In the end, it was less a strike and more a hiccup.
A week ago, on the day after Christmas, professional hockey players in the ECHL went on strike. A day later, the Professional Hockey Players’ Association, the union that represents the players, announced a tentative agreement had been reached with the league. The players ratified the five-year collective bargaining agreement Tuesday.
The strike postponed three Maine Mariners games last weekend. Home contests against Worcester and Trois-Rivières will be rescheduled, along with a game at Trois-Rivières.
On Wednesday, the Mariners played their first game back, a 3-2 overtime loss in Glens Falls, New York, to the Adirondack Thunder.
Friday afternoon’s game against Adirondack drew 4,229 fans to Cross Insurance Arena, all pleased the team was back on the ice.
Brett Goodnow, of Westbrook, is a Mariners season-ticket holder. He didn’t want to see games lost to a prolonged strike, but Goodnow also sympathized with the players.
“I was dumbfounded to find out the bus rides from one game to the next counted as their day off,” Goodnow said. “I couldn’t believe they called a nine-hour bus ride a day off.”
Aaron Graves, of Windham, is also a season-ticket holder. He was disappointed it took a strike for the players to get change.
“I was upset that it had to get to that point (of a strike),” he said. “I was hopeful it would get resolved quickly.”
Wyllum Deveaux, the Mariners’ captain and union rep, said the team was pleased the strike was settled quickly. He pointed out that the Mariners are treated well by owner Dexter Paine and team management. The team provides apartments in the Scarborough Downs development and the best playing equipment.
That treatment should be the norm across the ECHL, Deveaux said, rather than the exception. A strike is a decision of last resort. Nobody begins good-faith negotiations planning to strike. To the players, it was apparent it was the only way to gain traction for change.
“We don’t want to miss hockey games. It hurts everyone. We struck a deal we believe is fair, and will help and be sustainable to the league, the teams and the players in the long term,” Deveaux said. “It’s a lot of things we’re lucky to have in Maine, and making that universal and uniform around the entire league, making sure players are protected in health, safety and travel.”
One sticking point was making sure every player gets a helmet that fits properly, Deveaux said. The new deal also includes pay raises, better medical benefits and mandated rest periods, with regular days off following long road trips or games on consecutive days.
Consider this scenario: You play Saturday in Portland. Exhausted, you climb on to a bus for a five-plus-hour bus ride to Quebec, where you might have a little time to rest before you play another game.
What a fan sees as entertainment, the players see as a physically demanding job in which it’s next to impossible to perform at a high level because their bodies don’t have time to rest between games.
From the ECHL’s perspective, weekends are when the fans are more likely to fill arenas. Ticket sales drive revenue, and without revenue, there is no league. That means most games are on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So you get fatigued players taking the ice on Sunday after a long bus ride, less than 24 hours after back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday.
“Listen, it’s the ECHL. Part of it is a grind, and we love that grind. It’s what we signed up for. But I think a couple travel limits here and there can help the safety of the players. That was the main point. I don’t think we’re being greedy,” Deveaux said.
Before the game, the team played a message from Deveaux on the scoreboard above center ice. It was a thank you from the players to the fans for the messages of support they’ve sent, and for sticking with the team.
It drew loud applause.
