Time to Speak Out on the NHL Lockout

There has been no serious effort to reach a new NHL collective agreement. The few negotiating sessions that did take place were obvious charades, as each side emerged from each meeting spouting the usual refrains.

Since the lockout began, we have heard only platitudes, pieties and rhetoric. In their public statements, the personalities driving this lockout have shown themselves to be blinkered, pig-headed, dogmatic and insufferably vain. There has been no attempt to resume negotiations.

Don't tell us there is no point in talking because you can't agree on anything. Competent bargaining teams try to break such stand-offs by considering new alternatives, inviting third party input, re-thinking the issues, or otherwise demonstrating creativity and commitment. Such qualities are apparently in short supply in the pro hockey business.

Both parties treat the game with contempt, reducing it to little more than a bargaining tool. In a just world, the next NHL or NHLPA lackey who invokes "the good of the game" to justify the actions of his side would be struck by lightning.

The fans are an afterthought, valued only for their open wallets and ready credit cards, played for fools in a crass public relations war. Not that it comes as any surprise.

If you do not reach an agreement that allows an NHL season to begin by January, will you take the only reasonable option: Admit your incompetence, resign, and make way for someone who has the smarts and the guts to get the job done?