The Top Dogs

The world juniors rarely decide the NHL draft that comes six months later. It's usually a contributing factor, one of many.

Maybe in 2009 John Tavares sealed the deal while playing for Canada against his closest rival for No. 1, Victor Hedman of Sweden. Both are still youngsters, but the evidence so far suggests Tavares was the best in that one-sided gold medal game and remains the better of the two young players today.

Today's Canada-U.S. round robin clash, meanwhile, contained an intriguing game within a game, as it involved the three players most see as viable candidates to go No. 1 next June, now that it appears an NHL season will happen and a regular draft will occur.

Seth Jones of the Portland Winterhawks was out there patrolling the American blueline in a 2-1 loss, while Halifax Mooseheads teammates Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathon Drouin were skating on the same line for Team Canada in the win.

None of the three, it's fair to say, delivered a performance so large that NHL scouts will change their minds about anything, and don't forget, there's still a chance players like Alexander Barkov, Valeri Iichushkin and Elias Lindholm could barge their way into the elite group.

But for now, it's Jones, MacKinnon and Drouin.

Jones is a big, rangy right-handed shooting defenceman who might be the safest pick of the three in that he'll play and play big in the NHL for a long, long time. He was one the ice for both Canadian goals, and directly responsible for missing coverage on Ryan Strome on the second. But as the game wore on his presence was felt more and more. He looks like he can easily play upwards of 25 minutes a game, and while not overtly physical much of the time, his size and skating abiity allow him to be noticeable on every shift. That one-timer from the left circle should be an NHL weapon for years to come.

For MacKinnon, this event has so far been a bit of a disappointment in that he hasn't been put in a role to shine. With Boone Jenner and J.C. Lipon both serving suspensions today, he did graduate to the second line at times beside Strome and Drouin, but again, he didn't make much of an impression. 

This, however, is one of those instances in which scouts won't necessarily downgrade him just because, so far, he's not having a big tournament. It's a competition usually dominated by 19-year-olds, and you're seeing players like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jonathan Huberdeau and Mark Schiefele get all the important minutes for Canada. We've yet to see MacKinnon get much if any power play time, and only occasionally have we seen his trademark wheels.

Drouin, meanwhile, has shot up the rankings in recent weeks, and on Team Canada, has been the No. 2 left winger behind Huberdeau. He is shifty with great hands, a very different type of forward than MacKinnon, and he certainly hasn't looked out of place on the big ice. One senses an ability to intelligently read the defence when he attacks, and his puck skills are off the charts.

Today didn't change a thing. But it will add to the conversation, a conversation that will gain momentum heading towards June. All three, by the way, will be in Halifax in just over two weeks for the CHL Top Prospects Game.

 

 

 

 

Not the End of The World

Be intrigued. Be puzzled. Be dismayed. Be annoyed.

Just don't be surprised today when the NHL Players Association announces, as expected, that its membership has voted to give the union's executive board the power to disclaim interest as the negotiating body of NHL players.

They'll want to make a splash with this one. They'll want to paint it as "overwhelming" or "resounding" or "unanimous," and of course it should be. (Ed Note: Today the NHLPA decided not to publish the results of the vote, choosing secrecy over revealing how players voted). After all, the players aren't actually voting to dissolve the union. Just voting to give authority to those who, in theory anyway, could.

It's a negotiating ploy. It's not real, at least not yet. It's the opening gambit in an exercise in legal theory, because despite the fact that some want to suggest this would somehow injure NHL owners and force them to their knees, nobody really knows how this process might actually work in the real world.

But we're all free to dream, right?

Let's imagine that next month the union actually goes out of business.

No more tired and predictable Don Fehr blather. Nobody to spin what Roman Hamrlik or Kyle Turris "really" meant.

See, it's a better world already.

Let's imagine that the NHL would no longer be able to enforce its lockout, and that all player contracts would be null and void.

Even the Scott Gomez deal. The absurd "make whole" debate would be rendered moot. Hockey players would all be left to stand on their own two feet. No guaranteed contracts or benefits. Just whatever deal they could cut for themselves.

Maybe two or more teams would go immediately out of business. Lord knows Craig Leipold has never given anyone the impression he has the slightest idea of how to run a profitable or successful hockey enterprise. How did he ever get to Gary Bettman's inner circle?

