My Lockout Story

Robert-Tampa

2005-01-31T21:23:00.001-08:00

One of my earliest memories, at five years old, was
seeing the highlights and celebration surrounding the
1980 Miracle on Ice.

This event turned me on to hockey, and as I grew
older, I came to appreciate the politics of the time
and the magnatude of the upset.

As a Tampa Bay Lightning fan who suffered through four
consecutive 50 loss seasons. Last year's playoff run
was a second "Miracle on Ice."

It was a miracle that a team from Tampa Bay could win
hockey's greatest trophy, and it was beautiful to see
Ruslan Fedotenko from The Ukraine, and Pavel Kubina
from Checkoslovakia, two players born into the
oppressive Soviet Socialist Eastern Bloc, embrace on
the cover of the following days St. Petersburg Times.

The NHL (players and owners) need to take
responsibility for the fact that they represent a
beacon of freedom for the rest of the world. No league
is as diverse in nationality and language as the NHL.

Arguably these cultural issues, and the fact that so
many young stars leave home without an education,
allow the union to negotiate against the best interest
of their rank and file, while the owners promote a
NFL-style salary cap, sans NFL-style revenue sharing.

Both sides think they can get away with it. If this
hockey season comes and goes without a single game
played it will be because Bettman and Goodenow have
the players, and each other, pegged as fools.

It will be a shame if the NHL is destroyed by two
lawyers who fail to have perspective of the importance
of the game in North America.

Without the NHL, the greatest non-political
repercussion of the Miracle on Ice, loses all of it's
meaning for hockey players around the world. The dream
of hockey players, their families and thier fans, to
live free in Canada and the U.S.

Without the NHL, there will be no million dollar
contracts, no 200 Million dollar franchises. The
league will not stand a chance to start over in the
US.

The NHL inherited a lot from those college kids who
played over their heads in Lake Placid, NY.
Bettman and Goodenow will never be forgiven if they
fail the game.

NFL-Style Cap, NFL-Style Revenue Sharing. Keep the
Miracle alive.

=====
Robert

Cathy-Ohio

2005-01-31T21:23:00.000-08:00

Hello,
First, I just want to thank you for trying to give
some positive news to all of us hockey fans.
My husband and I met at a Toledo Hornets, IHL, hockey
game 35 years ago. I had never been to a game before,
but a friend asked me to go, so I did. My husband
played as a kid, and he had just came home from Viet
Nam and could hardly wait to get to a game. From that
day on, hockey has been a very important part of our
lives. We went to my first NHL game on our honeymoon.
Our son started to playing at 5 years old. He played
travel for years and lived in Canada for a year and
played for a junior team. Our daughter was the only
girl player in a all boys league, until they started
checking age and I made her quit HA! We also had one
of the goalies from the Toledo Goaldigger live with us
for about 5 years. Now we have two little grandsons
who are playing hockey.
We have been avid fans of the Detroit Red Wings for
a long time, even before it became popular to do so.
This lockout is just devastating! I will not even
pretend to understand the economics behind all of
this, nor do I care. While reading message boards, and
news reports on all the websites I can find, all you
hear are people taking sides, mostly against the
players. I truly don't understand this and it makes me
mad. Don't people understand what these men had to go
through to be where they are? They didn't just walk
into the arena one day and say here I am! I am ready
to play! I understand that owners are out to make
money and deserve to do so, but what is cost
certainty? Where in the free world does anyone who
starts a business have that?
In any event this situation feels like to me that a
close family member is dying a slow death and there is
nothing I can do to make him better.
Thanks for listening!
Cathy

Ron-Maryland

2005-01-31T21:22:00.000-08:00

I know you'll probably get who knows how many emails tonight. But here's my take...and how I feel.

I think everyone that's a fan of the sport is dissappointed with the current situation. There's guys on my Men's adult team that say things like why are they going over seas and taking pay cuts....and they can't do that here???? Why do they have to make 70% + of the profits....even if they make 50% + that's still unheard of. You don't see the players in the NFL making that....Not even in baseball I don't think unless you're with the Yanks.....

