Pro: Sidney Crosby is trying to save hockey. Con: could Sidney
Crosby possibly get any more unbearable?
Be that as it may, Crosby is said to be one of the driving
forces behind the latest surge to end the NHL lockout, forming a coalition with
Pittsburgh Penguins co-owner Ron Burkle. Should they somehow manage to bridge
the gap between league and union, we could have on our hands an honest-to-goodness
Christmas miracle.
As was mentioned in my own proposal to end the lockout, a
group of players and owners began meeting on Tuesday without NHLPA executive
director Donald Fehr or NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. We didn’t have very high
hopes going in, but the meetings are ongoing, and there is optimism. Of course
when it comes to the lockout, optimism is usually fleeting, but I digress.
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Should the players/owners-only meeting prove successful, it sounds like we’ll have little choice but to heap mounds of praise
on one of the league’s most despised players. Rob Rossi of the Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review has the story (via Puck Daddy):
Burkle and Crosby were described by participants in the
five-hour talks as voices of reason. Their shared point of view: The NHL should
not risk another round of canceled games — they’re already canceled through
Dec. 14 — and the league may not recover if a season is lost to a labor dispute
for the second time in eight years, the sources said.The Penguins are a moderate in the labor war, but they will
not break ranks at the Governors’ meeting, sources said. Rather, their
contingent will try to establish what owners need to reach an agreement, the
sources said.Crosby also will not break ranks with the players’ union,
but his objective over the past week has been to establish common ground among
players who have lost trust in NHL ownership and management as a whole, the
sources said.Over the past few weeks, Crosby, Burkle and [co-owner Mario]
Lemieux have privately discussed plans to bridge the gap between players and
owners. The sources said all three had grown frustrated with the lack of
progress.
I’m still not holding my breath this thing gets resolved, but
then again, they would be fools to let it go nuclear. If an agreement is
reached, Twitter is abuzz about a potential 50-plus-game season that would start right before
the holidays.
Just think: if he makes this happen, Crosby will not only be
the face of the NHL, but he’ll forever be hailed as the savior of the NHL as
well. The man is about to one-up Santa Claus!
News
And the fawning never ends.
>> Crosby, Penguins owners push to save NHL season [Trib-Review]
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