Who do you hate more?

[ken_valyi]

With the lockout of this years NHL season 36 hours away. Focus your hate.

[cASe SenSiTive]

As if you need to ask.

[ChrisFrez]

My focus is directly on the Owners, and Gary Buttman! The Owners are soley to blame for the increases in salaries across the league and Buttman is to blame for all the expansion Teams that he brought into the league and now aren't doing squat!

They've been stockpiling over $300 million dollars for this lockout. Why don't they take that money, and distribute it to the teams evenly that supposedly need it, sign a new CBA, and got on with the SEASON!!! (Whatever happened to business risks eh? Where is the clause that guarantees owning an NHL teams means turns a profit every year????)

[cASe SenSiTive]

Amen to that!

[ken_valyi]

Well said Chris!

[Darth Xed]

I am pretty split on it.

I agree with what Chris said, but you have to remember that it only takes a hand full of foolish owners to ruin it for the rest... for that reason, I generally side with the owners in this issue, otherwise the it'll be impossible for 90% of the teams to be competative in the NHL....

Just my .02.

[cASe SenSiTive]

Al Strachan was on a local sports talk station this afternoon talking about the lockout. He basically layed a lot of the blame on Bettman and his policies. Blamed Bettman for the boring clutch/grab hocky that's out there, because of both expansion, and the desire to keep the high-talent(i.e. high-priced) players from doing their best and thereby earning more money. Said that the league is a joke because a $500,000 player can negate a $10,000,000 player on most nights.

He was also very pessimistic about the lockout. Saying that he expected it to last all season, and possibly longer. And also that when it ends, many of the european players may not bother coming back, since they'll be comfortable playing back home.

[ChrisFrez]

Yup, exactly - I agree with those comments. And look how bad the Detroit economy is gonna get hit when there is no hockey in downtown Detroit. The Detroit News had some great articles in the paper yesterday. Basically every Wings game in Detroit injects about 2.2 million into the local economy. What is gonna happen now?

[ken_valyi]

I think the owners have seriously underestimated how much this is going to hurt their business. Sure, right now a lot of polls are saying that most people, in Canada especially, blame the players for this lockout (which is odd, because the owners locked the players out), but if a season or more is lost to this labour negotiation it won't matter, both sides will be blamed.

Hockey's biggest obsticle States-side has always been recognition. Many Americans don't care who wins the Stanley Cup even if it is their city, and all a labor disruption is going to do is drive away the new and fairweather fans. Baseball still hasn't gotten all of their fans back after their '94 strike, particularly in Canada, where the Toronto Blue Jays lead the league for years in attendance.

If this goes longer then the last strike, Hockey may be losing more franchises then just the storied Penguins.

[Richard Cabeza]

Bettman sucks and needs to go back to the NBA. The NHL is a circus because of him. 1 point for an OT loss? Give me a break. You suck gorilla dong, Bettman.

[Standup Canuck]

Gary Bettman. No doubt