How this has affected me....well....you miss it. I have my first kid on the way in May and I really wish she wouldn't be coming into a world without the sport I've played since I was three years old. That's 26 years I've played it and been around it. I thought the lockout after the Rangers/Canucks season was going to do me in. Of course that was the first season I got my Caps season seats. Now I'm actually considering letting my ticks go for the first time ever...yes I still have them. Anyhoo....to make a long story short, my wife and I make ends meet by making say.....$80,000 a year between the two of us and with her going part time that number with an additional mouth to feed will drop to 55,000 to 60,000 probably for the YEAR. I've got to watch a guy here in DC....formally like a Jaromir Jagr making 134,146.34 a freakin game....(11,000,000 / 82 games) and not producing to those numbers...heck he's wasn't even the best player in the league...and now that's totally tanked our entire team....At least the fire sale worked out and brought us a boat load of pics and Ovechkin....still Big Al O hasn't taken to MCI Center Ice yet...so who knows if it did indeed work out. We let go a guy like Ken Klee who was fantastic to Toronto....cause we didn't want to give him a small raise compared to Jagr's paycheck. Anyhoo...for the 11,000,000 that we paid for him...that probably would have been say 3 to 4 more talented guys...alright, sorry about the rant and raves.....

I'm hopeful that they get a clue....so that way my kid can see what NHL hockey is, hopefully with the touch up offsides back...but I won't get to picky right away. :-)

I wish I ran and was a part of a 2.1 billion dollar business and could sabatoge it down to a...maybe 1 billion dollar business if they're lucky.

At least there is baseball back in DC...Go NATS!
And I've actually watched a couple of Wizards games...they may even make the P-Word...don't say it....it doesn't happen often for them.......

David Stern may be behind this whole thing...cause now his guys have everyone's attention cause no one that doesn't follow hockey, your casual fan cares about this dispute probably....
I still do....but I'd like to read about a box score as well sooner or later.

Thanks for listening to my late night banter.

Ron

New Jersey

2005-01-31T21:21:00.000-08:00

Well, this may not be a story, but this is how its affecting me.

For basically my whole life I've been watching the Devils. I even
remember my first game from when I was 4. As I type this now, i look
to my right and see pictures from game 4 against the Red Wings in the
1995 Stanley Cup Finals that my dadhad taken at the game. I see Shawn
Chambers scoring a goal from the circle, the clock running down the
final seconds to the Devils first championship, and a picture of the
celebration at center ice. I was fortunate to be able to witness that
event from home in my lifetime, as well as 2 more Stanley Cups,
especially in 2003, when i was in attendance for the final game 7.
Some of the best memories of my life involve the NHL. But
unfortunately, that is all they will be it appears. Just old
memories, as there is no NHL around to create new ones. One thing
i've always been able to look forward to was when fall changed into
winter, and hockey season started to heat up. The Jets season was
ending, Nets season was still in its first couple months of a
torturous year, and baseball was still months away. But i always had
hockey to turn to. I stayed with hockey through the labor issues in
94-95, because i knew it would be back. I stayed with my team when
there were rumors everywhere that they could be packing up and moving
to Nashville, and hoped for the best. I stayed with it no matter how
many ups and downs my team had throughout the years because i loved
the sport for what it was. A high paced game full of excitement from
the moment the puck drops until the final horn sounds. I put aside
the pain of defeat every season because I knew there would always be
next year. I sit here now, and it appears i'm still waiting for next
year. The year after that isn't even such a sure thing now. This
lockout has hurt many fans around the world. The players and the
owners are all arguing over money in a sport where the money they
argue over comes from the people they have alienated throughout this
process. The fans. Without the fans, the league will not survive.
You have to wonder if the league even wants to survive with the way
its treating the fans throughout all of this. Its sad to see that
everyone in these negotiations comes to the table thinking "what am I
going to get out of this," instead of thinking "what will the fans get
out of this." We may not know what the players and owners want, but
everyone knows what the fans want. They want the sport they love and
cherish back as soon as possible. Instead of focusing on themselves,
both sides should find a common ground, to meet the demands of its
supporters around the world. Its sad when grown men playing a kids
game for a living go from playing for the fun of the game, to
negotiate their way to being able to get a bigger mansion, or a faster
car. Instead of playing for the fans, they're focusing on the bank
accounts. For the owners, who get to be a part of the greatest game
in the world to go from putting their teams out there and caring for
their loyal fans, to trying to keep their wallets just full enough
that they don't quite burst at the seams. I understand the league is
a business, but both sides need to look at this thing from another
perspective. Players are worrying about only making a 1-2 million,
instead of 3-4 million a season. These guys complain about making
more money in one year than many people will see in a decade. The
people who won't see nearly this much money are the people paying
their salaries. The owners, worrying about their own pockets instead
of the customers who help their business run. Many people spend their
hard earned money just to get nosebleed seats to see their favorite
team play, and now the teams won't be playing because the players
don't feel they make enough? Or because they owners don't trust
themselves not to spend themselves into a bigger hole? All of this
arguing over themselves, and forgetting about those who have paid
their salaries, and supported their business for years.

