The Damage Is Already Done

Crunch time. Finally.

After about four months of nonsense from NHL owners and NHL players, after all the delays and pointless rhetoric and name-calling and posturing, after pretending that Don Fehr and Gary Bettman are the decision-makers rather than merely the messengers, we’re now down to the nub of the matter.

Do a deal in the next few weeks and have a partial season.

Or don’t.

Seriously, just yes or no. We understand both sides have a deep and abiding distrust and even dislike for one another, peculiar since owners and players have done a pretty good job over the past seven years of putting lots and lots of greenbacks in each other’s pocket.

We all know the history, and we all know that each side believes the other side hasn’t negotiated in good faith.

Now, just tell us yes or no.

We understand clearly that there will be no winners and losers out of all this. Everyone and everything involved has suffered real and lasting damage, and there’s no result possible that will make any noticeable difference in the game, the fan experience, the success of franchises in non-hockey markets or the overall status of the modern NHL player.

Owners have been revealed one more time to be grasping and hypocritical, with little or no abiding interest in the good of the game. They blame the players for their screwups, then expect the union to offer givebacks. Even the moderates have been pushed into the hawk camp, the entire NHL approach has to be lawyer-centric and the union has successfully portrayed those who sign the cheques as liars and cheats.

And the players? The damage done by the moronic words of Kris Versteeg and Ian White, by the bricks of bills images put on social media by Evander Kane, by players stealing jobs in Europe then bolting for home, by the non-sensical legal threats and by the sour milk spilled by Kyle Turris will have a much more lasting impact than the moderate, clear thinking words of Sidney Crosby and Kevin Westgarth or the charitable good done by a few exhibitions.

Once hockey players were seen to be different. Just good, honest boys happy to play for the love of the game.

Poof! — gone forever. Pervasive social media has given fans and media a window into the way NHLers think, and for the most part, it has not been a flattering view.