Lemieux Says Players Should Have Accepted Earlier

Well, as I've been saying and now all the 'superstars of hockey' are being quoted as to agreeing what I've been saying, that the player's held out for less...

Mario Lemieux is quoted to say that the player's should have settled in February when Bettman offered a 'last chance offer' of $42.5 million to save the 2004-05 NHL season. And really, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how things are shaking out and in the end, the players look worse than the owners in this labor dispute...thinking there was an excess of money for them, when everyone in the WORLD knew there wasn't.

If the negotiating process that has been reported on is accurate, the union and the owners have spent most of this time figuring the actual worth of each club as to figure what a reasonable cap would be...and again, if the reports are right, that cap - which if agreed upon - will be less than the $42.5 million offer in February (around $36 million).

And if you thought NHL clubs were financially strapped before, just wait until after the next few seasons...the small market, non-playoff teams are really going to be struggling and it wouldn't surprise me that when the next collective bargaining agreement (cba) comes under negotiations, that the cap would either remain the same or even be reduced...and then you'd have the union, once again, refusing to believe the numbers and thus not willing to agree to a reduced (or even continued) cap and I think we all know how the rest of the story goes...