(Photo Credit: KDKA)
Reporting John Shumway
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — It’s day 83 of the lockout and the two sides in the NHL labor dispute appear to be farther apart than ever.
After some optimism, talks broke down again Thursday night; and no one is more frustrated than Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby.
Crosby can describe the exhilaration of burying a slap shot in net, and the power of the roar of the crowd, but describing a crosscheck from the commissioner is more difficult.
“I don’t think words can describe that. I thought we made some progress there the last few days, and to see it all kind of go by the wayside is frustrating,” said Crosby.
The Penguins’ captain says the players addressed every issue the owners raised.
“I feel like we moved in every area we could have moved to try to make it work,” he says.
Which prompts the question, what the heck happened?
“What happened? I don’t think you ask us that, I think you ask Gary [Bettman] and the league,” said Crosby. “I don’t know.”
“The owners were beside themselves,” said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. “Some of them I have never seen that emotional, and they said they don’t know what happened. This process is over; clearly, the union doesn’t want to make a deal.”
“If we thought that was the reaction we were going to get we wouldn’t have spent all the time to put a proposal together,” added Crosby. “So yeah, I don’t know what happened.”
Crosby says union rep Donald Fehr is not to blame. That he only put into legal language what the players proposed, which he doesn’t feel the owners even seriously considered.
KDKA-TV’s John Shumway was the only TV reporter to get an interview with Sidney Crosby about the NHL negotiation fallout, you can watch Crosby’s full unedited interviews below:
Earlier in the day, KDKA 93-7 The Fan also spoke with Sidney. Here’s what he told them:
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