Lockout

After a long, overnight negotiating session lasting nearly 16 hours - or roughly the time it takes the Eagles and Chip Kelly to go from calamari to cheesecake - the National Hockey League and its players emerged from a New York hotel room early Sunday morning with a new collective bargaining agreement. There are three ways to look at this news, which was delivered in the wee hours by commissioner Gary Bettman and union boss Donald Fehr to a small contingent of unwashed reporters, five guys listening on radio in Canada, and exactly no one else.

Fred Slaughter thought he was just beginning to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement for the NBA's staff of 58 referees. He didn't anticipate what he terms a "take it or we'll lock you out" offer. But that's what the attorney for the National Association of Basketball Referees says he received last Thursday. And that is why the league imposed a lockout yesterday and began its annual training camp for officials with more than 40 replacements. Slaughter believes the replacements would work in two-man crews, rather than the usual three.

When the ballots are counted Tuesday in New York to determine whether NBA players want to decertify their union, there will be at least one fewer vote than anticipated. That is because Golden State's Rony Seikaly could not make last-minute flight connections that would have sent him from his native Beirut, Lebanon, through London to New York in time to vote Thursday afternoon. "He called to say that he had arrived at the airport in Beirut only to find that the flight had been oversold," said Steve Kauffman, Seikaly's agent.

A lockout of NBA players by the league's owners on or about Thanksgiving? In a pro sports world living uncomfortably with a major league baseball strike and the threat of a lockout in the NHL, what's one more dark, foreboding rumor in one more sport? Sorry, but even though no one professes to know the exact source, the dreaded specter of a lockout has begun to surface in pro basketball as well. And that's in a league that has never experienced a work stoppage, that three times has begun seasons without a collective-bargaining agreement with its players.

The lead negotiator and spokesman for the NBA's referees union said a lockout appears "imminent and unavoidable" following the latest breakdown in talks. Lamell McMorris said the officials made another $1 million in concessions in a proposal yesterday, but believes it's evident the league is not interested in further discussions. The officials then headed home after spending the last 24 hours meeting in Chicago. The contract between the NBA and its officials expired Sept. 1 and the sides have been trying to reach a new, 2-year deal.

The Chicago Blackhawks were sued yesterday by a season ticketholder who claims the team violated the Consumer Fraud Act by failing to give full refunds to fans after the NHL lockout. Darryl Taggart claims that at the time the Blackhawks were selling season tickets, team officials knew reaching a collective bargaining agreement with players was unlikely. The lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, contends the Blackhawks have not refunded the $1,000 premium paid by season ticketholders in the "club section.

With talk of a possible lockout that could substantially curtail or even cancel next season, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman believes a work stoppage can be avoided. Bettman, speaking with reporters before the Rangers played the Capitals in Washington last night, said the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement on Sept. 15 gives the league and union an opportunity to fix the sport's problems. "I view September 2004 as an opportunity to go forward," Bettman said. "I'm optimistic.

Guess who's coming to breakfast? The answer is Billy Hunter, the executive director of the National Basketball Players Association. Hunter is scheduled to meet this morning with NBA commissioner David Stern to see whether they can make any headway in ending the work stoppage that has been in effect since July 1. When the most recent collective bargaining agreement expired June 30, the owners locked out the players. "I'm prepared to sit down and engage in compromise negotiations," said Hunter, who spoke with Stern last Thursday to arrange the meeting.

The NBA imposed a lockout that lasted slightly longer than 2 1/2 hours. The 76ers, on the other hand, couldn't keep Jerry Stackhouse out of the gym. All 29 NBA teams can go back in the gym today while a moratorium extended until 5 p.m. tomorrow on personnel moves allows time to finalize adjustments on a collective bargaining agreement. Yesterday's lockout went into effect after an all-night bargaining session in which the union waited until just before dawn to ask for an additional $50 million in profit-sharing revenue from the league's television contracts.

Baseball's lockout enters Day 25 today, with no end in sight. With that in mind, we've asked - and answered - 10 questions about the negotiations and what the lockout will mean to fans. Question - Why is the issue of eligibility for arbitration after two or three years so important? Answer - A lot of history and bad blood are rooted in this issue. For more than a decade, players had the right to take their salary disputes to arbitration after completing two years in the majors.

