NHL Players Assn. Sets March 30 Strike Date : Hockey: It says it won’t play final week of regular season or playoffs without collective bargaining agreement.

Now, it’s just a matter of if, not when.

Ending weeks of speculation, the NHL Players Assn. announced Friday that it will strike on March 30 unless a new collective bargaining agreement is approved by 9 a.m. PST that day.

The strike would come with one week remaining in the regular season and the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs only nine days away.

Bob Goodenow, executive director of the players’ association, said the decision to set a deadline reflects dissatisfaction with the negotiations.

The last collective bargaining agreement expired in September. It was, however, only after Goodenow received a strike authorization vote from the players nearly three weeks ago that the negotiations seemed about to intensify.

But they broke off after one day.

There are many issues dividing the owners and players: free agency, arbitration, the size of the draft, the pension plan and additional pay for postseason play.

But it comes down to money. Both sides agree that teams made a combined $46 million last season and that salaries have increased 56% over the last two years.

However, the owners say they will lose $14 million this season. The players say the owners will earn $30 million.

“Obviously, we have to step up the process somehow to get some progress made,” the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Bryan Trottier, president of the NHLPA, told the Associated Press Friday. “We met with (the owners) last Friday. A week has gone by and there has been nothing, and nothing is scheduled. There has been no reply, so we asked ourselves what can we do to step things up and make ourselves be taken more seriously.

“Something has to happen where progress is being made. I think everybody would laugh at us if we did not take advantage of this opportunity now. The way things look, if we don’t do something now, when are we ever going to be in a better position?”

If no agreement is reached and the players strike, the owners say they will consider docking them for part of next season’s salaries, replacing strikers with minor league players or postponing the playoffs.

Cancellation of the playoffs would cost each team about $400,000. The players would lose $10.5 million in salary and bonuses.