Blame the Owners for the NHL Lockout.

Christmas is almost upon us and we are still waiting for the NHL owners and players to reach some sort of agreement so that we hockey fans can enjoy some hockey again. As is customary whenever there is a lockout in a professional league, fans are often asked to pick a side; owners or players. Some fans would pick neither and blame them altogether for what has happened. However, I put the blame squarely on the NHL owners.

We had a lockout a few years ago and when both sides reached an agreement, the NHL owners were declared the victors. They got their way in terms of salary cap, salary reductions and the sharing of profit. Well fast forward to now and the owners are back to asking the players to give up more because the current deal isn’t good enough.

Just like I mentioned here during the NBA Lockout last season, the players have every reason to object to conceding more power to the owners. It’s not about greed but about principle. How many times can you keep being forced into accepting bad deals? The owners cannot have my sympathy when they overspent and failed to remain fiscal. It’s hard for me to sympathize with them when a team signs players to $100,000,000 deals that most of the public wouldn’t recognize if they stood in front us at the Wal-Mart checkout lane.

Sadly, the players will have to sacrifice some more again. The good news, it will be on their terms.  For the love of this sport, they have to reach an agreement. However, one of their conditions should be that Gary Bettman must step down. It’s high time this league got a worthy commissioner.  Any new deal would be worthless if that man is allowed to return and be commissioner of this league.

Hopefully a deal can be secured and we’ll have a half season like we had back in 1994-1995. If not, then the owners are the ones who will be killing this league. Us hockey fans have other ways to get over the absence of the NHL via minor league hockey, college hockey or busting out with the NHL ’96 on the Sega Genesis (yeah, fighting is one reason why I picked ’96 over ’94). Get it together NHL Owners and reach a deal with the players this time and then dump Gary Bettman. I want to see my beloved Tampa Bay Lightning back in action.