But we'd probably stay at 30 teams and more than 700 jobs. In fact, Phoenix and Florida and Columbus could probably wait until Toronto, Philly, Detroit et al spent their brains out and then cobble together a roster for $20 million or so, much more within their price range.

Some NHLers, in this imaginary world, would get more. How much would Steve Stamkos get in an offer from the Maple Leafs? $20 million a year? $25 million a year?

At the other end, your garden variety NHLers would absorb severe haircuts. Why would anyone, for example, pay Bruno Gervais or David Steckel or Tanner Glass more than $100,000 a year? Remember, no maximums OR minimums in this world.

There are, it's clear, some reasons to think an NHL without a players union might actually be a good thing, might actually rationalize the workings of a business model that ceased to make sense some time ago. The entry draft, for example, could be done away with. Let Nathan MacKinnon go where he wants and can get paid. Let true capitalism take over. Make NHL owners compete with each other on a wide-open playing field. Force the league to actually make the product more appealing in order to feed the bottom line.

But, alas, it won't happen. NHL players might follow Fehr to the edge of the cliff, but not over. If they were actually voting right now to "disclaim," one suspects the result would be very different.

 

Working Out The Kinks

Dream Team? Not quite yet.

With lofty standards to meet, Team Canada now knows for certain it has some hard work to do and lessons to learn before it can hope to match the golden accomplishments of its predecessors.

Loaded with the best available teenage talent due to an NHL lockout for the third time in 18 years, the national junior team nonetheless got off to a wobbly start to this year's European adventure today in Finland, dropping a 3-2 decision to the host Finns in a pre-tourney warmup for the world junior hockey championships.

Given that this was Canada's first actual game as a 23-man team, don't read too much into the result. Canada only arrived in Europe on the weekend, had to get their legs, quickly adjust to the Finnish "hybrid" sized ice and start looking for chemistry among forward combinations and defence pairs.

That's no formula for a terrific performance. These kids need a little time to work out the kinks, and this coaching staff needs some time to figure out what's going to work and what won't.

So don't go sounding the alarm, folks.

But, in a familiar refrain from years past, penalty problems (and some soft officiating) cost Canada dearly, with two of the three Finnish goals scored on 5-on-3 situations. Even worse, with the game still separated by only one goal in the dying minutes, Team Canada took no fewer than four minor penalties in the final 2:05 to wreck its chances of pulling goalie Malcolm Subban and going for the equalizer.

That wasn't jet lag. That was teenage irritability. Easily fixable, as long as you jump on the problem right away.

Captain Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was one of the culprits in the parade to the box in the final minutes, as were returnees Scott Harrington and Ryan Strome. Team discipline and core leadership, particularly in the face of sometimes unusual Euro officiating, will be No. 1 on head coach Steve Spott's priority list heading into Canada's final pre-tournament game against Sweden on Saturday.

By no means did Canada look terrible, but then again, it didn't look sharp, either. To win the ninth gold medal overseas for Canada at this event, this group of players will have to quickly become acclimatized to conditions in Ufa, Russia when they head there on the weekend prior to opening the tournament against Germany on Boxing Day.

Jonathan Huberdeau, expected to be the left winger on the top line beside Nugent-Hopkins, missed the game because he had one game left in a QMJHL suspension incurred while playing for the Saint John Sea Dogs. 

This is a team that knows it has history to live up to. In 1995 and 2005, star-studded Canadian teams bolstered by NHL lockout players roared to gold medals at the world juniors. This team may or may not be as powerful as those - Sidney Crosby wasn't even on a first-liner in '05 - and it also has to deal with playing overseas, something the '95 and '05 teams did not have to do.

This tournament is being played in Europe for the first time in five years, don't forget, and for only the third time since 2004. These boys are going to have to get used to being road warriors again.

They'll need strong goaltending, and Subban didn't sizzle today, particularly on a rather soft winning goal. Jordan Binnington, a St. Louis draft pick, will get the start against Sweden on Saturday, and Spott would dearly love one of Subban or Binnington to assert themselves as No. 1 by next week.

Canada struggled to contain Finland's top forward, shifty Buffalo forward Joel Armia, and there was no clear shut-down pair on defence, with Maple Leafs draft pick Morgan Rielly sometimes finding himself with Dougie Hamilton, expected to be the kingpin of the Canadian blueline.

Up front, Canada was anything but explosive, certainly a by-product of all the penalties the Canadians were forced to kill. RNH had some moments, setting up Mark Scheifele for a pretty goal. Griffin Reinhart of the Edmonton Oil Kings also scored, tapping a puck into an open net off a Boone Jenner rebound.

