NHL/NHLPA: They are down, but they are far from over

OK, so it was not very promising news from Midtown Manhattan last night.

The National Hockey League rejected the NHLPA's latest proposal on Thursday in meetings which lasted several hours through the evening, and no further discussions are planned for the remainder of this week.  A five-year cap on free agent contracts and seven years for signing a team's own free agents, plus an eight-year pact with an opt-out after six was not going to accomplish the final handshakes.

"We're going to take a deep breath and look at where we are and what needs to be accomplished, but we have moved dramatically and we are proposing a long-term system that will pay the players billions and billions of dollars over its term, but we have to have a system that works right," Commissioner Gary Bettman said during a press conference at the Westin Hotel. "It's all part of the package. I am disappointed beyond belief that we are where we are tonight and we're going to have to take a deep breath and regroup."

What the NHL and NHLPA did to try and get a new Collective Bargaining Agreement struck over the last three days in New York was a promising leap forward, but still not enough. The gulf might have become a canal, but there is still water to be traversed.

No, the league will not just cancel the whole season at this point merely to satisfy your fans' desires to be finished with the serious tidal pull of sources reporting either good or bad discussion. It's incumbent upon you who are worn out by the dozens of daily reports, or who are losing sleep because you can't pull the plug or hit the on/off switch or put down your phones at night, to limit your electronic intake to a select few sources you trust for news and be done with it.

These are serious negotations, not a trumped-up version of Larry The Cable Guy. They're not gonna Git R Done just because you're eyes are glazing over with 300 tweets per minute.

No, Ed Snider will not ride in on a white horse and save us all from the NHL's fiscal cliff, no matter what you believe he's capable of accomplishing or how many open letters you write on his behalf. And sadly, all your secret fantasies won't come true and the fix won't be in when Sidney Crosby and Ron Burkle tag-team to settle this dispute. The truth, as always will be more blunt, and boring and grittier in the final analysis.

The next step should be to blow out the remaining games for December, but that still leaves three weeks of wiggle room to get something approximating a decent schedule ironed out. At this point, it is unreasonable to expect something more than 50-or-so games, starting in calendar year 2013.

Again, I'll caution against hyperbole from both ends of the spectrum. It's not over yet. Keep repeating that to yourselves. Nothing has been "blown up" except for injecting your own thoughts and prejudices about how one thing should lead to another and a string of somethings should eventually lead to a deal. There are slender threads here threatening to snap in a breath it would take to snuff a candle, and leeway should be granted. 

Nonetheless, it's a stone-cold stupid thing the owners did by not thinking the players would have representation should it come to a deal being struck. It's the same principal guiding the original intent of the players-owners only discussions: in the real world, neither side would be caught dead without any back up with something so important on the line, so how could a history-defining moment be subject to a different set of expectations?

"We were waiting today for a yes or a no. Not for a negotiation session," Bettman added. "Things that were put on the table this week are not anymore."

How petulant can one man be? At least he's on point, naked and obvious that no matter how many concessions the owners make and how many the players make, it's Bettman's way or the highway for the league to have a 2012-13 season.

Players already amended their CBA length from a decade long to eight years with an opt-out after six, and voted to move on a maximum of eight years for all contracts, regardless of status.

"This looks like it's not going to be resolved in the immediate future," Don Fehr said in response to the NHL's rejection.

But how bull-headed can Fehr be? At least he's on point that his mission is to preserve the integrity of the union against a force trying to break it, and his presence at the end of today's negotiations only solidified the belief that he will be the ultimate decider if and when a CBA is crafted and a season is played.

Rightfully so, the four "new" owners are mystified that things moving along so relatively quickly could be taken away in an instant, per their joint statement from late last night. But they come off sounding more like idealistic teenagers whose illusions were shattered by their childhood hero turning out to be alcoholic instead of owners merely disappointed that things didn't go more their way. 

Here's something important to consider, which is lost in the tangle of blame for who broke off negotiations:   both sides are mindful of the public repercussions of mollifying their stance to accomplish the goal.

More so than trumpeting with hands joined together that a CBA is fashioned and a season will be played, is the idea that history is written by the winners; who played the role of wise King Solomon vs. who caved into the pressure in the court of public opinion will fill the spaces where fans think a deal should be struck.

Fehr and brother Steve are no suckers. They are manipulating the situation, lest the owners try to get the jump on the PR wagon and once again curry the fans' favor. With one unexpected gesture, he exposed the four moderates of the Board of Governors as men concerned with little more than that. You can read it in all of their statements. It's a nod to all of us. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...I won't get fooled again.

Remember, it's two against 30 so the all the tricks must be played.

Once again, we wait and we wonder. In the meantime, keep calm and hockey on, in the dozens of other places the drama can't touch and where spirits are high.