Hey Dozer

[SabreEleven]

How should this thing end?

How is it going to end? (use your crystal ball)

Who is wrong and who wronger?

[TheGhostofJimKelly]

I know you asked Dozer, but it is a message board:

1. It should end with the players looking like the winners. The owners can basically get what they want now but they need to make it look like the players got what they wanted. They need to look at the players and say you guys win, you got what you wanted (whatever that may be) wink, wink.

2. It is going to end ugly. Both sides will still think the other side has ripped them or showed no respect. The players will say they just wanted to play the game they love in the end. The NFL is about the NFL, what is good for the players and owners benefits the whole. The NHL is about the NHL and the NHLPA.

3. Both sides are wrong. IMO the players demands are a little more wrong(er). The sport is a joke right now and that wasn't like that 20 years ago. The owners seem to have figured out that the few halves have basically put them in the situation they are in. The players, like it was stated by Mikey in another post, in whole make more money on average then the NFL players. Now that really isn't that big of a deal when you consider the NHL players play like four times the amount of games, but when your league doesn't generate the television money that is essential to the NFL, you have to adjust salaries to what revenues your league generates. That being said, I will say that right now I see the players being more wrong.

[Dozerdog]

I think that the Owners are going to sit Bettman down and tell him to be a bit harder line....no big compromises.

I think the owners will settle for a 40 Million soft cap,maybe a 44 Million hard cap - with teams going over 40 million paying luxury tax up to 44 -45 million.


The lower end players will get weak-kneed, the owners will make plans in the spring for replacement rosters- and the players will begin to come back.

Higher priced guys might sign and hold out in European leagues, but not for long- the Europeans won't be able to afford them either.

Training camps will open, the union will cave.

[Earthquake Enyart]

I think "linkage" will be back. The owners will say that they don't know if the fans will come back and they need "revenue certainty". The cap will be set at a percentage and will probably end up under $40 mil.

I think the players will cave, but playing with scabs woudn't surprise me either.