All in all, lots of things to work on, and just a few days to work on them.

There's time for learning and teaching - just not much of it. This has always been a competition for quick learners.

 

 

 

 

 

Just Like That

It seems like just last week that Alex Anthopoulos was twisting uncomfortably in the wind.

Actually, it was a bit longer ago than that. Late October, to be precise. But a few episodes in the disastrous 2012 season had raised a lot of questions about who was in charge at Camp Blue Jays, and whether smart and courageous decisions were being made.

First, there was the Yunel Escobar public relations disaster. It wasn't just that Escobar played with homophobic slurs on his eye black. It's that somebody should have noticed, or even that somebody MUST have noticed but let him proceed anyway. The sense that nobody was really minding the store, or that John Farrell and/or Anthopoulos weren't, or that the team lacked leadership and direction from veteran players, was pervasive.

Poisonous stuff, really. Stuff that tends to linger. Just ask the fried chicken folks in Boston.

It was made worse when the decision was made by Anthopoulos, or probably Paul Beeston, not just to send Escobar home, but to give him a few days off as "punishment." A festering sore began to stink.

So there was that, and then there were public accusations by Omar Vizquel that the clubhouse was in disarray, thoughts echoed by Sportsnet analyst Greg Zaun, who described the atmosphere around the ball club as "consequence free" and seemed to question Anthopoulos' credentials.

At this point, nobody was saying Anthopoulos was in trouble, exactly, but questions were starting to be asked that hadn't been asked.

Then came the Farrell-to-Boston debacle, which was perceived as little Toronto getting pushed around by big-money Boston. It wasn't that the Jays were losing a Hall of Fame manager. It was the way in was happening, particularly when it became clear that Beeston was doing the negotiating with the Red Sox over Farrell, not Anthopoulos. When the Jays received only infielder Mike Aviles in return as Farrell went to his "dream job," there were suddenly a lot of folks saying a lot of unkind things. Many of them had to do with whether Rogers Communications was willing to spend money to compete.

Now, just as suddenly, there aren't unkind things being said.

Escobar is barely a memory. With Farrell, the joke is whether he might now try to tell the Bosox his dream job would be to go back and manage the Jays starting rotation. People would laugh if you said the Rogers people won't spend.

Anthopoulos, given cash to spend on the spectacular deal with Florida, the signing of Melky Cabrera and the stunning acquisition of Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey, is getting kudos all around for his off-season maneuverings.

Just like that, the storm clouds receded on the youthful Jays GM. if Brian Burke and Bryan Colangelo could only be so fortunate.

Now the pressure shifts into a different type of expectations for Anthopoulos and the Jays. It's clearly playoffs or bust. Anything less will be seen as a disappointment. 

All those prospects given up for experienced players over the past few months are unlikely to prove terribly costly on their own. But cumulatively, the Jays have surrendered a lot, and if the result is the Jays don't get to where they want to get to and some of those kids blossom into quality major leaguers, then the warmth with which Anthopoulos is now being heralded will change.

But such a disaster is at least two years away. At least two years before Travis d'Arnaud or Travis Snider or Noah Syndergaard or Jake Marisnick come back to bite the Jays in the butt.

And maybe they never will.

Also, at least two years before the feel-good hiring of John Gibbons to come back and manage, one universally applauded by the media in a show of solidarity with a manager seen to be a "good guy," might prove to have been incorrect.

What the Jays get, and Jays fans get, is at least two years of being perceived as playing with the best franchises, of having a folksy manager who wants to be here, of being in the conversation when it comes to the more competitive teams in the sport, of having arguably the best starting rotation in the American League, of a team that isn't all about Jose Bautista anymore.

Its not yet a return to the golden days. But in a hockey town with no hockey team to cheer for or at least worry about as the owners and players hurt their business without seeming to care a great deal, this feels like a return to a time when the Jays ruled in these parts because they gave people a reason to cheer and feel pride.

When people start making pre-season prognostications in just a few weeks, many will pick the Jays for the playoffs, some might even imagine a World Series berth.

Incredibly, it was less than two months ago that the Farrell controversy threatened to make the Jays look like a second-tier franchise, a feeder club for the big boys.

It has all healed and being covered over with remarkable speed through a series of remarkable Anthopoulos moves.

Remarkable, really.