I don't have anything else without the NHL around. Baseball is months
away, football season is over, and the new owner of my basketball team
wants to take that away from New Jersey too. The longer this lockout
goes, the fewer fans that will remain standing. I hadn't watched a
single hockey game since the Stanley Cup finals ended last June, up
until the other day. I decided to go to one of my high school's
hockey games. The talent level was rather awful, but i'm going to go
whenever possible. The games aren't as exciting, the players aren't
nearly as talented, but i'll keep going. Why? The guys playing are
in it for the love of the game. Not for their wallets. Finally.
Someone who has the right idea about it.

Brian-Nashville

2005-01-31T21:19:00.001-08:00

Eklund,

I am a fan that lives in Nashville. We have had hockey in one form or the other in our city for the last 25 years. Even before that there was minor league hockey here in the 1960s. Nashville is not a traditional hockey market by the "original six" terms. Nashville is a small market. We do not have the big money to spend on high priced free agents. We will be benefited greatly by a salary cap. The hockey world saw last season how the city and the area embraced the team when they made the playoffs last year. The three home games were all sold out. That ought to prove that if the product is competetive then the people will come. The five years of losing in the fanchise formative years made it all worth while when I made my way into the arena for my first playoff game.

The momentum that was gained from the playoffs was great. There was much more interest in the team and season ticket sales were up...even with the lock-out looming. How does all of this make me feel now? The total lack of concern from the NHL or the NHLPA for me and how I suffer. I do not make alot of money but I made my choice on which team to support. I could have easily given my money to the NFL team here. I knew that there was a chance that I could see the playoffs every year. Many people in this area did this very thing. I did not. I gave my money to a new team. A franchise that I knew would struggle. A franchise that I knew would lose alot of games in their first few years. I gladly did this. I made my thirty minute drive to the arena every game. Some weeks there would be three home games. I didn't mind this. I knew that it would all payoff eventually. I got the opportunity to see the "Great One" play and also "Super Mario." Would I have had this chance if the NHL was not here...NO. Last season as the team was in contention for a playoff spot me and a friend of mine drove to St. Louis to watch Nashville play. That is a five hour drive. This was the first time I had ever gone to see the team play on the road.

Now the season is slipping away. I do not have a team to watch. If I want to see Nashville players then I am going to have to go to Europe or to Milwaukee to watch their minor league team. Does the league really care that I do not have a team to root for? Do they really care that I am satisfied with what they have told me? Does the NHLPA care that I am not going to the games? Do they care that the money that I would have spent would have gone to pay their salary? The team owner has sent me a letter to say to be patient that all we work out they best for the future of the franchise. On the other hand, the league nor the union has sent me a letter to express their concern for me. Do I exist to them? Do they care that I am suffering also?

Whatever happens I do not think that either party will do anything in the future to breach the way I have been treated. I feel that my opinion does not matter. If that is the case then why should I welcome the NHL back when this is all resolved. Maybe I will lock the NHL out of my wallet. Maybe I will think twice about giving my money to any team in the NHL.

Thanks for hearing me out and you can gladly use my name to the NHL and NHLPA. What can they do to me now that has not already been done. My entire year has been shot because the sport that I love is not here. The team that I have supported is not playing and the way things are going are not going to play.

