Your reaction to the cancelation

[CheeseHusker]

In my opinion the game's been in trouble for years; it's only now come to a head.

Aging stars. Lemieux, Messier, Yzerman - how old are these guys now? This league's biggest names are all 40-something or close.

Expansion/relocation frenzy. Miami. Tampa. Dallas. Phoenix. Raleigh-Durham. Nashville. Nashville? You kill the Whalers, the North Stars, the Jets and the Nordiques in the process. What did you think would happen, really?

I'm not a Canadian, but I'm smart enough to know that if you kill hockey in Canada, you kill hockey.

The neutral zone trap and goalies looking like the Michelin man, turning every playoff game into a 1-0 snoozefest.

The playoffs themselves just don't seem to have had the same lustre either. Maybe they're just too long anymore - is four rounds of best of 7 really necessary?

[NJTank]

check out my front page if you have not yet for a picture that says it all.

http://www.sportsecyclopedia.com/

[lost_limey]

I'm gutted. This would have been my first full NHL season in North America, and I was looking forward to following the Capitals as they imploded into a collection of individuals with bad chemistry, and now that's denied. I guess there's always the UHL RiverDogs, and perhaps a chance that the nhl shop merch. will be cheaper as there's no season.

,value[V]&set=key[name],value[WHO%20NEEDS]&set=key[number],value[FANS]&set=key[displaysize],value[700]&load=url[http://chains.imageg.net/graphics/dynamic/chains/p1793350_customback.chain]"]What the NHLPA was thinking.

[CaolinaJoe]

I'm Dissapointed. But, the Twin 150's are today and NASCAR starts full force on sunday.

[MC Buffalo]

What I find interesting is a report I heard on a Toronto Radio Station that said that even the majority of Canadians have realized that they don't miss the NHL as much as they originally thought they would.

For all those who thought the problem with the NHL was the apethy in the Southern half of the United States, this lockout has proved that the NHL of the last 5 - 10 years hasn't even been appealing to the most diehard fans of the game.

It appears that what the NHLPA does not realize is that just because you have teams in 30 cities it doesn't make you a "Major" sports league. The NHL has now dropped below NASCAR (with MLS nipping at their heels) as far as Recognition and Respectability as a sports league. The players make way too much money in a sport which generates so little revenue it's not even funny. They should look back at the last 10 - 15 years as what it was.. an artificially inflated era of salaries due to the addition of 9 expansion teams (with all the expansion fee money), consider themselves lucky for having played during this time and move forward with the best interest of the league and future generations of players in mind. All the players hate Bettman but he did create at least 200 more jobs by adding 9 teams during his tenure.

[Phil]

I don't miss it, and I didn't think I would. People find other things to fill the void. Bring it back, and then people will start to realize that they did miss it after all.

I really couldn't be much happier. The game is in a state of disrepair, and what's happening is that they're fixing it. They're not doing a great job in going about it, but hey, it's a high-stakes game. There's no such thing as experience at this level because pretty much nobody there has dealt with anything as big as the future of an entire sport.

Anyway, my personal reaction is similar to Randy Turner's (of the Winnipeg Free Press) today... it isn't a tragedy, this is a triumph. Finally Canadian husbands are finding out they have families on Saturday nights. Finally players will find out that holding out for million bucks more when you've already got 4 just isn't worth it. Finally owners will see that the amount they have to spend is related directly to the amount they bring in... and the fans are the ones paying.

...and finally we have basketball highlights in the first 20 minutes of SportsCentre!

[wheateater]

...or basketball highlights in an eternal loop on 'Score Today' (at least now we will)...

[stimpy]

I am mad now, I wouldn't have been mad if NHLPA never agreed to a salary cap because I was expecting there to be no season from the start. They just brought my hopes up and 6 million dollars are what stopped it. What makes me more mad is that they say the NHLPA would have agreed to the 44 million if it wasn't for some of the cheap owners i.e. Jeremy Jacobs of my Bruins. That guy is so cheap. It makes me mad to know that most of the season they wern't even trying to negotioate, you can tell they didn't want to play. Bettman even said it "We make more money not playing then we do playing." Has much has I hate Bettman, I agree with him the NHL needs a salary cap. The worst part about it is most of the players don't care if there was a cap, it's just the damn NHLPA. This sucks.

[Sterling84]

I didnt search so forgive me if this is being discussed.

Has anyone seen the MSNBC stories about a possible reanimation of the dead season spearheaded by Gretz and Lemieux?