Bettman Sings Owners’ Song on Road Show

Commissioner Gary Bettman has toured more North American cities than the Rolling Stones and done more interviews lately than even Al Gore, kicking off a public relations campaign to portray the NHL in a favorable light before the expiration of the labor agreement between the league and players.

At every stop he has made two points in nearly the same words: Owners need cost containment -- translation: a salary cap -- in the next agreement and will soldier through a lockout to get a system that will balance growth of salaries and revenues.

“Given a choice between short-term pain or bleeding to death over time, we will take the short-term pain,” he said.

He also said he’s ready to start talks with the NHL Players Assn., but added, “Their response is, they like the status quo and they’re not interested in talking about changing right now.”

They don’t want the changes he wants, certainly. He has been told by owners a cap is a necessity and he has ammunition for a long fight, if needed. Each club was asked to contribute $10 million to a war chest.

Bob Goodenow, executive director of the NHLPA, has said little while Bettman is making his rounds. But in a recent interview at the union’s Toronto office with The Times’ Chris Foster, Goodenow said Bettman had made no proposal and his offer to talk “is just a ploy on Gary’s part to deflect the issue.... If he has a proposal that he thinks will interest the players, he should bring it forward.”

Goodenow also said he’s hopeful a work stoppage will be averted, though he interpreted Bettman’s recent remarks as throwing down the negotiating gauntlet. The current agreement, forged after a 104-day lockout cut the 1994-95 season to 48 games, expires Sept. 15, 2004.

“If it were a partnership/business negotiation, it would be a little bit different than a labor negotiation,” Goodenow said. “But I think the league is historically, and appears from current comments, that they want it to be another labor negotiation. If that’s the case, it will have a certain style and flavor to it that would set it apart from being a real business/partnership negotiation.... If there is a problem, if the owners’ position is one I have heard about, then certainly there will be problems.”

The main sticking point for Goodenow, whose constituents’ average salary has climbed from $572,000 in 1993-94 to about $1.7 million this season, is a cap. A luxury tax was discussed during the 1994 talks but discarded; Major League Baseball has a tax, and the NFL and NBA have caps.

Knowing the word “cap” will trigger hostility, Bettman has used euphemisms such as “containment” or “cost certainty.” To Goodenow, if it looks like a skunk and acts like a skunk, it’s wise to have a clothespin handy.

“Part of what he said is a problem is [a] disparity in revenues, and revenue sharing can address that, although it doesn’t appear his bosses can agree on a revenue-sharing program that will satisfy each other,” Goodenow said.

“The revenues in the league have grown dramatically. They have had a problem, Gary has had a problem, managing the distribution of the growth and the revenue. If he has a disparity problem, but he has grown revenues to a large degree, then I think maybe there has been a mismanagement on how they distribute those revenues.”

The current agreement limits unrestricted free agency until players are 31, with rare exceptions. Restricted or Group II free agency, in which the player’s team can match outside offers and get compensation of up to five first-round draft picks, has been more restrictive than Goodenow anticipated.

“When we negotiated the collective agreement, we thought there would possibly be more activity in that area, in terms of offer sheets,” Goodenow said. “But it hasn’t materialized. By the same token, salaries have moved in a different way too. I guess I would say I misjudged, to a degree, the level of which there might have been some Group II offer sheets to players, but that’s a historical perspective.”

Here’s another perspective: The last lockout was a momentum-killer for the NHL. And in a shaky economy, the multimillionaire players and billionaire owners will find little sympathy from fans or advertisers.

All involved should start working quietly toward a resolution. Baseball players and owners realized this summer they would have lost more in good will than they would have gained through a work stoppage, and NHL players and owners should take note.

Jokinen’s No Joke

Five years and two teams after the Kings chose him third overall in the entry draft, Olli Jokinen is realizing his potential.

Heralded by King General Manager Dave Taylor as “very aggressive and very mature,” Jokinen said on draft day that the Kings “need a big center and I’m ready. It’s no problem to adjust.”

But the 6-foot-3 Finn, moved around too much by then-coach Larry Robinson, struggled with English and never found ways to use his size and skills. He had no points in eight games his first season and nine goals in 66 games in 1998-99 before the Kings reluctantly traded him to the New York Islanders in the Ziggy Palffy deal.

“Sometimes it takes time for young players to develop when they come in the league,” said Jokinen, who was dealt from New York to Florida in June 2000. “I was a high pick and there were big expectations. When you don’t score, you go in the wrong direction.... There were some tough times the first few years. I was even thinking about going back to Europe and getting my confidence back over there, but things turned for me.”

The catalyst was Panther Coach Mike Keenan, who pushed Jokinen to improve his fitness and played him in crucial situations. Jokinen, who will face the Kings on Wednesday at Staples Center, is among the league’s scoring leaders with 12 goals and 26 points. And he’s still nine days from his 24th birthday.

“I saw talent,” Keenan said. “When I made the decision to play him a lot last year, I said, ‘We’ve got to find out once and for all if all the scouts in the world were wrong. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt,’ and he’s really stepped up.”

Unfortunately, too late for the Kings.

Said Jokinen: “Better later than never.”

Here’s the Pitch

When the New York Mets wooed free-agent pitcher Tom Glavine last week, they brought out some heavy hitters.

They had New York Ranger goalie Mike Richter and Hall of Famer Rod Gilbert drop by during lunch to greet Glavine, a standout Massachusetts high school hockey player drafted by the Kings in 1984 before Luc Robitaille.

In a variation of the theme, the Philadelphia Phillies took Glavine to a Philadelphia Flyers’ game. His picture on the scoreboard drew a standing ovation.

Slap Shots

Is there a hat shortage in Canada? Fans in Montreal didn’t toss a single chapeau to the ice after a hat trick by Saku Koivu Nov. 18 and their Toronto counterparts tossed merely six hats a few days later to celebrate a three-goal effort by the Maple Leafs’ Alexander Mogilny. The nets behind the goals prevent hats from reaching the ice, but that doesn’t explain why none were launched elsewhere.

“Maybe it’s just a sign that the economy is doing poorly,” Mogilny said.

Stats of the day: The Pittsburgh Penguins have scored 31 of their 62 goals on the power play. Of those 31, Mario Lemieux has figured in 25, with six goals and 19 assists. He has played all 20 games and is averaging 24 minutes 15 seconds of ice time and more than two points a game, with a league-leading 41.

Despite leading the Northeast Division, the Boston Bruins are drawing poorly. In the last three weeks, they’ve had their two smallest crowds since they moved to the Fleet Center in 1995. And they’re not alone: The Rangers’ game at New Jersey and Montreal’s visit to Ottawa last week didn’t sell out.

“I’d pay to watch these guys play,” Bruin forward Joe Thornton said of his teammates.

The problem is, he’s among the few who can afford tickets, parking and food at that characterless arena.

Roger Neilson, fighting bone and skin cancer, was hospitalized for tests last Friday in Ottawa.... Vultures are circling Calgary Coach Greg Gilbert. He mishandled a dispute with Marc Savard and they weren’t speaking by the time Flame General Manager Craig Button traded Savard to Atlanta.... Rumors have the Colorado Avalanche interested enough in unsigned restricted free agent Kyle McLaren to give up Alex Tanguay or Martin Skoula. But the Bruins are playing well enough to wait for the best deal.