NHL sides must find way to step back from cliff edge

• Anger is in control of the NHL's negotiating process
• Both sides are so entrenched that it's hard for them to see a solution
• One owner needs to rise up as Robert Kraft did during the NFL talks

The first casualty in all management-labor battles is perspective. The parties always focus on what they are losing, or what they need. No one ever mentions what they have.

That's certainly true in the NHL collective bargaining battle between owners and players. We hear how owners need changes to ensure the NHL is financially viable. We hear how players are being forced to surrender contract rights and are having their earning potential limited.

What we aren't talking about is that NHL has had a 50% revenue growth from the last lockout until this one, with hockey-related revenue growing from $2.1 billion to $3.3 billion. We aren't talking about the fact the average NHL salary been inching toward $2.5 million per season even with a salary cap in place.

We certainly aren't talking about the fact that the game's national footprint is much wider and deeper than anyone thought was possible a decade ago.

Just six months ago, it seemed as NHL was in midst of probably the most exciting business period in league history. Every NHL playoff game was televised nationally. Ratings were up. Sponsorships were up. The NHL's attractiveness and desirability in the corporate world seemed like it was at an all-time high There was buzz about a Winter Classic drawing more than 115,000 to Ann Arbor, Mich. Players are getting paid well. What recession? The NHL seemed poised to enter the golden era.

But with the NHL lockout in its 79th day, it seems as if that has been forgotten.

Anger is in control of the NHL CBA negotiations. Both sides view the other side as being unreasonable when it comes to determining what's fair. There is enough rage on both sides of the argument to fuel the blowing up of the entire season.

That's why Tuesday's meeting between players and owners without Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr is important.

No one expects six owners and six players to truly bargain. The real hope is new voices might bring reason and calm to an negotiation that is top heavy with emotion and distrust.

The hope would be that perhaps a player and/or owner would remind everyone that owners and players will be going over their own financial cliff together if they don't work together.

Players are looking at the possibility of losing more than $1.5 billion in salary if the season is canceled. Even if you accept that some NHL teams will lose less money by not playing, major market teams are losing plenty. More important, owners are risking long-term damage to a sport that seemed to finally be making its mark as a national sport.

The truth is that owners don't know how fans will react if the NHL cancels its season for the second time in eight years.

Both sides are so entrenched in their convictions that they can't see any way to get a deal done. Any outsider looking at this situation would wonder why they can't get one done.

The $182 million separating the two sides is not enough to risk more than $3 billion. The individual contracting rights issues seem more significant, but it's hard not to believe that a compromise could be found if the two sides could view this more as a business negotiation than a war. Currently, they are working too hard to dislike each other.

What is needed on Tuesday is for one owner to rise up like New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft did in the NFL negotiations, to stray from the pack just long enough to say something needs to be done before it's too late.

Maybe it will be a player who will be the hero of these negotiations. Maybe one impassioned speech is all that is needed to show the path to a compromise. Given all of the buzz among players about union decertification, this hope might qualify as a long shot. But sports has taught us that athletes can step up when it is least expected.

If Tuesday's meeting isn't the start of the final push toward a deal, it might signal the beginning of the end of the season. To even have a 48-game season, we would have to start play in late January. We could be in countdown mode soon.

Owners and players don't agree about much these days, but they would have to agree there will be no soft landings for anyone if the NHL goes over the fiscal cliff for second time. Everyone will get hurt badly.