 

 

 

 

Disclaiming Interest and Other Monday Morning Considerations

Why not Washington? Why not Denver?

There's so little to count on from week-to-week in the NFL, not in terms of entertainment but in terms of bankable results, that the ultimate victor in this 2012 season is pretty difficult to imagine at this point. Even New Orleans, apparently emboldened by watching Roger Goodell get his wrist slapped by Paul Tagliabue, looked awesome on Sunday.

So the Redskins have won five straight and now don't even need RGIII to lead the way. The Broncos rolled the battered Ravens for a ninth straight win. The Packers looked good, the Super Bowl champs just awful. And what a wild one that was in Foxboro. You tell me from the last two weeks whether the Patriots are a great team or a mediocre one.

Other Monday morning considerations:

It's just damn fantastic to watch a Toronto team trying to win. Certainly, R.A. Dickey might be the player who lifts the Jays from an 85-win team to a playoff berth. But let's not sugarcoat this effort. It is coming at a frightful price. The Jays are all but stripping their farm system to try to win now, and there's a logical argument that this is exactly what they should be doing. But when you start to add up Travis Snider, Eric Thames, Asher Wojciechowski, Joe Musgrove, Jake Marisnick, Justin Nicolino, Adeiny Hecchevaria and (possibly) Travis d'Arnaud plus Noah Syndergaard, its hard to think of a team in recent memory that has moved so many good to blue-chip prospects over a period of six months. Again, this isn't to say that the Jays shouldn't be doing what they're doing. For business reasons, they may have little choice. But it's costing money and a whack of futures. . .I know the ignorant out there like to believe those of us in the media who work in press boxes for a living never pay for a ticket - it's an easy insult to lob rather than actually addressing a differing opinion - or receive freebies at every turn. It's not true, but don't let me burst your bubble. At any rate, for $204 for each of two tickets plus another $30 or so for snacks, I took in the Raptors home game against Houston on Sunday. James Harden might have been worth the price of admission on his own. How can a guy be that effective without ever getting more than six inches off the ground? The Raps delivered a spirited, team-first performance, both Ed Davis and Terrence Ross had moments and there was actual defence being played by the home team. With Jeremy Lin in town, drawing a huge response from Toronto's Asian community, and with Arvydas Sabonis on hand to honor Jonas Valanciunas, there was a terrific international flavour to the contest. The Raps' in-house entertainment package was so superior to what the Leafs produce its amazing both are run by the same company. So all in all, for the price, did I get value? It was pricey, sure, but I'm coughing up some bucks for good seats to see The Nutcracker this week as well. You pay for what you get, and I felt I got value on Sunday afternoon. . . Best quote of the weekend? "I'm going to go out there and be the guy who asks for nothing," said Raptors guard Jose Calderon. When was the last time you heard a pro athlete say that? They might throw him out of the union for such talk. . .A long, long time ago in a universe far, far away, Dave Wannstedt was a defensive genius. . .Here's another reason to imagine why it might not be so bad for the Leafs if the entire 2012-13 season were to be cancelled. It would probably keep Dallas Eakins with the Marlies for one more year. You'd have to be wilfully obtuse not to recognize what Eakins has done for the Marlies and Toronto's prospects. He might be the best farm team coach in the history of the organization. Eakins wants an NHL shot and deserves one, but it could only help the Leafs to keep him for another season. . . .I know some believe Twitter is the greatest invention since the printing press, that it carries great meaning. But reducing world tragedies to pithy 140-word messages trivializes those tragedies as much as it heightens anyone's awareness. . .Instead of wondering why the Raps play so much better without Andrea Bargnani, isn't it worth noting that they're also playing better without Kyle Lowry?. . .I'm guessing that sound you hear is Carlos Villanueva's chances of being in the starting rotation next season flying out the window. . .Thet's 21 in a row for the London Knights, with Seth Griffith leading the way. And to think this hockey achievement has occured without a single lawyer uttering a single threat. . .Marc Zanetti, you recall, was the Ottawa 67s player booted out of the OHL playoffs last year for kicking Niagara's Tomas Kuhnhackl in the head while Kuhnhackl was lying on the ice. Zanetti was remorseful, and his father reports he's in the German league and playing well, trying to keep his hockey dream alive. By coincidence, Kuhnhackl is German-born and his father was a West German star for years. . .Pumped to see the Skydiggers at The Horseshoe. Maybe Canada's most under-appreciated band?. . .This is my personal disclaimer of interest in the NHL lockout. . .Andruw Jones is taking his 434 career homers to Japan. . .Every good team needs a feel good story. J.C. Lipon might fill that role for Canada's national junior team this year. . .Sure looks like the Knicks - still unbeaten at home this season - made the right call in not matching the three-year, $25 million offer sheet for Lin, who returns to MSG tonight. The Knicks also seem to be quite fine without the talents of Landry Fields. . .It's mid-December and the Ticats don't have a head coach or GM and will be playing at a CIS venue next season. Just fantastic. If Kent Austin is the answer, he better be able to do more than just coach.

