League vs. players (no surprise)

The NHL and its players can’t even agree on the things they agree on. Both the league and its players seem to agree that hits to the head should be regulated as soon as possible, but some substantial acrimony has developed in terms of how exactly the rule should be changed.

The league wants to change the rule, well, yesterday. The NHLPA, whose members made up five of the 10 spots on the “competition committee,” says it is in favor of rule changes, but is taking some time before offering its proposal. The league has basically said, “We’re not waiting for you,” and has threatened to change the rule without players’ association input. The PA is saying, “You can’t do that.”

So, as you can see, it seems absolutely nothing has changed in recent years in terms of league-player relations, sadly. Kings forward Jeff Halpern is one of the five players on the competition committee, and said the players are stil formulating their position on the issue…

HALPERN: “From the players’ side, we had a call last week. We wanted to make sure that players were aware of what was going on, and that we were going to come back with something, to make sure that guys were in agreement moving forward. I’m not sure what stance the league will take, but we’ll give our reply pretty soon. If they want to do something outside of that, that’s up to them, but we’re just making sure, like in the past, that players are made aware.

“The players are in support for having discipline for those kind of hits. I think the only thing that has come into question is how you can have something that’s a suspendable play that’s not even illegal during the course of the game.”

Here’s some audio of the interview with Halpern from this morning…