New Year, New NHL Mediation

The National Hockey League (NHL) and its player's union (NHLPA) caucused separately with a federal mediator this week with looming deadline to reach a deal and possibly salvage a shortened season approaching next week. The two sides met with Deputy Director Scot Beckenbaugh of the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service (FMCS) in New York, but there's no still no decision on whether the league and union would hold face-to-face negotiations. With half of the 2012-13 regular season already lost to the labor dispute, the NHL has set next Friday as the deal deadline, so that a shortened 48-game season could be feasible. The lockout, which costs almost $20 million a day, began last fall when the previous collective bargaining agreement expired with both sides disagreeing over how to split over $3 billion in revenue. The current dispute, echoing a lockout that erased the entire 2004-05 season, is now focused on the salary cap for the 2013-14 season, the pension fund and length of player contracts. See http://yhoo.it/X6RxZ8 and http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=648934