The Changing Of This Season

In recent days I wrote a column wondering why, with all that has befallen the Raptors in recent seasons, none of the blame ever seemed to fall Bryan Colangelo's way.

Well, it's pretty clear that is no longer the case. The general manager is squarely under the gun now, with pretty much everyone wondering how much longer he can last as the boss of this dreadful basketball team, one that is now also battling some significant injuries.

Well, in the long term, he probably can't.

This season is gone gone. Unless you look at the collection of bodies now under the guidance of Dwane Casey and see a finish of 10-15 games over .500 during the remaining 59 games, there is no playoff berth waiting as some imagined there would be at season's start.

Much more likely is a finish among the bottom three teams in the league, and given that the first rounder given up for Kyle Lowry (now owned by Oklahoma City) will be lost if the Raps finish higher than that but still out of the post-season, there's reason to stay down.

More to the point, this season now (already) has to be all about next season and beyond, obviously a refrain long-suffering Raptor fans have been hearing for some time and of which they are undoubtedly sick.

It's no longer about Colangelo and whether Casey can coach and whether Andrea Bargnani can be the franchise player.

By next fall, there's a pretty good chance none of those three will be here. If we're looking at a 20-25 win season, it will be next to impossible for Colangelo and Casey to survive. Bargnani will almost certainly be traded.

So this season, instead of being about trying to scratch out a playoff berth, has to be about developing young players to position the team for future seasons.

So it's about Ed Davis - pretty darn good against Brooklyn in a breakthrough-type performance the other night - and Jonas Valanciunas and Terrence Ross. And DeMar Derozan. Its about trying to position that group so sometime in the post-Bargnani era at least three of the four can be legitimate NBA starters, as opposed to guys who start because there's no one better or because they were first round picks.

The notion of trading any of these four to get better now, even if you don't necessarily love them, is absurd. Moreover, the trading of Bargnani as a means of affecting immediate improvement doesn't make much sense, either, because the moving up three or four slots in the conference will only ensure the team loses that first round pick.

It's not a great draft, the experts say, but a top 3 pick is a top 3 pick. So Bargnani for youth and/or expiring contracts is probably the play. Or waiting until the off-season. This pie-in-the-sky Pau Gasol scenario would be truly pointless.

The danger, of course, is that Colangelo will see other objectives as more compatible with his short-term future. He met with the MLSE board on Thursday and undoubtedly outlined his battle plan. In the past, MLSE has been reluctant, whether with hockey or basketball, to go down the path of tanking a season, but if there ever was a season to go down that path, this is probably it.

There's no real point to firing Colangelo now, other than to stop him doing things that would help the team get significantly better now. He built this mess, he shouldn't be permitted any quick fixes just to put a bowtie on a pig.

There's just not much to be gained even if this team were to sharply correct its current tailspin and even go .500 the rest of the way. If that happened, you'd still be looking at Colangelo's future and at trading Bargnani, with only Casey likely to benefit at this point from that scenario.

Coaxing more performances out of the kids like that delivered by Davis against the Nets has to be the objective. Anything that interferes with that or keeping that top 3 pick should be dismissed.

 

 

 

Are We There Yet?

The sensible conclusion to this NHL lockout was always obvious.

The league, given the situation in other sports and its own chronic financial problems, needed to get to a 50-50 split with all due speed.

The players, with their union's ugly history of the past seven years, needed to be able to give the owners that revenue split while being able to save face and feel as though they hadn't been defeated and had their association routed.

The biggest problem all along, then, has been the unwillingness of each side to fully grasp and accept the primary goals/needs of the other. The owners have communicated their objectives poorly to the players, who with a lot of bile already built up in their system, responded with unsurprising anger bordering on hatred. The players always knew they had to give, they just didn't want it to feel or look like they weren't putting up a fight.

