&nbsp;<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="500" height="296" alt="" src="https://canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/Image/cory-schneider-kevin-bieksa-alexei-ponikarovsky-2011-12-15-21-17-36.jpg" />
After today&#8217;s late-morning skate at UBC, Kevin Bieksa and Corey Schneider fielded a bevy of questions about this morning&#8217;s CBA proposal from the NHL owners. What follows is a selection of questions and answers from the reporters (including yours truly) about what Bieksa and Schneider had heard and read about the day&#8217;s developments.
A quick reminder, these quotes were given prior to the Donald Fehr and the NHLPA executive committee talking tonight.&nbsp;
Read on past the jump.
<h3>Cory Schneider&#8217;s Reaction</h3>
Is this a significant offer?
It is in principle, the fact they came towards us, is a very good sign. The dollar amount is significant, but is something they were trying to take away from us. &nbsp;It&rsquo;s a little tough to look at it as a concession from them; it&rsquo;s making their demands less demanding. I think overall it&rsquo;s definitely a good sign. If it&rsquo;s true, that this is the deal they&rsquo;ve proposed, that&rsquo;s a good thing, however by no means does that mean we are just going to say &lsquo;yes&rsquo; right away. &nbsp;We have to look at it and I&rsquo;m sure we have to do some things on it.
Is the proposal to still play 82 games a good sign?
Sure of course it is, it would mean players don&rsquo;t miss paycheques and owners don&rsquo;t miss out on revenue if the games aren&rsquo;t cancelled. I&rsquo;m sure this deal is contingent on us agreeing in the next however-long. If they can&rsquo;t get the season started by November 2nd the deal&rsquo;s off the table. &nbsp;I&rsquo;m sure it&rsquo;s something along those lines. &nbsp;If that&rsquo;s the case, I&rsquo;m sure we&rsquo;ll have to go over it really quickly and probably try to get back to them with an answer.&nbsp;
Are you excited you could be playing soon?
You can&rsquo;t get too excited yet, this could still take a long time; by no means is this a done deal. If they&rsquo;d made a move towards us every time we&rsquo;d made a move towards them, this would have been done a long time ago. It&rsquo;s a good sign, it&rsquo;s positive news, let&rsquo;s see where it leads.
What about the length of the proposal, does that factor into how the proposal will be understood?
Labour peace is a good thing. As long as we feel it&rsquo;s a deal that, over the course of six years, will leave the game in a good spot and that we&rsquo;ll won&#8217;t have to come back again in six years and hear the same &lsquo;we need more, we need more, we were too lenient last time.&rsquo; If this gets that done, then we&rsquo;re all for it. If not, we&rsquo;ll talk more.
On the 50/50 percentage of revenue split&hellip;
The player contracting was a huge concern to us, I don&rsquo;t know if they&rsquo;ve come off that a bit, but obviously, to them [the owners] the percentage is the biggest part. To us, it&rsquo;s one of the few big parts; I think contracting and revenue sharing are other key issues for us. It&rsquo;s a hurdle that has to be overcome at some point. It&rsquo;s good that we are heading in the right direction.&nbsp;
Does the news the owners have been using focus groups to frame their messaging say anything about their position?
I&rsquo;m sure they are concerned about their image, a lot of their business is based on marketing and appeal, getting people to come to the rinks and buy their stuff. If people don&rsquo;t look at them positively, it&rsquo;s going to affect their bottom line, so I think it&rsquo;s very obvious that they would want to have a good image. It&rsquo;s like how we [the players] want to present a good image and that we are justified in what we are doing. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s really a surprise.
What&rsquo;s the PR game, then? This is about dollars and cents, why does it matter what the fans think?
There&rsquo;s no game, I just think that we&rsquo;re trying to present the facts and we&rsquo;re trying to present our positions, whether or not people agree with it, it&rsquo;s up to them. But we feel strongly about how we want to get this deal done and ensure that [the deal] is fair for us.
If we can do that and present our case and the fans side with, that&rsquo;s great, but if not, that&rsquo;s fine too, that&rsquo;s their right. We want to hopefully, not alienate them too much that when the game starts up again they&rsquo;ll come back and support us the way they always have.&nbsp;
Do you think the winter classic factor into the owner strategy?
I don&rsquo;t know, you&rsquo;ll have to ask the owners, I&rsquo;m sure it&rsquo;s a big pot of revenue for them and a big marketing tool for the league. Who knows; we&rsquo;re not really sure what they&rsquo;ve been thinking this whole time and I&rsquo;m not really sure what this indicates about that.
<h3>Kevin Bieksa&#8217;s Reaction</h3>
What are you hoping for when you read the proposal? 

