NHLPA boss Donald Fehr pushing all the right buttons winning PR battle

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For years the name Donald Fehr didn't do anything but strike fear -- if you'll pardon the pun -- inside many sports fans' hearts. To be honest when I heard he was going to represent the NHL Players Union  Caris LeVert Jersey I was nervous and scared that we were heading down a terrible road in hockey. That's what happens when you remember the guy for cancelling the 1994 World Series.I was coming into the negotiations expecting to lean toward the owners before they even began for no other reason than Fehr. I a sumed he would make the union a stubborn and unlikeable unit that would push the NHL into another lockout aby s.Boy, was I wrong.Fehr has done something I never thought would happen: He's made me marvel at him. It has only been six or so weeks of negotiations between the NHL and NHLPA, but he hasn't taken a wrong step yet. No really, everything he has done has been a stroke of genius on some level or another. He is undoubtedly winning the PR battle and swaying the public court  Kyrie Irving Jersey of opinion.It all began with Fehr immediately insisting that the players would have no problem with playing under the pre-existing Collective Bargaining Agreement should no deal be reached by Sept. 15. In e sence he was saying "Hey look, we want to play and are willing to do what it takes to start next season on time, it's up to the owners."  It might have been a bluff, it might have not. Either way it immediately put the union in the position of being the victim and forced the NHL to be the bad guy. Eventually Gary Bettman had to come out and say in no way was that going to happen. If no deal was in place by Sept. 15, the lockout was on. The villain role was developing.Never once has Fehr said something bad or damning. He has refused to bite into any questions from the media that he didn't want to answer all while being cordial and forthright at the same time. All of those public relations cla ses once upon time were showing.What's really done it for me, though, is the latest round of discu sions on Tuesday, when  Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot Jersey the NHLPA finally presented its initial offer to the NHL. Here we were, having waited for six weeks for the union to suggest anything. I was bracing for radical changes and the players to take their turn to look greedy. "You want a 24 percent rollback, owners? We want no salary cap. Take that!"  The table was set for some tit for tat.Except a funny thing happened. The players didn't come to the table on Tuesday with swords hoisted in the air ready to stubbornly fight the owners worse than mules. No, they came with an initial offer that seems incredibly reasonable -- especially for a starting point -- and once again actually makes the players seem like the good guys.Really, Fehr talked to the media after the meeting on Tuesday and explained that the players were offering to take a cut in the hockey-related revenue. Be still my beating heart, did I read that correctly? The players under Fehr would actually walk away from some money? Why, I was all ready to call them greedy, too.Moreover it is a three-year plan, another olive branch being extended almost to say "Here, try it out and if you don't like it, we'll talk again in three years." That seems more than fair, does it not? The short term might have its drawbacks, but it doesn't require a ma sive commitment from the owners. The players are asking for a few dates, not their hand  Nate Sestina Jersey in marriage.  But where the first offer really takes the cake is that Fehr managed to somewhat subtly force the owners to begin the in-fighting. It's crystal clear that the owners have to get serious about some revenue sharing system that's meaningful. It's the only way that some of the struggling teams will be able to make some sizable gains on their bottom lines, not by taking a little from the players.It's as if Fehr threw a juicy piece of meat into the center of a pack of wolves. Now he can watch them fight over it and make each other look bad in some form. Greed? It's only going to go one way with this proposal. If anybody will look greedy it won't be the players.The move was a stellar push from the onset, actually. Instead  Landry Shamet Jersey of validating the NHL's initial offer and letting it take the leverage, Fehr pretty much started from scratch, not viewing it as a counter-proposal but instead a whole different take. It meant the players weren't fighting back or attacking but instead leaving the owners to do that.  Lastly, watch that video above and you'll see Fehr makes it abundantly obvious that the owners' first offer wasn't intended to reach an agreement, but this one from the players is. They want to reach a deal, they are the victims here not the big, bad owners.At this point the only people who are fearing Fehr are likely the richest of the rich owners and Bettman himself.
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