I've been saying since this whole thing began that it was nothing short of bizarre for the owners to blame the players because they (the owners) insisted on paying the players too much money.

I have no problem with a player asking for more money than he is worth. I have no problem, either, if an owner decides to PAY a player more money than he is worth. Where the problem begins is when the owner pays the player more money than he is worth, then fucking COMPLAINS about how salaries are killing him.

Making bad business decisions, then suffering the consequences? Yeah, sport ... in the business world, that's called ... umm ... "business". In the world at large, that's called "evolution". Darwin was, as always, right.

This is a great column on the road ahead by Damian Cox of the <i>Toronto Star</i>.

These arguments might hold water if every player was a free agent from 18 years old but arbitration, minimum salaries, one-way contract requirments, 10% raises for retention, etc make it a moot point in my opinion. The CBA was a big, big reason why salaries shot up - it's not just the few high profile signings.

When a team like Montreal signs a RESTRICTED free agent like Theodore to a big money contract because it makes sense for them - he's marketable - their team required a top goalie because they can't score - it was the CBA that basically forced Anaheim and Dallas to pay their restricted free agents Giguere and Turco more money - arbitration would have forced them to. Yes, they could walk away from those deals with nothing but that would have been a huge hole for those teams.

Anyway, in the end, there is no reason to complain when the owners decide to run "their" businesses - if you insist on viewing it that way - differently.

Another thing - the NHL is a monopoly. Why wouldn't they need monopolistic concepts?

If the NHLPA is going to stand firm on this - bring on replacement players. I'll buy tickets.

The NHL is an oligarchy that has to pass the US anti-trust laws, does it not? Internally, it is a closed capitalist group. No monopoly. The business model is theirs, the failure is theirs, the CBA was signed by them and now they act as if the players slipped them a mickie over the last ten years. Davie Keon taught me well on all this, Don, long before the current goofs goofed.

Enjoy your scabs. Your seats will be great and you will be able to start and begin the wave yourself. Post-scab there may be big ice and no grabbing. If it is in the WHA, I am there. Bring on Winnipeg!

Dave Keon taught you this?

Can you name one former player that thinks the PA is right to hold out for more than the league offered?

If it is only a captialist group internally then it is a monopoly viewing it from the perspective of the CBA negotiations.

There will be many in the stands here in Ottawa with me and the scabs will be entertaining to watch - and the Leafs/Sens games will still be great.

Wayne, Mario, Mike Bossy - I dunno. I bet Carl Brewer and all the guys the league screwed on the pension. What has that got to do with the business practices of the team owners? While you are correct on the CBA being a unified agreement, the league is not a monopoly but I do not know what that point is on either. I am not being snarky, Don, I just mean I do not think it is relevant to the issue of the business owners being responsible for their own business errors. They can't suck in the good times and blow in the bad.<p>I hear ant hills can be watched for hours, too ;-)

... and, given the owners' long history of rapaciousness and lack of concern for the fans, your scab Leafs - Sens "hockey" ticket will still cost $100. Of course, you could do what the owners do - pay big money for something of questionable value, then whine about it later. I'll feel as much sympathy for you as I do for them.

I'd personally be surprised if a former player were to stand up and say that players today are underpaid - from the perspective of (to use Alan's example) a Dave Keon, it must be utterly galling to see hackers who wouldn't have been allowed in the dressing room "back in the day" now earning more in a single season - hell, a fraction of a season - than the entire team payroll of the 1967 Leafs.

By the same token, ask Carl Brewer or Ted Lindsay (if you could) if they feel any great sympathy for the owners. I'm sure they'd regale you with stories of that singularly slimy crew of felons, robber barons, and corporate thugs who laid the groundwork for poisoned relations between players and owners that exists today. If you want to see the well-spring of sport's worst labour/management relationship, look no further than the collection of six professional criminals who sit behind Bill Daly, grinning from a portrait on the wall ... no doubt having just looted the pension of another injured journeyman hockey player.

To be fair, the NHLPA has its own practitioner of the black arts in its past with the former Order of Canada holder who will remain nameless (<i>pittui! pittui!!</i>)

Point taken. He, too, is in the Hall of Fame ... yet another reason I have walked past it a hundred times and never darkened its door.

Wayne (aka managing partner of Phoenix) is really backing Bettman. From the CBC: <blockquote class="smalltext">"I did talk to Mario today," said Gretzky. "I had a brief conversation about pretty much what everyone else is talking about, can we believe we're in the situation we're in. Nobody understands why we're in this situation. Nobody has the answer to how we got here or how we're going to get out of here.</blockquote>

Blink. Blink. Blink-ity-blink: <blockquote class="smalltext">"Late Thursday night the NHL requested a meeting with NHLPA representatives in New York," the union said in a statement. Today the NHLPA accepted the invitation and a meeting has been scheduled for Saturday."</blockquote>