The NHL Season is basically gone and still, hockey players have yet to set a foot on the ice and fans have yet to actually use the tickets they bought for the season. All regular-season games are now cancelled through November 30, 2012 and the rest are going too, unless the NHL and the NHLPA can put their big boys' panties on and get things figured out. The two parties have been meeting to to hammer things out but no one really knows what they have been talking about.
Here's what we do know. In 1992 the NHL went on strike and cancelled 30 games of the 91-92 season. In 1994 there was an NHL Lockout (Kind of what we're dealing with now) which shortened the regular seasons to 48 games per team with no interconference games. In 2004 another NHL Lock out which cancelled all of the games in that season. Now, in 2012, this NHL Lock out started September 15th with no end in sight.
When NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was asked to comment on what was happening by The Canadian Press, he replied, "I don't really have much to say. We met with the player's association the last three days and we're planning on meeting again tomorrow. But I'm not going to discuss the negotiations or substance of what we're talking about. I really don't think that would be helpful for the process."
Leave it to the higher ups to be vague and uncorporative.
What is happening here?
I mean seriously.
You're telling me that for three months, a bunch of grown men cannot put their heads together and figur something out? At this point this whole sordid mess is like a couple of teenage best friends getting into an argument and not talking for ten years, then meet each other again ten years later and cannot even remember what the argument was about. To me it's pointless. No one knows what they're talking about so no one can make suggestions as to how they are to fix the problem(s). In my head, I keep seeing that episode of The Simpsons where the teachers cancelled class for a caucus meeting and when it flashes to their meeting they're at a posh skii lodge, drinking martinis and dancing around in a Kongo line singing "Caucus! Caaaaucus! Caaaaucus!"
Toronto Maple Leafs fans are doubly screwed because not only will they never see a Stanley Cup ever in most of our life-times, they have no games to watch their boys in blue lose a last minute game or see their favorite players play in the winter classic. Oh fun! And still they pack into the Air Canada Centre like a bunch of zombies, carrying signs and starting fights with fans for the other team who have travelled mindlessly from across the border.
I can see the lawsuits coming because thousands of people bought season tickets and with half the season gone, what are they going to do? They paid for a service to which service has not been rendering and they should get their money back plus interest.
There has to be be a body that keeps watch over these NHL people and treat them like children because they are there arguing about whose panties are biggest while everyone else is suffering.
Forget the fans for a second--what about that mom and pop store close to the arenas who depend on the hockey crowd to pay the bills and put food on the table? What about that tour company that has hockey games as a major part of their draw? What about that hotel who depends no hockey groud to keep their doors open? What about that little boy who looks forward to going to a hockey game with his parents every year? This is insane! They only seem to be thinkign about themselves and what will be good for them. I tell you what, if I was making even a fraction of what these people make a year, I would have nothing to go on strike about.
Bottom line is, this has to stop. Either politicians need to get involved or something because the NHL and the NHLPA need to be held accountable for the crap they are dishing on fans and businesses in every hockey team city or town. Someone need to make these people see that when they prance around like a bunch of braying hens and leave fans out in the cold they are consequences.
The fans need to stand up for themselves. I suggest they go on strike one year and refuse to buy tickets--let these people see what it feels like to walk into a stadium and hear a pin drop. But that is too much to ask, isn't it? Why is that you might ask? Well, hockey fans seem to suffer from short term memory loss. Every two years or so, the higher-ups give them the royal middle finger salute yet the moment a player steps on the ice they are there screaming, starting bar fights and throwing crap on the ice. With fans like those, the NHL and the NHLPA can do whatever they want because no one cares. Fans will forever get reamed out of thousands of dollars for tickets (season or singles) and pay perview or special channels to watch it on.
Enough is enough.