There’s Room for Thinking Caps When One Ego Exits

Gary Bettman will have a chance today to take the only action more remarkable than canceling the NHL season:

Uncanceling the NHL season.

In a fascinating convergence of divergent interests, an alliance of players, owners, agents and general managers gave new life to the collective bargaining talks. Their common ground was their zeal to avoid the grievous damage that would be inflicted by a missed season -- and repair the damage already done by NHL Players’ Assn. chief Bob Goodenow.

The NHLPA’s executive committee, augmented by the considerable presence of Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, gathered in New York on Friday to come up with a final proposal to play hockey this season.

Goodenow was not among them, sources said, because he was unhappy with the maneuvering that went on behind his back to produce a deal he considers too favorable to the NHL.

Dismayed by his failure to inform them about key decisions -- they woke up Tuesday and were stunned to learn he had committed them to a salary cap -- and shaken when his assurances that owners would cave in did not materialize, players knew if they were going to get a deal, Goodenow and Bettman couldn’t be in the same room.

It took the intervention of Gretzky, the managing partner of the Phoenix Coyotes and dutiful supporter of the NHL’s “cost certainty” policy, and Lemieux, who occupies a unique position as a player for and owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins, to convince Bettman that players were still willing to compromise and that a short season is worth playing. But it’s largely because of the efforts of Trevor Linden that there is even faint hope of reviving the season.

Linden, the NHLPA’s president, accomplished what Goodenow was too arrogant to try.

Linden rekindled negotiations with the NHL a few weeks ago and talked at length with Bettman’s top lieutenant, Bill Daly, on Tuesday to get a read on where the NHL stood and how far it would go. On Thursday, Linden met with Bettman in New York, removing Goodenow’s ego from the mix and easing the way for frank conversation. On Friday, Linden was again at the epicenter.

Goodenow couldn’t get them there, so he felt he couldn’t be there.

Goodenow undercut his players’ faith in him. After repeatedly telling them they should never accept a salary cap, he abruptly agreed to a cap far too late in the process to allow room for negotiation. He was silent between his last sarcastic letter to Bettman on Tuesday night and the 11 a.m. EST Wednesday deadline Bettman had set for a response, turning the negotiations into a personal battle.

There’s no room for personal in hockey. It’s all about the team.

The offer that is being shaped by the union is reasonable. Its foundation is a salary cap between $45 million and $46 million, and a luxury tax that is likely to end up at about 40 cents on the dollar, starting at $40 million. The final agreement, if there is one, might also contain a provision that the cap would revert to $42 million if the payrolls of eight clubs reach $46 million in the same season.

Those provisions should answer all the NHL’s main concerns about providing guidelines for clubs to become profitable. The union had feared the league will ask for more, and while there is likely to be some negotiating on the luxury tax, this is a good enough deal for Bettman to say yes.

“The general feeling is an expectation that a deal will be done by Sunday,” a source close to the situation said.

Bettman was vilified by players for setting a deadline last weekend, though that was a catalyst for restarting talks this week. He shouldn’t be criticized for that. Every process has to have an end.

And he was smart enough to listen to the many owners who called him the last few days offering their help.

Owners want a season because they know their long-term success depends on the league’s continuity and economic health. They want a season because they have debt service to pay on their arenas, and they want playoff money to help pay it.

They also want a season because they fear that without one, longtime flagship network ESPN will exercise its April 15 option to drop NHL telecasts.

Once upon a time, ESPN needed the NHL more than the NHL needed ESPN. The balance has shifted. The NHL cannot lose ESPN.

Bettman must make this deal. He will make this deal.