Undisclosed Location This Wednesday!!

April 14, 2012; Denver, CO, USA; A general view of empty seats during a rain delay before the game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

As empty seats remain across all of North America during Lockdown 2012, the NHL and NHLPA will be meeting Wednesday not in New York but at an undisclosed location.  The meeting will be attended by a federal mediator and as in the past few meetings in the last month hopes are high that this will be the meeting that is the beginning of the end for this lockout.

Every meeting has a new sense of excitment that both sides are getting closer, but then at what seems like an extended period of time Donald Fehr will walk up to a podium and state that both sides are farther away than they began.  After a few days of cooling down the reports from both sides are that they actually are closer than further apart.  It seems like the natural way negotations go, but the problem I have is that they knew about this CBA issue for over a year and chose to do nothing about it. This is a league that missed an entire season with no regards for its fans or vendors. A lot of people outside of the players are losing out with no games being played.

Maybe the worst is over and both sides are seeing that losing another season would be horrific for the NHL and they need to get this deal done now.  Maybe it’s just another smoke and mirror show and they will miss another season.

Hopefully the undisclosed location will make the difference or maybe it will be just the word compromise.

Compromise usually is the key to closing out a deal.  The problem is that whoever feels like they compromise more will be the one locking out or striking when the next CBA is finished.

Enough of the future let’s just get this deal done today! I want to watch and write about my favorite Blackhawks and not write the names Gary Bettman or Donald Fehr ever again!

END THE LOCKOUT!!

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