Don Fehr may be a brilliant lawyer who did right by the MLB player's union by consistently running baseball boss Bud Selig into the ground, but it does appear as if he has met his match.
No, not in NHL commish Gary Bettman - the sport of hockey.
The NHL announced today that all games have been cancelled through Dec. 30. How the league is doing this again inside of a decade is impressive.
This announcement is a matter of days after the two sides appeared this close to agreeing to a contract.
Unlike when Fehr negotiated labor deals with baseball, he always had the advantage of having several pressure points the league had to deal with that would help force the issue with the owners to make a deal. Namely, television. Fehr had leverage outside of just owners vs. owners.
With hockey, however, there are not enough outside pressure points the league has to deal with to force itself to make a deal it does not want. Fehr's leverage is considerably less in this negotiation.
So we wait until one side says "uncle!", which Fehr never has had to do before. But he has never faced hockey.
@MacEngelProf
tengel@star-telegram.com
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