Kukla's Korner Hockey

Of all the comments made by players on Thursday, Mike Cammalleri's take on the state of CBA negotiations, as uttered to the Toronto Star'sKevin McGran are, in my opinion, the most astute given the NHLPA's circumstances:

“How do we win? We’ve already lost,” said Flames forward Mike Cammalleri. “We’ve already conceded ($800 million, all figures U.S.). It seems like for them, it’s become the bully in the playground. It’s like: ‘We think we can take your cookies, too.’” Cammalleri explained the players’ exasperation: “They came to us and said we have a systemic problem with the small-market teams losing money. We said: ‘Okay, we’ll concede up to $800 million-plus as long as the bigger teams help us in a revenue-sharing model. “Then we did that, and they said: ‘Oh, that’s not the problem. The problem is you guys just make too much money.’ “Your boss comes to you tomorrow and says: ‘My company does great, makes tonnes of money but I’m going to take 20 per cent of your salary just because where else are you going to work?”

Cammalleri continues, and points out that the players, like many fans, get the feeling that this cycle and this fourth lockout has only one conclusion--a fifth, five to eight years from now:

“Where does it end?” says Cammalleri. “If we take their proposal, the next time around, they’re still going to have the same excuses. It doesn’t fix anything. It doesn’t address any of the problems they said we know would make the league healthier. They’re going to come to us with the same issues. Of course they don’t want to fix those problems, because they want to be able to do this to us again next time.”

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