No Need to Meet About Nothing

The NHL has called off a board of governors meeting scheduled for next Friday in New York.

“The clubs were unanimously of the view that there is no need for a meeting at this point in time,” NHL vice-president and chief legal officer Bill Daly said.

So let’s think of reasons to cancel:

  • Absolutely nothing is going on, why meet?
  • PR angle: Too many were calling it a cancellation date already, and if none was announced at that point, the league may look “soft” on their stance.
  • There’s a rift in ownership, at least more than there was before (remember, memos don’t get leaked by accident), and the league is looking to prevent the “we need to play now” owners from having an easy platform to get others to join them.
  • Negotiating angle: Bob Goodenow is a serious deadline negotiator, it’s well-known, so they’re just screwing with him.
  • Negotiating angle: more players are likely to hop over to Europe if the season’s cancelled.  Setting up a hard date makes those players sit and wait.
  • Hope angle: they’re actually negotiating and not using the press.
Posted by David M Singer on Jan 06, 2005 at 06:01 PM

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