E-Mail
Print
Even though the pros aren't competing, those who enjoy hockey are still finding time to play to sport -- or at least get some skating time in at Northtown Center in Amherst.
One skater thinks the lockout is hurting those who follow the sport.
"I think it definitely is hurting the fans more than anything. It makes the players and owner look greedy," he says.
Another skater, Joe Carelli, a student at the University at Buffalo, says the NHL's labor situation is discouraging.
"It's kind of rediculous -- a battle of billionaires versus millionaires... just going back and forth with no real progress," Carelli says.
He also feels it's disrespectful considering fans have dealt with lockouts in other sports in recent years.
Sara Potter, who serves as a skating instructor at Northtown, says it's all about the money involved.
"Publicly, they're saying things. I'm not sure what's going on behind the scenes. I hope that something is going on behind the scenes, and that both sides are going to have to make concessions," she says.
She remains concerns for the young Sabres fans, the concession workers at First Niagara Center, and all the support staff and nearby restaurants that are impacted with the lack of regular season hockey to this point.
On Wednesday, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said it looks like a full-82 game schedule "is not going to be a reality," as the lockout nears its seventh week.
Thursday is Bettman's deadline to reach a new collective bargaining agreement in time to preserve a full season. But talks have not been scheduled for this week at all. Last week, Bettman offered up a third proposal to the NHLPA in Toronto, but he and union head Donald Fehr did not come to a deal.
Speaking at a press conference Wednesday announcing the New York Islanders' move from Nassau Coliseum to Brooklyn's Barclays Center in 2015, Bettman seemed resigned to looking at a shortened season with the NHL and the players' association still at odds after months of negotiations.
