Levy, Melrose Discuss NHL Lockout On ESPN2's KHL Telecast

ESPN2 carried today's KHL Lev-Dynamo Moscow game, marking the net's first live pro hockey game telecast since the '04 Stanley Cup Final. ESPN’s Steve Levy noted there are 100 NHLers "that are playing elsewhere right now." ESPN’s Barry Melrose said that “number is going to go up as the NHL players start thinking this lockout is going to start going longer.” Melrose said of the idea that some players competing may stay in the KHL if and when the lockout ends: “I think they’re using that as a threat to the NHL owners.”

Melrose, on the prospects for a resolution to the lockout: “My glass has always been half-full. When this happened five years ago when there was a lost season, they didn’t talk for three months. They’re talking every day right now. We didn’t have the outdoor game five, six years ago. ... We’re going to come back in December … and I think we will have a season.” Levy, on the league locking out again after doing so in '04-05: “Can’t you make a longer deal?” (“Lev-Dynamo Moscow,” ESPN2, 10/9).