TWO FRANCHISES, rich in history, talent and star power. Two winning teams that know what it takes to bring home the Stanley Cup. Intrigue, in the form of a schedule that kept them away from each other for an entire season. Oh, there's plenty to love about this series. The Stanley Cup finals kick off Wednesday night when the Chicago Blackhawks host the Boston Bruins in the first finals matchup of Original Six franchises since Montreal beat the New York Rangers in five games way back in 1979.

The rebranded NBC Sports Network is looking for sports fans. The National Hockey League lockout and a transition to new sports programming - after dropping UFC mixed-martial arts bouts and bull-riding - resulted in the Comcast Corp.-owned 24-hour sports network posting eight months of lower prime-time viewership in 2012. In December, its worst month, an average of 58,000 homes tuned in to the channel during prime time compared with 158,000 homes the previous year, according to Nielsen.

It doesn't matter how you get there - losing streaks, injuries, labor wars, plague of locusts. Whatever. Going eight months without winning a game is enough to make everybody start thinking dark thoughts. The Flyers came back from the NHL's farcical lockout and immediately lost their first three games. They did not look especially sharp doing it. Was that a side effect of the long layoff and short prep time, or was it a sign that this roster just isn't talented enough to contend?

After a 113-day lockout, months of posturing and legal mumbo-jumbo, and fans being aggravated to the Nth degree, the abbreviated NHL season arrives Saturday. Here are some of the story lines: The Nash factor The New York Rangers have the best goalie on the planet, Henrik Lundqvist, and many feel they have added the missing piece that will bring them their first Stanley Cup since 1994: Rick Nash. If Nash, one of the game's best snipers, can get past the culture shock of going from Columbus to Broadway, he complements a deep lineup (Brad Richards, Ryan Callahan, Marian Gaborik et al)

The nerves were jangling and his heart was beating loud in his ears when Scott Laughton jumped onto the ice in an NHL game for the first time in his young life on Saturday. The Flyers' first-round draft pick, just 18 years old and trying desperately not to get sent back to juniors, also had the advice of teammate Scott Hartnell in his ears. "He just told me to play my game and do the things that got me here," Laughton said. "Do every little thing right and the rest will take care of itself.

(In predicted order of finish) EASTERN CONFERENCE   New York Rangers 2011-12 finish: 51-24-7 (109 points); 1st in East. Skinny: Acquiring burly winger and two-time 40-goal scorer Rick Nash from Columbus should give the Rangers the scoring they lacked last season.   Washington Capitals 2011-12 finish: 42-32-8 (92 points); 7th in East. Skinny: Struggling Alexander Ovechkin clashed last season with coaches Bruce Boudreau and Dale Hunter.

The National Hockey League today took out full-page ads in dozens of newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, apologizing for the lockout and thanking fans for their patience. The ad - a four paragraph letter - paints a positive picture of what remains of the season, avoids pointing fingers at the players' union and takes no blame for the 119 day lockout. "We placed this ad in approximately 40 newspapers across the U.S. and Canada - at least one in each of our teams' 30 markets and in a handful of national newspapers in both countries," said John Dellapina, the NHL's vice president in charge of communications.

Players, coaches, and fans weren't the only ones who suffered during the NHL's 113-day lockout. The broadcasters also felt the misery - and they didn't go to Europe to keep sharp. Being off for so long, "you get yourself out of a rhythm," said Steve Coates, the TV analyst who kept busy during the work stoppage by helping run his construction business. "This was my third lockout, and I never dreamt they'd blow it up again. " With the NHL iced, Tim Saunders, the Flyers' play-by-play radio voice, covered some of the Adirondack Phantoms' AHL games on the Flyers' website.

AFTER GOING MORE than 8 months without hockey, Flyers chairman Ed Snider could not wait to get back. In fact, one of his first orders of business after returning from his 80th birthday celebration with family in the Caribbean was a stop at the Flyers' practice facility on Tuesday. It was Snider's first appearance at a practice since last April during the Flyers' epic first-round playoff series against Pittsburgh. "I was sick that this thing took so long," Snider said, referring to the NHL's 119-day lockout.