The Stanley Cup Finals began Wednesday, and while the cross-country battle between the Los Angeles Kings and New Jersey Devils for the National Hockey League championship plays out on the ice, owners of the NHL’s 30 teams and the union that represents players are gearing up off the ice to begin negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement that will take effect when the current accord expires on September 15.

The inability to strike a timely deal during the last round of labor talks caused the cancellation of the NHL’s 2004-05 season, making the NHL the first major professional sports league in North America to scuttle a season due to labor strife. As it prepares to restart labor talks, the league—which notified the players union in mid-May that it would not renew the current collective bargaining agreement—is keen to avoid a rerun of that fiasco, especially at a time when the continent’s other three major sports have achieved labor peace.

Proskauer Rose labor and employment veteran L. Robert Batterman and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom antitrust practice leader Shepard Goldfein and partner James Keyte are serving as legal outside counsel to the NHL on collective bargaining matters. As previously noted by The Am Law Daily, both firms have long-standing ties to the league.