If you're a Flyers fan today, your emotions runt the board from excitement to dejection.
On one hand, you love that Wayne Simmonds, a guy who wears his heart on his sweater every night, got a 6-year contract extension from the Flyers.
At the same time, you realize you might not see him this season. There could be a lockout.
There's not a lot of great news to report these days because every contract signing is tempered with the possibility that player may not be on the ice at all if there is a lockout.
It took the NHLPA a little more than a month to digest the obnoxious proposal by the NHL that would require them to bend over and take another foot to the backside in a new CBA.
Donald Fehr didn't get angry, didn't get smart ass, didn't do anything other than to wait for the right time to respond and handed the owners an interesting "alternative" to consider.
And what happened? It took NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman roughly a day - 24 hours _ to turn it down.
When the union made its proposal on TUE afternoon, by the time I had gotten home - around 7 p.m. _ I been told that a number of owners had already told Bettman it would not fly.
"It" is revenue sharing. One-third of the NHL absolutely feels it has to greatly expand. Another third want it moderately expanded, if at all. And one third absolutely is against it.
The rich teams don't want to fork over more of their hard-earned dollars. The Flyers look at this way:
They gave NSH a check this summer for $1 million in revenue sharing. NSH used that money to help match the Shea Weber offer sheet. Which is why rich clubs like the FLyers are against any inflation on revenue sharing.
Unless the NHL gets a little more charity conscious with its brethren, we're in for a decent length of a work stoppage.
Simmonds was asked twice today about his thoughts on a lockout and he remained optimistic that it won't happen. I doubt many players share his sentiments.
He was, however, ecstatic at re-signing here.
Here's a link to CSNPhilly.com and some stories, including Simmonds reaction:
click here 
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger • 
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