of players (Hamrlik and Neuvirth) have spoken out about the NHLPA and/or Fehr. To decertify, they need an initial interest of 1/3 of the players (far from unity needed there) and then a vote where majority wins. I understand what you mean, but unity implies everyone is behind it and in a majority situation of 50% + 1, unity is not needed at all.

__________________
Ultimate Dynasty League
16 Team Dynasty League H2H: G, A, P, PPP, SHP, +/-, PIM, SOG, W, L, GAA, SvPct, SHO

C: Stamkos, Getzlaf, Carter
LW: Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, Brown
RW: Iginla, Pavelski, Horton
D: Byfuglien, J.Johnson, Goligoski, Hedman, Hamonic
U: Mueller
G: Schneider, Hiller,
B: E. Johnson, S.Kostitsyn, Neil, Biron, Giguere
IR:
Prospect: Nail Yakupov, Tangradi

__________________________________________________ ___________________________
UHL Dynasty St. Louis Blues
...a bad team trying to rebuild...

That is pretty bad thing to say. If the players determine that their current pay is more important than the benefits provided to them, then good for them. As much as you criticize Fehr, look what happened in baseball after he led the players strike - NO MORE WORK STOPPAGES!

__________________
Ultimate Dynasty League
16 Team Dynasty League H2H: G, A, P, PPP, SHP, +/-, PIM, SOG, W, L, GAA, SvPct, SHO

C: Stamkos, Getzlaf, Carter
LW: Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, Brown
RW: Iginla, Pavelski, Horton
D: Byfuglien, J.Johnson, Goligoski, Hedman, Hamonic
U: Mueller
G: Schneider, Hiller,
B: E. Johnson, S.Kostitsyn, Neil, Biron, Giguere
IR:
Prospect: Nail Yakupov, Tangradi

__________________________________________________ ___________________________
UHL Dynasty St. Louis Blues
...a bad team trying to rebuild...

He also created something worse than missing a season (in my mind anyway) and partial season with NO WORLD SERIES!!!

Anyone who follows baseball knows that is not a perfect league system, and if it wasn't for the steroids issue there would have been work stopages...they just about destroyed their fan base and have been working hard since to recover it. They had no option but to keep playing. If the Yankees do as they are rumoured to be doing (not spend, spend, spend) the small market teams are screwed!!! Their luxury tax (Yankees) subsidizes MANY teams. I'm not saying that Fehr isn't effective, quite the contrary. But as Ray Ferraro said "I hope they knew exactly what they were getting when they brought in Fehr"

They are not bring up decertification because of Hamerlik and Neiverth, they are bringing it up now because that is exactly what the NFL and NBA did, and really it is the only way to have any power in these negotiations. Lets hope more gets done this week than last!! *crosses-fingers*

__________________
Keeper League #1:
12 GM Points Only,Keep 8
F: Stamkos, Benn, Kovalchuk,Ryan, Duchene,Landeskog
D: Byfuglien
G: Bryzgalov
Keeper League #2:
14 GM ROTO,Keep 8+4 Prospects
C: Stamkos, M.Koivu, Ribeiro
LW: Brown, Kunitz
RW: Iginla
D: Byfuglien
G: Luongo
P: Nikitin, Johansson, Josefson, Greening
Keeper League #3:
12 GM Total Points,Multi-Cat,Keep 8+2 (<83gms)
C: Backstrom, Elias, Jokinen
LW: OV, E.Kane, Conacher
RW: Semin, Heatley, Yakupov
F: McDonald, Dubinsky
D: Weber, Green, Wisniewski, Redden, Diaz
G: Ward, Bryzgalov
BN: Niemi, Ennis, S.Weise, Berglund, Okposo, Grigorenko

Most of the comments on what decertification would mean are roughly accurate. It basically touches the minimum effects. Impact on exisiting deals? What about undrafted players? While there is potential upside for the better players, there is definitely downside for the bottom 20%+. Hard to say how many would be adversely affected. The real problem in the courts is the question of a union decertifying and then recertifying, ie. to circumvent the entire process. This part is unclear and may have been discussed in the NFL proceedings yrs ago.