[retrokitten]

Ping.

Not like this is really shocking or even really news. I was surprised that the NHLPA accepted the cap and from news reports I have seen so were most of the players!

But I would have been more surprised if they had actually played this year.

I'm really glad we will get to have Kari Lehtonen for the rest of the AHL season. I cannot wait to see him in the playoffs.

[itsamelman]

Cool! More time for slot cars!

.

[ken5050]

Q: How do you spell NHLPA?

A: PATCO

[dts32041]

And I should care because, after all there is the professional curling league, and professional wrestling to make up the difference?

[Clemenza]

Now if only the NBA can have a similar strike and just GO AWAY, leaving us with the NFL, MLB, NASCAR, and NCAA basketball.

Growing up on Long Island, when the Islanders won four Stanley Cups, I just could never get into hockey.

[piperpilot]

yawn . . . next story, please.

[GSlob]

Well, in the greater scheme of things this is not a catastrophe; the affected people are the players (who could afford it), the owners (who are few) and a lot of lower paid people like ticket collectors, concession holders, service staff and the like. It is these last who are going to be hurt, regrettably - and what do they have to do with the whole mess? One should hope that the dislocation in their lives would be mercifully short-term.

[mhking]

[Texaggie79]

I've been to 4 games this year.

[Jimbaugh]

and no one cares!!!

Keep your money spend it on a book.

[paul51]

Damn you

What did I do?

[headsonpikes]

Bettman, Goodenow - meet your personalized pikes!

AAUUGHH!!! This truly is the winter of our discontent!

[OB1kNOb]

Uh, oh. Looks like hockey really hit the fan !

[Loyalist]

[Former Dodger]

Stupidity on BOTH sides, no douby, but the NHL has suffered under BUTTHEAD Bettman!

Like all sports, the play is so watered down due to expansion, and the officiating is equally watered down. This has allowed too many talented players to get caught up in the "sand skating" that a lot of hockey has become.

Maybe using the "English Premier League" idea, have a "Premier NHL" of 20 teams" and a "1st Division NHL" of 20 teams, with the "bottom 5" able to be relegated to !st Div if they don't measure up, and the top 5 allowed to advance.

[DTogo]

That's why I don't watch or give a crap about pro sports: it's not about the sport but all about the money. And the crowd (players and owners) that money attracts are generally a disgrace.

[freebilly]

NHL Cancels Season

Dang! No Sharks! Now there's nothing to do....

Except go to the wineries, go up to the lake, go bass fishing, go catfishing, go windsurfing, go abalone diving, go crabbing in the bay, go after squid out of Bodega, go surfing, go skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, biking, running, walking, hiking,

gee there's nothing to do....

[marshmallow]

Any chance they'll cancel nest season as well?

[Atomic Comet]

The nhl has been out of business for the last ten years or more. Or didn't anyone notice?

Next league to reach irrelevance? The NBA.

I can't wait. Good riddance to them both.

AC

[Zhangliqun]

I think they had an unrealistic view of being able to expand the fan-base beyond Canada and northern USA. They tried putting it on Fox on Sunday afternoons with a "flaming puck" so novices could see where the puck was at all times. It flopped. The Atlanta Flames flamed out and had to move to Calgary. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Kings and the Ducks leave So Cal in the next few years. (How they've been able to keep teams in places like Dallas and San Jose I'll never know.)

Teams have been successful in the South and Southwest only in big cities where there are a lot of transplants from the Northeast and Upper Midwest. They will never bring in the local natives in NC (where I'm from), Georgia, Louisiana, Arizona, etc., for the simple reason that growing up in the South (like me) you don't have ponds that freeze often enough or thick enough to go out and play on it.

Hockey will always be a regional sport, at least in the US.