Gongshow Hockey › No NHL....

Just like that brand new car you wanted for Christmas last year where you knew the disappointment was coming right from the beginning but you still held out a hope that Santa would be generous as well as jolly, the NHL season has officially been cancelled.. Although the PA and the league came ohhhh-sooo-closssse to closing a deal, it became apparent after the original shock of Goodenow accepting a cap that this proposal by the NHL was nothing more than another attempt to save face in the lights and camera of the media. When the NHLPA shocked everyone by accepting a salary cap, most would have thought that it was â€œall good,â€ as they say, and that a deal could surely be reachedâ€¦

But as always, Bettmanâ€™s hypothetical rhetoric took charge as he scrambled for a reason to reject the PAâ€™s offer now that it included a capâ€¦in the end it was rejected because â€œif every team spent up to the $49-million capâ€, the league would be in a hole financially. Then it came down to Goodenow to point out that very few teams spend that much, and so Bettman was just relying on useless rhetoric as he normally does.

Itâ€™s time for a change.

The fact that we the fans, the fans who buy the tickets, buy the merchandise, buy the overpriced food and drinks at the rink, watch the broadcastsâ€¦we are the ones that put so much money into the league (or at least our parents areâ€¦), yet we have no power over getting Gary Bettman out of his position as commissioner. What does it take?

Itâ€™s not only disgruntled fans like myself either, as Mike Modano was quoted as saying "The NHL has totally deteriorated the last 10 years under Gary's regime, the game isn't like it used to be. Now we're asked to fix a lot of people's problems, and as players we don't feel we should do that."

This has been the problem all along-Gary Bettman and the NHL have been talking so much trash in the media trying to take the heat off of the fact that theyâ€™ve been the stubborn bastards stopping any type of deal by not negotiating. The fact that the NHLPA, after all this time, decided to accept a cap although it was against everything that they were fighting for; just to SAVE THE SEASONâ€¦and the only major terms proposed by the NHLPA that was accepted by the NHL was the 24% rollback, shows you who cares about the game and who cares about themselves.

I can only hope that no more hockey is lost, and that Gary Bettman gets lost.

Moral of the Story: "He's a lawyer, he's a New Yorker, he's not a person of tall stature, so he makes a perfect villain, so they tried to vilify him. I know what he's offered. He has not been the problem."â€¦said Dallas owner Tom Hicks. Yeah Bettman hasnâ€™t been the problemâ€¦the fact that heâ€™s representing a bunch of idiotic owners that spend their asses off and then complain about the economics of the game is the problem. Moron.