OTTAWA (CP) - The war of words was renewed Thursday after the NHL lashed out at the NHL Player's Association, accusing the union of wasting the league's time and not wanting to find a solution before the impending lockout next month.
Bill Daly, the NHL's chief legal officer and executive vice-president, had steam coming out of his ears following Thursday's four-hour meeting, which came on the heels of Wednesday's five-hour session.
"I'm very frustrated and concerned right now because I think we're engaged in a charade," Daly told reporters. "The union is not willing to negotiate with us."
The NHLPA has asked for more detailed information on the operation of all 30 clubs during the last three bargaining sessions dating back to last Tuesday in New Jersey. After three meetings and 14 hours, the two sides have got through seven to eight teams.
The union had a different take on the talks.
"`It's been healthy dialogue, it's a process we started at the last meeting (in New Jersey), really to start reviewing the business operations and management of the 30 teams," Ted Saskin, the NHLPA's senior director, told the same group of reporters outside the downtown building where the meetings took place.
"It's an ongoing discussion and it's going to continue at our meetings in Montreal next week."
That's hogwash, says Daly.
"We're having a discussion that's completely irrelevant to the process," Daly told The Canadian Press in a separate interview later Thursday.
League commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow were both at the meeting again Thursday, but were not available for comment.
Saskin told CP in an interview later Thursday that Daly's comments were "completely inconsistent with what they are communicating to us across the table.
"In the room, they have noted that our questions and dialogue have been good and they have been actively engaged in providing follow-up information," Saskin said. "It seems that when we want to talk about anything other than a cap, they express public frustration. Let's keep four points in mind:
"1. It is the league which laid off over half its staff last month to prepare for its lockout. It has obviously instructed many of its clubs to do the same;
"2. It is the league which started preparing its $300-million lockout fund back in 1998;
"3. It is the league which has put forth the salary cap as a threshold issue when they know it can't lead to an agreement;
"4. And when you look at Gary Bettman's approach to labour negotiations in our sport, you can see that he has triggered a lockout of the players back in 1994 and has had labour battles with the referees as well."
All indications are that the NHLPA will gather the information obtained in the recent sessions and then present its own proposal at some point in time. The collective bargaining agreement expires Sept. 15 at midnight.
"If they present anything to us, my guess is it's going to be at the last minute and they're going to say it's a meaningful step to save the season when the bottom line is that they're doing everything possible to stall this process," Daly said, clearly hot under the collar.
"They're doing everything possible to string us out to Sept. 15 so as to ensure we're going to have a work stoppage."
Saskin said that didn't make any sense.
"To suggest the players are trying to get locked out is absolutely ludicrous," he said. "The players have offered many concessions with a view towards playing this season. It's obviously Gary's approach to use his lockout to try to put economic pressure on the players to try to force them to agree to a system they could never negotiate across the table."
Goodenow, meanwhile, updated Canada's World Cup players on the labour talks Thursday at an 8:45 a.m. meeting.
"I want to make the best deal available for both sides, but as long as they're talking about a cap, there's not going to be a season for sure," Montreal Canadiens goalie Jose Theodore said after Canada's practice at the Corel Centre. "So as long as there's a cap, there's not going to be a season and we're ready to accept that."
The only player not to attend Goodenow's update was Canadian captain Mario Lemieux, because he's an owner with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
"I slept in this morning," he joked after Canada's practice.
"I can't talk about the CBA," added Lemieux, who still pays union dues to the NHLPA in order to maintain his pension, but he is no longer a member.
The NHL and NHLPA have meet frequently this summer, beginning with a meeting in late May at the Stanley Cup final followed by sessions July 25, Aug. 4, Aug. 17 and this week. They're meeting again next Tuesday and Wednesday in Montreal.
Despite the number of meetings, Daly says Thursday's session was the low point.
"Right now I'm very discouraged with where we are in the process," Daly said. "We're not talking about solutions at all.
"We're talking about issues you can find in the local paper, it's ludicrous. They're doing everything possible to get a work stoppage. Now that we're in August, they're finding ways to fill time in our sessions."
Not so, said Saskin.
"We've always been trying to get something done," he said. "We are not going to start a lockout, that's something the owners are going to do. We want to try to get a fair deal done and we're going to continue to try and do that. Obviously that takes two sides to make a deal done."
The NHL introduced six ideas for a new system July 25, but the NHLPA translated all six as salary-cap mechanisms - something the union says it will never accept.
"We presented six different concepts that would address the situation," said Daly. "We presented ways where the players' average salary would continue to be $1.3 million (US), where players would get more than 50 per cent of the revenues - a fair partnership system. We spent two meetings on it and they rejected them out of hand.
"It's not as if the players will be poor under our six proposals."
But under each proposal, there would be a limit on how much player costs could eat up of the league's revenues, which the union sees as a cap on salaries. Currently, the league says player costs take up more than 75 per cent of league revenues, which leaves very little left to pay for other costs such as travel, advertising, building upkeep, et cetera.
"At 75 per cent of revenues, we're way too high, and that's the bottom line," Daly said.
The NHLPA proposed a system back on Oct. 1 that included a luxury tax, revenue sharing, a one-time five per cent rollback in salaries and some changes to the entry-level system.
Bettman said Aug. 4 he had absolutely no interest in a luxury tax.
Owners appear ready to fight long and hard for a system that guarantees them cost control, having put aside more than $300 million US in case of a lockout.
The current collective agreement, twice renewed over the last 10 years, has seen salaries grow from an average of $733,000 in 1994-95 to $1.83 million in 2003-04. And despite league-wide revenues that have risen at the same pace, the league says it lost just under $300 million in 2002-03.