As the National Hockey League lockout continues, and time goes by, the treat of losing the entire season is moving into the dangerous stage.   In the past week any hopes of a full season are now gone.   The Winter Classic is now gone, and the All-Star weekend is all but gone.   Frustration levels are at an all time high.  Who really is suffering as this drags on.   The players?  Well maybe a little, but it is somewhat hard to feel bad for a group of guys who make millions of dollars playing a game they love.  The owners?  Well a handful  of owners could care less if they play at all.   The longer they go without playing the less money some of the owners are losing.   How about the fans?  Yes the answer is YES!  I am at my breaking point!

I understand that there is a lot of money on the table, and it is important that a proper deal is made for the future health of the league.   I just think that many have lost sight of what this is about.  If the owners do not get a deal that will benefit the stability of the struggling teams.  Problems will be the result.  More teams will have to move locations, and maybe, just maybe the league will have to contract a few teams.  This will not  help the players.  It will mean that some players will be without jobs.  It is important that the owners get a fair deal for the future health of the league.  The fact is that if the owners all make money the hockey related revenue will go up.  This will result in a higher salary cap, which in turn will make more money for the players.

Well sounds simple, it’s not.  The owners need a good deal for the strength of their franchise.  The players want to make as much money as they can (and I don’t blame them), but do not forget that you are losing money every day that games are not being played.   My suggestion to the players is please stay out of the media.  Put your twitter away!  The tweets that are flying in frustration are not helping.  Focus on negotiations, and get this deal done.  I also do not understand why players are in on the negotiations.  Is that not why you hired Donald Fehr?   I would love to know how the players actually feel about how this negotiations are going.  They need to stay strong, and unified, but I wonder how long before they start to break from the unions stance.  This week (like the past four) will be critical.  I wish that I had a better feeling about how this was going to tune out.  The sports book in Las Vegas have lines at 2:1 that the NHL will not have a season.  This scares me, the odds makers are not wrong very often.  I guess we will see.  The unfortunate part of this whole deal is that the fans (who pay all these guys paychecks) do not have any say at all in this matter.  We just want our NHL hockey back.  Please get this figured out so that the system works for both sides.  A long-term agreement is critical to the health of the sport.