NHL Officially Locks Out Players
By Joe Crowley
So it’s officially here. The Lockout started as of Midnight Sept. 15th and the outlook is depressing and pessimistic. As I mentioned before the sticking point doesn’t seem as monumental as the salary cap was just seven short years ago but the NHLPA seems much more unified this time around which just solidifies each side’s reluctance to move towards the middle.
I would like to just write a string of expletives and publish this. I know most casual fans are focused on football right now so the lockout isn’t on the front line of everyone’s mind but that’s all the more reason to get this thing settled. The NHL is the fourth of four “major” sports in the United States and the third lockout in 20 years does nothing but cement their position as the most unstable professional sports league.
I hear that people say that they will stop watching the NHL now and never come back. Maybe they will and I can’t blame them for that, I actually hope they do so the Owners and Players Association feel some sort of retribution for their actions. If I said that it would be an absolute laughable lie though, us diehard fans will be back and immediately just as soon as this gets settled. The Owners know this so they take advantage of our passion for the game and it’s a crying shame. Hockey fans are dedicated and take pride in being fans of sport that not everyone understands and take pride in the fact they played the game with the same passion we watch it with much like soccer fans. That devotion we wear on our sleeves, usually is a great virtue, is what is used against us, and it’s perfectly okay to be angry about it. I’m angry and frustrated about it too. The fact is though, that the money I would normally spend on the center ice package and the money I would normally spend on tickets and merchandise will be reallocated to something else and the NHL won’t get that money. I know, I know…A drop in the bucket to a league that will make 200 million dollars from NBC whether they play or not but it’s the only thing we can do, so I recommend holding out spending money on anything to do with the NHL while the lockout continues even if it’s just for the principle.
My mother always told me life isn’t fair, and I’ve never had a better reason to believe her. I feel worse and worse about this lockout as we get closer and closer to the planned start of the regular season. I thought they would miss some time but would be back by Thanksgiving and at the latest Christmas and this should not change that view because I anticipated it but for some reason it does. I have a really bad feeling about this Lockout and add that to the fact that I thought they wouldn’t cancel the playoffs in 05 does little to minimize my anxiousness.
If you haven’t seen it: the NHL wrote a message to their fans HERE, and the NHLPA put together a rebuttal video HERE. At least they are working of the same offering in this case. Refer to these two previous articles for how we got HERE and where we are HERE. I’d love to give you more information but nothing has changed as the deadline passed.
Evgeni Malkin signed with his hometown KHL team on Sunday after the lockout was official and now we wait for Sidney Crosby and the rest of NHL stars to follow suit.
Oh man, what a disaster.
EXPLETIVE, EXPLETIVE, EXPLETIVE, EXPLETIVE, EXPLETIVE, EXPLETIVE, EXPLETIVE, EXPLETIVE.