Scenes from a secret negotiating table...

As word spreads of a secret destination for today's get together between the NHL and the NHLPA, we're kind of struck as to how these negotiation sessions are starting to resemble the plot line of that  classic old Billy Joel standard, Scenes from an Italian restaurant.

And while we understand that it's Bill and Steve today, we're hopeful that perhaps today's get together is somehow like two old friends brokering a reconciliation for their struggling friends...

So for dramatic licence, Insert Donny and Gary for Brenda and Eddie, and well you can all kind of follow along if you wish...

 For those that wish to sing along, open this link in a seperate window and warm up your vocal chords... 

The preamble to the negotiations perhaps? 

A bottle of white, a bottle of red, 
Perhaps a bottle of rosé instead. 
We'll get a table near the street 
In our old familiar place 
You and I - face to face 

A bottle of red, a bottle of white 
It all depends upon your appetite 
I'll meet you any time you want
 In our Italian Restaurant. 

Gary and Donny, Catching up on the months that went by...


Things are okay with me these days 
I got a good job, I got a good office 
I got a new wife, got a new life And the family is fine 

Oh we lost touch long ago 
You lost weight  
I did not know 
You could ever look so nice after so much time. 

Do you remember those days hanging out at the village green? 
Engineer boots, leather jackets and tight blue jeans 
Oh you drop a dime in the box play a song about New Orleans 
Cold beer, hot lights, my sweet romantic teenage nights 


And a little background about our two star crossed negotiators..

Brenda and Eddie (Donny and Gary) were the popular steadies 
And the king and the queen of the prom 
Riding around with the car top down and the radio on 
Nobody looked any finer 
Or was more of a hit at the Parkway Diner 
We never knew we could want more than that out of life 
Surely Brenda and Eddie(Donny and Gary) would always know how to survive.

Brenda and Eddie (Gary and Donny) were still going steady in the summer of '75 
When they decided the marriage would be at the end of July 
Everyone said they were crazy 
"Brenda (Donny) you know that you're much too lazy 
and Eddie (Gary) could never afford to live that kind of life." 
Oh, but there we were wavin' Brenda and Eddie (Donny and Gary) goodbye. 


Looked good for a while there, but Oh, oh, oh!  But there's trouble on the way... 

Well they got an apartment with deep pile carpets 
And a couple of paintings from Sears 
A big waterbed that they bought with the bread 
They had saved for a couple of years 
but they started to fight when the money got tight 
And they just didn't count on the tears. 

Well, they lived for a while in a very nice style 
But it's always the same in the end 
They got a divorce as a matter of course 
And they parted the closest of friends 
Then the king and the queen went back to the green 
But you could never go back there again 

Oh, oh Brenda and Eddie (Donny and Gary) had had it already by the summer of '75 
From the high to the low to the end of the show 
For the rest of their lives 
They couldn't go back to the greasers 
The best they could do was pick up their pieces 
We always knew they would both find a way to get by 
Oh and that's all I heard about Brenda and Eddie (Donny and Gary) 
Can't tell you more 'cause I've told you already 
And here we are wavin' Brenda and Eddie  (Donny and Gary) goodbye 

Yeah, it  leaves us all where we are right now, waiting to hear if those two crazy kids can patch it up and live happily ever after...

Or at least until the next contract, whenever it come about, expires..

A bottle of red, a bottle of white, 
Whatever kind of mood you're in tonight I'll meet you anytime you want 
In our Italian Restaurant.

We'll see how it all turns out this weekend, will the secret get together bring them closer together, or...

Is the next Billy Joel song on the NHL/NHLPA jukebox this one?

Time will tell.

(Words and lyrics from Billy Joel, Scenes From an Italian Restaurant, Album: The Stranger)