I never thought the NHL''s #1 problem was not enough violence. Just too much grabbing and clutching, and not enough wide open play.

The reality as I see it is that if they stay out of business, most owners are better off financially. The players are not. I hope that the owners hang tough and the players get more reasonable. I hope then that baseball owners follow suit.

I think the owners have to try and negotiate with the current union for a specified amount of time before they are legally allowed to bring in other players.

I did however here some of the sports casters talking about how if they don''t sign a deal that there may not even be hockey next year. That suprises me as I would think that by than the NHL would be looking to find replacement players by than.

As far as I am concerned, if the NHL started to bring in replacement players the NHLPA would be screwed. All the newest NHL stars are the young guys hungry to get into the NHL and with some experience they would be just as good if not better than the current batch of stars that are the major problem right now because their salaries are too high.

While this is true and add some blame to the NHL for over expanding a league that was having trouble supporting half the teams it had previously.

It doesnt solve any problems.. You can''t simply say well since the owners are to blame for high salary''s then we have to continue paying the players these high salaries.

That''s a rather myopic take on things. Is the reason Japanese car manufacturers starting outselling American cars strictly the company''s fault? There is plenty of blam to go around, but the reality is that the NHL ""system can''t support the high salaries of these players. They all contributed to the problem. If the players want to be NHL players they will have to realize that they can''t make so much the business end of the NHL fails. The same thing goes for baseball, basketball and football. A few rich owners that care more about winning than losing money have substantially damaged professional sports. Trying to keep up with the rich teams kills smaller teams, which will make the leagues fail eventually. Look at the differences in the popularity changes in football and baseball. parity and the salary cap have a lot to do with it.

I was listening to Minneapolis radio last week and the big talk was that it sounds like they''re planning on hiring *EDIT*other players to come in and start playing late next year after the talks fall through again. The theory seemed to be that the younger, lower paid players would then cross the picket line.

Not to mention that these highly-paid athletes have had no problem going down into lower leagues and taking the jobs of those players.

As neat as seeing Scott Gomez come play here against the Fresno Falcons was, there''s some player on that team who had to pack his bags and leave to make room for Gomez''s minor league moonlighting.

And the owners won''t. Here is the history:

#1. Owners want hard cap.
#2. Players come back with their ""salary cut"" proposal
#3. Owners want hard cap.
#4. Players propose a luxury tax system, and not one like baseball I think it was 60% tax on salary over a certain lvl (basically just taxing the Rangers and a few others).
#5. Owners put a deal together that agrees with the luxury tax system, but one of the clauses is that ""Once that system failed we will instill a hard cap. Oh, and we will define failing.""
#6 Players reject this, knowing that the owners want a hard cap or nothing.

The owners don''t just magically know what is ""good for hockey"", they know what is good for their business. They want what the NFL has and the players don''t (I know I wouldn''t).

If the union stands strong next year, the owners will crack. If they cross the line, then a hard salary cap is in the future. Frankly I think they should contract to about 16-20 teams, open up the ice, take out the red lines, no more clutch and grab, and let them play like the Europeans. Even then they are going to have a hard time filling the seats.

Am I the only one who wants a salary cap just to make the player management system better in Hockey Video Games?

Hahaha, Magnus! My guttural laughter rang through the house.

I don''t know. At least here in Vancouver the Canucks try there hardest to make it seem like they are part of the community. They got Canuck Place for sick kids and Trevor Linden is always helping out in the community.

Here in Chicago, willing to bet the Wolves draw much more of a crowd than the Blackhawks for years...

What''s hockey - isnt that Canadian for spitting?

A pity acclaim isn''t around anymore to make the officially licensed game.

I''m thinking they''ll hash something together and salvage a 35-40 game season with a smaller playoff selection with one less playoff round.

Let the healing begin!!

I rewatched the 7 game TB Philly playoff series from last year and remember what good hockey is all about...

that was a great series.