I&rsquo;m hoping to see that we&rsquo;re closer than where we&rsquo;ve been, it has been four weeks and not a lot has happened. Again, I haven&rsquo;t seen the proposal so it&rsquo;s hard for me to comment on it, but hopefully after I do look, they&rsquo;ve made some concessions, and they&rsquo;ve moved closer to us. It&rsquo;s not necessarily a matter of meeting halfway, because I feel they started a lot lower than we did, but getting closer to each other.&nbsp;
On the 50/50 split&#8230; 

I think people have to be cautious about this 50/50 split. This is, as far as I&rsquo;m concerned, a PR gimmick: it sounds great on paper but everyone should be asking themselves &lsquo;50/50 of what?&rsquo; Everything&rsquo;s relative, it sounds great but if there&rsquo;s omissions by them [the owners] from what&rsquo;s included in HRR [hockey related revenue] then we&rsquo;re making 45 per cent. &nbsp;You have to be careful when you hear the words &lsquo;fifty-fifty&rsquo;. I don&rsquo;t really like it. For them it&rsquo;s a PR gimmick.&nbsp;
Is this a PR effort to turn fans against the players? 

I&rsquo;m sure that&rsquo;s what they&rsquo;re trying to accomplish. At least they&rsquo;ve made a proposal; we feel like we&rsquo;ve been sitting on nothing for a while, that we&rsquo;ve been doing the majority of the work, coming to them with creative ideas, with different things and we feel like they haven&rsquo;t really taken us seriously. For them to counter and submit their own now, it&rsquo;s something we can work with.&nbsp;