Maybe the each side finally has accepted the goals/needs of the other, or will soon, with the help of federal mediators starting today. Or, maybe this process was always going to lead to a mid-January conclusion, with some owners pushing for more than is necessary and some players and union officials living more for what happened before than what has to happen next.

No one can guarantee that either will happen, and the penchant for self-destructive behavior by both of these organizations is remarkable. But at this point, it seems to make sense that there will be NHL hockey by January.

Then, it will be time to switch over immediately, and aggressively, to three priorities.

1) Growing the pie. Going forward, each side will benefit equally if the game's revenues increase. Certainly, revenues were surging upwards until this lockout, which means that after taking a big hit this season, there is at least the possibility revenues can trend upwards again starting next fall.

We left the game with $3.3 billion in revenues and the players getting 57 per cent of that, or about $1.9 million. If the game is grown to $5 billion, its $2.5 billion each. Surely the mutual gain, the basic math, is all that matters now.

2)Building a new relationship. Both the league and the PA really need to get off this treadmill of distrust and discord. It's one thing to disagree, quite another to constantly disparage the other side and try to undercut its leadership. Both the owners and union are guilty of these crimes, which is counter-productive to both.

The owners need to not only be willing to make players look good, but their union, as well. Ditto for the players. Constantly hating on Gary Bettman may make them feel better but reduces the overall respect level of the NHL.

If Don Fehr is to have a legacy in this game, it will be that he came, rebuilt the players union and left behind a union that was able to forge not only a period of extended peace with the league, but one capable of moving beyond the battles of the past.

 3) Fixing the game. Lost in all this squabbling is a product that, when we last saw it in the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs, wasn't much to brag about. Too low-scoring. Too many blocked shots. Too dominated by the suffocating strategies of coaches. Plagued by controversies over head shots and head injuries. 

This season, if it starts, will continue along those paths. There won't be time for new initiatives aimed at improving the game. That means next summer the league and players will need to aggressively attack the problems.

Part of the solution will lie in breathing new life into the competition committee. Conceived as a group of owners, GMs and players that would gather to each speak their minds on the good of the game, it has devolved into a outgrowth of the collective bargaining process in which the players and league representatives vote as blocs.

Not sure how that gets fixed, particularly with players seemingly under the belief that anyone who steps out of line with approved doctrine - hello, Roman Hamrlik - should be attacked and vilified. But its the only way to finding the necessary imagination and creativity to make the league hum again.

 

 

 

 

National Junior Trouble?

Imagine this scenario.

Team Canada plays its first game at the world junior championships in Ufa, Russia on Boxing Day, presumably registering a victory against Germany.

Then the next day six or more of the team's best players are summoned back to North America to participate in 10-day NHL training camps prior to the commencement of the 2012-13 season, leaving Canada will only a shell of a roster.

It would be national disgrace, and would all but kill Canada's chance of even getting a medal at a tournament it has dominated.

Right now, however, it could happen.

In news broken first by Sportsnet's Nick Kypreos on Friday night, it was revealed that as of Friday afternoon, Hockey Canada has been unable to secure the assurances of a variety of NHL clubs that if their players are chosen to represent Canada at the world juniors, they will be permitted to complete that committment even if the NHL lockout ends.

Players affected could be centre Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (Edmonton), centre/left winger Jonathan Huberdeau (Florida), centre Mark Scheifele (Winnipeg), defenceman Dougie Hamilton (Boston), rearguard Ryan Murphy (Carolina), centre Boone Jenner (Columbus), centre Ryan Strome (N.Y. Islanders) and defenceman Morgan Rielly (Toronto).

Of that group, only Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke was willing to say that if Rielly accompanies the team to Finland for pre-tournament training, the Leafs would not then pull him back if the lockout ends.

It was initially thought this would only be an issue for Nugent-Hopkins. But now all these clubs are proving to be reluctant to commit to leaving the players to skate at the world juniors if picked for the team.

Selection camp for the team opens Tuesday with 36 invitees. Colton Sissons, a right winger with the Kelowna Rockets and a Nashville draft pick, was invited but has had to pull out because of injury.

All the players listed above are viewed as virtual shoo-ins for the team, which is searching for its first gold medal since 2009. However, head coach Steve Spott and other team personnel might have to look at passing over some or all of those junior stars if they cannot be certain they won't be yanked from the team at the last moment.

