A Sitting Duck: NHL Fines Niedermayer For Missed Training Camp

NHL Fines Niedermayer $500,000 For Missing Training Camp

ON THE BACKBURNER: NHL owners last week rejected a proposed 84-game schedule for the ’08-09 season, and NHLPA Exec Dir Paul Kelly said that the idea “won’t happen for at least another couple of years, if at all.” Kelly said that team owners are “opposed to a specific scheduling matrix” that is sought by the players, but NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman indicated that the main difference is “how to divvy up those games across the two conferences.” Kelly: “We would be in favor of going to 84 games this year. But right now, it ain’t happening.” Kelly added that the NHLPA would be unlikely to approve implementing the schedule in ’09-10 due to the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. In Boston, Kevin Paul Dupont reported an 84-game schedule “not only makes sense, but by Kelly’s estimation, it also would increase the game’s annual Hockey Related Revenues by $50[M] -- slightly more than 50[%] of which would be added to the players’ salary pool” (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/20).

PIPE DREAM? The GLOBE’s Dupont also reported the NHL's next Winter Classic will feature Bruins-Rangers at Yankee Stadium on January 1, 2009, if the league pays a $200,000 bill “to preserve the [water] pipes through November and December” at the ballpark. If the league decides not to pay the expense, the game will feature the Red Wings against the Blackhawks at Wrigley Field. A decision on Yankee Stadium “will have to come soon” (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/20).

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