Bettman Gets OK to Cancel : Hockey: NHL owners give commissioner authority to forgo season if 50 games and full playoffs can’t be completed by July 1.

NEW YORK — The NHL on Monday moved a step closer to shuttering its rinks, after its Board of Governors passed a resolution authorizing Commissioner Gary Bettman to cancel the 1994-95 season if he determines a 50-game season and full slate of best-of-seven playoff series cannot be completed by July 1.

Bettman did not issue a deadline to the players’ union for avoiding what he called “the horrible prospect” of canceling the season. However, the calendar will soon impose a deadline for him.

To cram a 10-day training camp, 50 games and two months of playoffs into the time frame set by the governors, Bettman said a collective bargaining agreement must be reached within seven to 10 days. Given their differences over salary arbitration and a proposed payroll tax, every minute they’re not negotiating makes cancellation ever more likely.

“I don’t even think we have that much time,” said Tony Tavares, president of the Mighty Ducks. “My gut sense is that it’s too late. I’m not speaking for everybody else. Personally, I feel that is really pushing it.

“You’ve got to assume you’re going to get a deal before Christmas and open camps and people are going to forgo Christmas and the New Year’s holidays. I think it’s got to be (settled) before that.”

Said Bettman: “At some point in the not-too-distant future we’re going to run out of time. The date is coming. Some morning we’re going to wake up and the schedule-maker, if we don’t have a deal, is going to say, ‘You’re out of time. We can’t get the schedule in.’ ”

The lockout, which began Oct. 1 and has cut the season from 84 games to 60, appeared to be nearing an end when common ground was reached last week in defining entry-level salaries, rookie salaries and free agency. That progress halted last Tuesday, when the NHL, claiming players’ concessions did not sufficiently slow salary growth, reintroduced a tax that peaked at 25% of the total payroll of clubs exceeding a limit.

Union head Bob Goodenow asked Bettman to withdraw the tax because “it was designed to operate as a cap.” Bettman refused. On Monday, Bettman rallied the governors around the issue and they unanimously rejected the last union proposal because it did not include a tax.

“I think there’s unanimity in that (meeting) room, even on the tax issue,” said Ed Snider, owner of the Philadelphia Flyers. “Especially when everyone saw the numbers on the tax issue. We must make a deal that works and if we can’t, there’s no sense in playing.”

Peter Pocklington, owner of the Edmonton Oilers, also remains determined to incorporate a tax into a new deal.

“A tax is absolutely in the cards,” he said. “If it isn’t, we won’t be playing this season.”

Bob Clarke, general manager of the Flyers, said he fears for the future of the NHL if the season is wiped out--but he would be more perturbed if it continued under past economic pressures.

“To not have a season is going to hurt us all, not just the owners, but the players too,” he said. “But the owners are getting hurt so bad, they have to risk this. We can’t continue on the path we were (on).

“If they won’t accept a tax, you hope there’s some way (to make a trade-off in another area). If the tax is the reason we’re not going to play this year, they’ve got to give us some reason we can come back and play. But there’s nothing there now that I can see.”

Bettman and Goodenow have not arranged a meeting, but a union spokesman said he expects negotiations to resume soon.

“The commissioner has said he wants to take a problem-solving approach toward the stumbling blocks we have encountered,” Goodenow said in a statement. “I agree that such an approach would be helpful for the purpose of reaching an agreement before the entire season is canceled.”

The room for compromise appears to be as limited as the time left for saving the season.

Bettman said the NHL has made all its major concessions, particularly in granting unrestricted free agency to veteran players. The union has said that in accepting a rookie salary cap, two-way contracts for entry-level players and capping signing bonuses, it has already yielded more than it intended.

“We’re pretty close to where we have to be if we’re going to make a sensible deal to make an agreement that will address our problems,” Bettman said. “If we needed to make a little bit of movement here or there to try and close it out, we would reach to do that.

“Based on where the negotiations seem to be going, I have a hard time envisioning how you make a deal without a tax or some other meaningful restraint on the increase in player salaries to give you what we have called a drag.”

Monday’s meeting produced an air of gloom among club representatives.

“I’m pessimistic right now,” Duck General Manager Jack Ferreira said. “It’s a combination of too little time and being too far apart. Even if you get the major issues, what about all the gray areas? We are getting real short.”

Said King co-owner Joe Cohen: “I think we have to work hard and get a settlement. I don’t know if it’s possible. We need a business that works for everybody, for the players and for the owners both.”

Bettman said he is seeking such a system.

“Our first desire would have been to create a partnership. Somehow, salary cap became a dirty word and I don’t understand it,” he said. “The two sports that are playing and playing pretty well (the NFL and NBA), the sports with the highest salary on average, they have salary caps. They’re really partnerships. It’s a determination of how you’re going to divide up money on a fair and equitable basis. And if you can do that and build together, the results can be phenomenal.

“Had we problem-solved in partnership last summer we would have been off to a spectacular season and I think both sides would have reaped the benefits of that fabulously. As it stands now, we’re dealing with a potentially difficult--if not disastrous--situation. But we’ve got a league that has got fundamental problems. A healthy league does not shut itself down for 75 days unless it has profound problems it’s trying to address.”