NHLPA Planning For Failure

Yesterday brought new lows in the NHL lockout. First, the NHLPA executive board voted to allow the players vote to give the board the power to dissolve the union, a move that would eventually lead the players to file an antitrust lawsuit against the NHL. The league followed by filing a class action suit of their own against the NHLPA claiming unfair labor practices. I agreed with this move.

Today we learned that the NHL included evidence and named 36 players in their filing. The NHL apparently included player tweets that show that the players planned on decertification all along. I believe that this shows that the players intended to negotiate in bad faith.

This is getting hilarious. The situation is spiraling out of control but as I mentioned in yesterday's NHL lockout article I believe that this shows that the NHL had been planning for the players move to dissolve the union. They were preparing to defend themselves from the union. The have been monitoring what the players have been saying. They have been compiling evidence. 

I also said that I believed that the NHL would end up being the eventual winners, at least legally and from a collective bargaining agreement perspective (probably not when considering their financial losses resulting from this debacle).

I've believed all along that the players should keep their yaps shut. Players have publicly called Gary Bettman names. They have ridiculed the NHL. They have acted like they are in the Wild West and they haven’t been reined in by Donald Feher. He should have demanded that the players shut their mouths. He should have told them what the consequences would be if they acted like infants.

It sure looks like Donald Fehr and the players were planning for failure. For me there's nothing more problematic for the league than the players own words. We're not talking about the brightest bulbs are we? We're talking about guys who are great at shooting or stopping a puck but when it comes to acting like grown men and using their noggins, there's not much there.

I sure hope that the NHL is on to something here. I sure hope they have a mountain of evidence against the players. That would be extremely funny. I want the NHL to bring the players to their knees. I want the players to be forced to come to the league, begging for the best offer possible. I want the players to have to beg for the last offer that the NHL placed on the bargaining table. I want the league to say "Go F yourselves...we are now offering you a 30% revenue share".

I want the big mouth small brained NHL players to learn their lessons. The turning point for me turning against the players came when one player called Bettman a cancer and Dave Bolland retweeted a fans tweet wishing for the death of Bettman.

Did Fehr apologize for that nonsense? I didn't see an apology. Did he publicly ridicule those types of comments? I didn't witness that. That shows me that the players were planning for failure. I don't think that they consciously planned for failure. I think they had a plan but it was being carried out by incompetent people. It was being carried out by big mouth players.

The NHL did things differently. Gary Bettman prevented owners and NHL team executives from talking about the lockout in any way, shape or form. He instituted hefty fines for anyone who went against the gag order. That was smart. Bettman knew that the league's own words could be used against them.

Why didn't the players do the same thing? As mentioned above I believe they have a Wild West mentality. It's a shoot from the hip approach. It's an amateur approach to negotiating. I believe that the players are acting like school children in a playground. They are running all over the place. I hope these immature and overpaid men pay the price for their approach. Maybe if they do, they will be forced to grow up and mature.

Read more of our NHL lockout articles.