Bettman says NHLPA is slowing the process and owners know fans will come back in event of a lockout

The NHL and NHLPA met today and the two sides were unable to break the logjam in talks. “The union today made the balance of the proposal and were are far apart on that system, ” commissioner Gary Bettman said. “We are focused on making a deal {but} NHLPA wants to keep things the way they are, and that is slowing the process, ” the commissioneer said.

The union today made a proposal centering around player contracts in response to the league seeking a max limit of five years. The two sides don’t appear to be close on that front either. “We believe that we are paying the players more than we should be, ” Bettman said via Ren Lavoie of RDS.

The thing fans should remember is that the owners hold all the cards here because they know and fully believe that the fans will come back if there is another lockout. “We recovered last time because we have the worlds greatest fans, ” Bettman told reporters when asked about what type of damage a lockout could do.

What is interesting in reading Bettman’s comments today is he made it clear in that there are much larger core economic issues at play here that must be resolved first before the two sides can tackle revenue sharing and player contract issues.