Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

This right here my friends and readers, is the enemy.  I have fought leaning towards the players or the owners in Lockout 2012 which has left the NHL high and dry for 82 days and counting.  The players don’t want to take it in the wallets like they did last time, and the owners don’t want to pay the players more than they want.

The owners want protection from themselves, and the players want their contracts guaranteed.  The league wants a long team friendly CBA – the players want a shorter deal.

Fans just want hockey.

When it was players and owners talking logistics and getting a deal done – things were moving in the right direction.  As I type this – the NHLPA is preparing another counter-proposal to offer to the NHL.  That is great – because it is a sign of progress.

The downside – Donald Fehr is back in the room, and according to what I am reading, Fehr doesn’t want to take the gloves off yet – hoping that the NHLs best offer is yet to come.

Donald Fehr is effectively trying to eliminate the NHL 2012-2013 season over the best possible deal, instead of getting his players any sort of deal.  If Fehr holds out any longer, he will be eliminating another two weeks of the season, which is another two weeks of paychecks that the guys he is supposed to be fighting for won’t have.

The owners don’t trust Donald Fehr.  The players have their backs against the wall and are being pushed further back by Donald Fehr.  Donald Fehr doesn’t want to sign a deal that will save hockey.  Donald Fehr has officially, in my eyes become the enemy in these negotiations, and I am now firmly resolved in my belief that Lockout 2012 is his fault, and is enemy number one in my book.

Greg M. Cooper-US PRESSWIRE

Since the start of the lockout, the NHLPA has stood in solidarity, with comments coming from the ranks in tune with what the message from the NHLPA side of things – we will prevail, we will not take a bad deal.

With Lockout 2012 increasing in time, and the liklihood of another complete NHL lockout on the horizon – some players are not on board with the solidarity movement.  Roman Hamrlik is one of those players.

From Puck Daddy today:

“I am disgusted. We have to push Fehr to the wall to get the deal. Time is against us. We lost 1/4 season, it is $425 million. Who will give it back to us? Mr. Fehr?

“There should be voting between players. Four questions – YES or NO – then count it. If half of players say let’s play, then they should sign new CBA. If there is no season he should leave and we will find someone new. Time is our enemy.”

It seems as though time is not the only enemy the NHLPA has, it seems that Donald Fehr is an enemy as well.  Martin Brodeur, at the end of his career like Hamrlik – publically called his [Hamrlik's] comments a sign of weakness, and that a player of his age should know better.

Is it really a sign of weakness that a player who is seeing the end of his career end sitting idly by – instead of on the ice where it should be?  Is it really a sign of weakness to tell what every hockey fan knows – that there are players out there that want to play and would have signed a deal already – but a handful of the top paid players and Donald Fehr are keeping things hemmed up in negotiations to get the biggest piece of the pie?

Federal mediators have been brought into the negotiations – but this doesn’t offer any hope or solace that a deal will be done.  All mediators can do is help one side see the other’s points - its not a arbitrator.

Fehr could be playing his hand out of professional sports litigation if this continues.  If Lockout 2012 continues – I wouldn’t mind seeing more and more players taking the Hamrlik route and going against the grain of the union – those are the players that care the most about the game of hockey and want to get back on the ice as quickly as possible.