Shane Bakker arrived at the Carleton Ice House to quite the surprise Nov. 13, when he learned members of the locked-out Ottawa Senators were set to join the Ravens men’s hockey team for a 90-minute practice.
“I got to the rink, then I heard a little bit of a rumour, and found out a couple of them were here to skate with us,” said Bakker, a fifth-year forward who grew up just outside Ottawa. “It was really cool.”
Chris Phillips, Zack Smith, Peter Regin, Marc Methot, and free agent Brendan Bell were among the players in attendance.
Most days, they have been skating at the Bell Sensplex in Kanata with the NHL lockout — now in its 59th day — preventing them from using Scotiabank Place.
Even though many of the Ravens, including fifth-year forward Ryan Berard, have played major junior hockey, some of them were still a little “star struck” to be sharing the ice with NHL players.
“It was our main goal all our life to get where they are,” Berard said. “I think at the start you’re just sitting back, seeing how they practice, and trying to pick up on some things.”
Although Bakker called it a casual session with a lot of “chirping” and “joking around,” Berard said the Senators’ presence alone increased the tempo of the practice.
“Their passes are crisp and their skating is effortless,” he said. “You can tell they put in a lot of work in the summer.”
Slowly and painfully, the NHL and National Hockey League Players’ Association appear to be inching closer towards reaching a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and ending the current work stoppage.
The NHL has been insistent on dropping the players’ share of revenue from 57 to 50 per cent immediately, which would reduce the players’ salaries by around 12.3 per cent.
The players, meanwhile, have agreed to split revenue with the owners, but they want to create a “soft landing.” This would bring their share of revenue down to 50 per cent by year three of the next CBA, and ensure they don’t have to accept a salary rollback – like they did after the previous lockout in 2004-05.
It has been reported that the two sides are close on revenue sharing, and the owners have proposed what they call a “make-whole” provision. This would pay the players $211 million over the next two years in an attempt to lessen the blow of their reduced salaries.
While the players’ association responded by saying this doesn’t “make everyone whole,” it has at least moved the process forward.
Most recently, CBA talks have surrounded player contracting rights – things like length of contracts, unrestricted free agency, and salary arbitration. These issues are believed to be one of the final hurdles.
As they bumped shoulders with a few locked-out NHLers, the Ravens weren’t complaining about the work-stoppage on this particular day. But like most people, they just want it to end.
“It sucks,” Bakker said. “A lot of boring nights when I just flip through the channels when no games are on.”
If no deal is reached in the next few weeks, it is expected the locked-out Senators will return to the Ice House later this month.