&nbsp;<img width="500" height="296" alt="" src="https://canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/Image/cory-schneider-kevin-bieksa-alexei-ponikarovsky-2011-12-15-21-17-36.jpg" />
After today's late-morning skate at UBC, Kevin Bieksa and Corey Schneider fielded a bevy of questions about this morning's CBA proposal from the NHL owners. What follows is a selection of questions and answers from the reporters (including yours truly) about what Bieksa and Schneider had heard and read about the day's developments.
A quick reminder, these quotes were given prior to the Donald Fehr and the NHLPA executive committee talking tonight.&nbsp;
Read on past the jump.
<h3>Cory Schneider's Reaction</h3>
Is this a significant offer?
It is in principle, the fact they came towards us, is a very good sign. The dollar amount is significant, but is something they were trying to take away from us. &nbsp;It&rsquo;s a little tough to look at it as a concession from them; it&rsquo;s making their demands less demanding. I think overall it&rsquo;s definitely a good sign. If it&rsquo;s true, that this is the deal they&rsquo;ve proposed, that&rsquo;s a good thing, however by no means does that mean we are just going to say &lsquo;yes&rsquo; right away. &nbsp;We have to look at it and I&rsquo;m sure we have to do some things on it.
Is the proposal to still play 82 games a good sign?
Sure of course it is, it would mean players don&rsquo;t miss paycheques and owners don&rsquo;t miss out on revenue if the games aren&rsquo;t cancelled. I&rsquo;m sure this deal is contingent on us agreeing in the next however-long. If they can&rsquo;t get the season started by November 2nd the deal&rsquo;s off the table. &nbsp;I&rsquo;m sure it&rsquo;s something along those lines. &nbsp;If that&rsquo;s the case, I&rsquo;m sure we&rsquo;ll have to go over it really quickly and probably try to get back to them with an answer.&nbsp;
Are you excited you could be playing soon?
You can&rsquo;t get too excited yet, this could still take a long time; by no means is this a done deal. If they&rsquo;d made a move towards us every time we&rsquo;d made a move towards them, this would have been done a long time ago. It&rsquo;s a good sign, it&rsquo;s positive news, let&rsquo;s see where it leads.
What about the length of the proposal, does that factor into how the proposal will be understood?
Labour peace is a good thing. As long as we feel it&rsquo;s a deal that, over the course of six years, will leave the game in a good spot and that we&rsquo;ll won't have to come back again in six years and hear the same &lsquo;we need more, we need more, we were too lenient last time.&rsquo; If this gets that done, then we&rsquo;re all for it. If not, we&rsquo;ll talk more.
On the 50/50 percentage of revenue split&hellip;
The player contracting was a huge concern to us, I don&rsquo;t know if they&rsquo;ve come off that a bit, but obviously, to them [the owners] the percentage is the biggest part. To us, it&rsquo;s one of the few big parts; I think contracting and revenue sharing are other key issues for us. It&rsquo;s a hurdle that has to be overcome at some point. It&rsquo;s good that we are heading in the right direction.&nbsp;
Does the news the owners have been using focus groups to frame their messaging say anything about their position?
I&rsquo;m sure they are concerned about their image, a lot of their business is based on marketing and appeal, getting people to come to the rinks and buy their stuff. If people don&rsquo;t look at them positively, it&rsquo;s going to affect their bottom line, so I think it&rsquo;s very obvious that they would want to have a good image. It&rsquo;s like how we [the players] want to present a good image and that we are justified in what we are doing. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s really a surprise.
What&rsquo;s the PR game, then? This is about dollars and cents, why does it matter what the fans think?
There&rsquo;s no game, I just think that we&rsquo;re trying to present the facts and we&rsquo;re trying to present our positions, whether or not people agree with it, it&rsquo;s up to them. But we feel strongly about how we want to get this deal done and ensure that [the deal] is fair for us.
If we can do that and present our case and the fans side with, that&rsquo;s great, but if not, that&rsquo;s fine too, that&rsquo;s their right. We want to hopefully, not alienate them too much that when the game starts up again they&rsquo;ll come back and support us the way they always have.&nbsp;
Do you think the winter classic factor into the owner strategy?
I don&rsquo;t know, you&rsquo;ll have to ask the owners, I&rsquo;m sure it&rsquo;s a big pot of revenue for them and a big marketing tool for the league. Who knows; we&rsquo;re not really sure what they&rsquo;ve been thinking this whole time and I&rsquo;m not really sure what this indicates about that.
<h3>Kevin Bieksa's Reaction</h3>
What are you hoping for when you read the proposal? 

I&rsquo;m hoping to see that we&rsquo;re closer than where we&rsquo;ve been, it has been four weeks and not a lot has happened. Again, I haven&rsquo;t seen the proposal so it&rsquo;s hard for me to comment on it, but hopefully after I do look, they&rsquo;ve made some concessions, and they&rsquo;ve moved closer to us. It&rsquo;s not necessarily a matter of meeting halfway, because I feel they started a lot lower than we did, but getting closer to each other.&nbsp;
On the 50/50 split... 

I think people have to be cautious about this 50/50 split. This is, as far as I&rsquo;m concerned, a PR gimmick: it sounds great on paper but everyone should be asking themselves &lsquo;50/50 of what?&rsquo; Everything&rsquo;s relative, it sounds great but if there&rsquo;s omissions by them [the owners] from what&rsquo;s included in HRR [hockey related revenue] then we&rsquo;re making 45 per cent. &nbsp;You have to be careful when you hear the words &lsquo;fifty-fifty&rsquo;. I don&rsquo;t really like it. For them it&rsquo;s a PR gimmick.&nbsp;
Is this a PR effort to turn fans against the players? 

I&rsquo;m sure that&rsquo;s what they&rsquo;re trying to accomplish. At least they&rsquo;ve made a proposal; we feel like we&rsquo;ve been sitting on nothing for a while, that we&rsquo;ve been doing the majority of the work, coming to them with creative ideas, with different things and we feel like they haven&rsquo;t really taken us seriously. For them to counter and submit their own now, it&rsquo;s something we can work with.&nbsp;

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