Hartnell among players who refuse to back down

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Even though NHL owners' initial CBA proposals expressed a desire for drastic changes around the league, players seemed calm and content.

Vancouver goaltender Cory Schneider is among players highly involved in the negotiating process, and came out in July saying there would have to be a lot of give and take between both sides, and there was no reason to panic yet. There was still plenty of time.

But now, players are just not happy.

CSNPhilly's Tim Panaccio recently sat down with Flyers representative Scott Hartnell, who has been present for all six sessions of discussions with Donald Fehr and the rest of the NHLPA. Needless to say, he's not thrilled with what the owners have asked for so far.

"To use Gary Bettman's own words, it's a systemic issue," Hartnell told Panaccio. "He doesn't want to look at the rich teams or the teams that are losing money. He wants to look at them all together which is a total 180 from what it was seven years ago.

"It's a little frustrating that way, but that's their position and you take it as it is. You have to believe they are 100 percent certain of getting everything from us.

"It's up to us to see if it's feasible or not. But you look at the rollback and percentage they want and it's more concessions than we gave up last time around."

And that last time around resulted in the lockout of the 2004-05 season, where the owners did get the majority of what they wanted. Since the initial NHLPA meetings in Chicago, Donald Fehr made it clear that the players were not going to bow down to the owners and agree to their terms like they had in the past.

As Schneider shared, it's a "give and take" process, and last time around, the players did the giving. Now they want to see some changes and respect from the owners to meet them half way.

"What it all comes down to is, they owners want a bigger piece of the pie. Seven years ago they wanted cost certainty, they wanted parity in the league and locked us out to get it and got everything they wanted," Hartnell explained.

We're now just a few short weeks away from the Sept. 15 deadline, and the NHLPA still has yet to present a countoffer the the owners. Players know there will be some back and forth with the owners throughout the process, and they sure aren't going down without a fight.

As of now, Fehr has said he has no problem beginning the season on time even if a new CBA is not yet in place as long as both sides agree to continue working on a resolution. However we do not yet know how the owners feel about the subject and whether they would want to wait until both sides have reached an agreement.

As this week's negotiations continue in New York, Blackhawks defenseman Steve Montador continues participating in the meetings alongside Rick DiPietro, Ron Hainsey, George Parros and JT Wyman.

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