Once the tournament begin, players on the 23-man roster who can't play cannot be replaced. So if a group of Canadian players was recalled to North America, Spott might end up with fewer than 16 skaters.

The best hope right now for Team Canada organizers might be if NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announces the cancellation of another two weeks of games next week. Currently, the league has cancelled games through Dec. 14.

For the past 20 years, the hard and fast rule for the Canadian team has been that to play for Team Canada, players had to be with the squad from the beginning of the selection camp, with no exceptions. However, Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson said earlier this week that because of the unusual circumstances surrounding the team because of the NHL lockout, the Canadian juniors might have to consider changing some of those rules.

 

Looking For The Next Step

NEW YORK--If people keep leaving, it may come down to an arm wrestle between Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr.

Jonathan Toews and Craig Adams left town on Wednesday. Today, Larry Tanenbaum and Mark Chipman bolted, and so did David Backes, the power centre of the St. Louis Blues. As tensions rise and tempers grow short, and with Bettman and Fehr expected to be back in the thick of things for the next meeting, the identities of who's here and who isn't continues to be a changing dynamic.

This we know. The owners-players format appears to be done. Mediation, requested by the players and denied by the owners today, isn't an option. When talks began around 5:15 p.m., Bettman wasn't in the room, and neither were any owners. It was Bill Daly and outside counsel Bob Batterman on the league side, with the Fehr Bros. and a number of players speaking for the union. By 6:07, the meeting was over, with no word on further talks.

The absence of Bettman was intriguing. Either the league doesn't want to antagonize the players at this delicate stage, or in a more cynical way of looking at things, maybe the commish knows this is doomed to fail and is looking to skirt any blame.

Eventually, it's got to come down to Bettman and Fehr, and it's probably got to come down to making a deal or not making a deal, with both sides having already lost hundreds of millions of dollars over the past 82 days.

"Only one that could mess this up is Fehr and we are headed down that road. I still haven't lost hope but....," tweeted ex-NHLer Matthew Barnaby.

"If their is no hockey right now it has nothing to do with Don Fehr... Bettman had a date in mind a year ago," tweeted P.A. Parenteau of the New York Islanders.

The length of the next CBA has become a major issue. It shouldn't be, as 10 years makes a lot of sense to give this sport a chance to grow without the threat of labour stoppages.

"I love 10 years. Hell, I'd take 12 years," said one player agent, who said he believes there's enough in the mix now to make a deal today.

Fehr, however, seems against the idea, arguing that so many players will have changed over the next five years that its not fair to stick them with a deal they didn't negotiate.

Surely, that can't be the dealbreaker. But at this point, really, what should be?

 

 

 

Into the Wee Hours

NEW YORK--The conversation went something like this.

"Let's leave," said Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, turning to NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly.

"It's up to you," replied Daly.

At that point during the talks between the NHL and NHL Players Association on Wednesday, a day that began as a continuation of the momentum generated on Tuesday, both sides were at the precipice, and the 2012-13 season was in jeopardy. Earlier, Buffalo Sabres goalie Ryan Miller had angrily vented when the owners said they were disappointed with the players responses to an earlier offer and threatened to pull everything off the table.

But with Jacobs poised to abandon the talks, other owners spoke up, and then both sides dramatically backed away from the precipice. When talks ended close to 1 a.m. Thursday morning after more than eight hours of talks without NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and union executive director Don Fehr, it certainly seemed from the outside they were getting closer and closer to a deal to end this ugly lockout.

"We had a series of candid discussions," said player rep Ron Hainsey, summing up the union's positon before announcing the two sides would continue talks later on Thursday afternoon.

Larry Tanenbaum, chairman of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, said simply: "We are still talking."

How close are they heading into a third day of bargaining? Well, according to a report by Sportsnet.ca writer Michael Grange, the league has raised the amount of "make whole" money it is will to throw in the pot to $300 million from $211 million, essentially meeting the players halfway as the two sides try to develop a formula that will transition both to a 50-50 split on revenue.

The six owners in the meeting agreed to accept the NHLPA's position to keep rules on free agency and arbitration rights the same as they were in the old CBA. The league remained steadfast on a five-year contract limit with no more than a 5 per cent variance in any year, but did suggest a free agent re-signing with his old team could sign for as long as seven years.

Also, the owners want a 10-year collective bargaining agreement, according to the Sportsnet.ca report. The players want a much shorter term.

"There are critical open issues between the two parties," said Daly after the meetings ended.