NHL commissioner John Ziegler, laying the blame for the NHL strike squarely on the players' union, said Saturday he was "very fearful" that the Stanley Cup playoffs will be wiped out by the work stoppage.
Speaking at the Toronto airport before returning to New York, Ziegler said NHL owners face a $150 million loss over the next two years, a contention the players' union has disputed."The association's only answer to us is, `That's your problem.' Well, the fact of the matter is, it is both of our problems, and we've asked them to help us," Ziegler said. "The owners have said, `We'll take two years, '91-92 and '92-93, we'll take a hit and take losses of $64 million. But work with us and help us so that we don't have a $102 million loss in '93-'94.' They have said, `No, you take that risk. We want a three-year contract and then we'll start talking about whether or not we can put something together.'
"Well, this business can not stand another $150 million loss," Ziegler said. "Until the association comes to grips with this, we will not close this agreement."
Bob Goodenow, chief of the players' union, said he watched Ziegler's news conference on Canadian national TV.
"My reaction to John Ziegler's comments are simply that he seems to have decided to go public . . . to say that the players are greedy, that the players don't understand, that the players aren't informed," Goodenow said. "That's unfortunate because that's not true."
As for the economic matters, Goodenow contended that owners "have had in the previous three years $150 million in profits and they've had expansion for another $150 million in revenues."
Asked his feeling about the possibility of the playoffs being disrupted or canceled, Ziegler said: "I am very fearful. Having hockey-withdrawal symptoms is not fun.
"We've always settled our problems in the past," said Ziegler, who was dealing with Alan Eagleson, whom Goodenow succeeded as head of the union. "I would ask the players to think, `Do you really want to deprive our fans of this game for the issues that we're talking about?' "
Rhetorically, at least, the sides never seemed farther apart than on Saturday, after Ziegler met with Goodenow in Toronto. The players said they had offered a "new proposal" for Ziegler to present at Monday's meeting of the league's board of governors.