A frustrated Nashville Predator season ticket holder,

Brian

Los Angeles

2005-01-31T21:19:00.000-08:00

I live in Los Angeles and fell in love with the game of hockey in 1987. I certainly became ecstatic when the “Great One” came to Los Angeles, I purchased season tickets and started buying hockey memorabilia like it was going out of style. I subscribed to SportsChannel to watch more hockey, I went out and bought a satellite dish to watch more hockey. I became a complete fanatic of the sport, I got my whole family and all of my friends into the sport and we have enjoyed it as a major part of our lives for the past 15+ years. Two of my friends went on to become ushers at the Kings games at the forum, then on to jobs for the Kings at the Staples Center. My younger brother’s birthday is in October and all he has wanted for his birthday is a new Kings hat or shirt and to go to the Kings home opener. This has been a tradition for 10 years for us. This year his son is old enough that he wanted to take him to his first Kings game. I have noticed a decline in the quality of the product in the last 10 years, but being a diehard, I continue to watch and hope for the best. The last work stoppage was disheartening, but we moved on. This year is different… I waited through the summer hoping for a miracle, when training camps were scheduled to open I hoped for a miracle. My brother’s birthday came and went, we hoped for a miracle. Now Christmas has come and gone and for the first time in over a decade I am trying to forget about the sport that I have been obsessed with for so long. My two friends that worked for the Staples Center have left their jobs due to the lock out. My nephew doesn’t understand why he has to keep waiting to see his first hockey game. My family and friends don’t get together nearly as often as we did when we would get together for hockey night. I can’t understand why the player’s can’t see the writing on the wall and agree to the best possible terms under this situation. I really feel like the player’s don’t give a care at all for the fans that support them. Now the most disappointing part of it all is that I am losing interest in one of the most wonderful things that has ever happened in my life. The lockout could end tomorrow and I am not sure that I would watch the game this season. I am not sure if I would watch it next year. I don’t know if I can get over the roller coaster of emotions this stoppage has forced me to feel and the problem is now I think that I may have been pushed too far. I am afraid that I am “over” hockey. I pray that the enthusiasm will return, but only time will tell.

Eki-Finland

2005-01-31T21:16:00.000-08:00

Hi!

I´m a hockeyfan from Finland and i´ve been reading your blog for a couple of weeks now. I got the adress to your blog from a finnish hockey site called "jatkoaika"(www.jatkoaika.com) and the forums there. There are alot of finnish fans who also read your blog and we have a lot of interest in how the negotiations turn out.
One reason is that we have around 40 nhl-players playin in our main league(sm-liiga) and for the players to disappear now it would be disasterous for some of the teams as we head in to the playoffs in about a month(10-12 games left in reg season). I really have hoped for the season to start as i am an hardcore hockeyfan(by my own standards).
I saw about 70 games last year(a cable network called canal+ broadcasts them live at nighttime here) and read reviews from about every game played last year from different websites. So this year has been a bit different with no nhl hockey to watch and read about(although i´ve been reading about ahl and the junior leagues in canada).
Then i would like to thank you for a very interesting and entertaining blog, i´ve had tons of interesting moments reading it and it has been a welcome change to the medias coverage.
Last but not least, i personally would not want to see nhl start this season anymore(because of the amount of players in europe, 70 in Sweden, 70 in Russia, 60 in the Czech league and around 40 in the finnish elite league) because it wouldn´t be a good reg season although the play-offs migth work. Instead i think both the nhl and tha nhlpa owes the fans to make a new and solid deal that will carry this sport in to the future on a healthy and growing basis. Next fall would be a good time to start this new nhl with real training camps etc. and then the fans would see some quality hockey instead of some "forced" shorter replacement season.

ok, so this was just a short hello from Finland and my view on things, i dont know if i contributed to your request but i thought i´d post this anyway =)

best regards,

Eki (my name, short for Erkki)
Habs fan to the end!

Jacob-Vancouver

2005-01-31T21:13:00.001-08:00

Eklund,

I've believed all along the NHL would start this season and I still believe that.

My story, while not dramatic, involves me growing a bitter resentment towards both the players and the owners over the past several months. I've come to dislike Trevor Linden in surprising ways (and I'm a Vancouverite). I've been forced to look at the issue in several different ways with different perspectives and I discovered that the game I loved to support is an embarrassment.
The players have simply lost touch with reality. They have had it so good for so long (10 years) that the thought of reverting back to dignified contracts is offensive to them. For that, they deserve to be reprimanded.
The owners have given Bettman too much power for the good of the game. They've allowed teams to exist in cities that have no business being a part of the NHL. The quality of hockey has deteriorated to appalling conditions. 1994 really was the last best hockey that was played. Since then Bettman has led the league into two lockouts, suffered humiliating attendance levels in too many markets and made adjustments to the game that have only harmed it. An intelligent hockey mind must now correct what he has done.

I will be back when the NHL does. But I hold a severe distrust against the players I once admired. I will not support the owners' profits with my ticket purchases until the game is refined to 1994 standards of entertainment. Hopefully 6 teams will be lost by then.

Jacob

Alexandre-Montreal

2005-01-31T21:13:00.000-08:00

My name is Alexandre ******, I live in one of the biggest and greatest
hockey city in North America. Here hockey is a religion. I have to
admit that since the '94 lockout, things have changed a bit. I live in
Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and i'm a hockey fan. The people's
perspective of the sport and the players has changed ten years ago.
Since then our team has struggled to get a playoff spot but things
have been better in the last few years. My Montreal Canadiens were
able to sign a top player like Kovalev, and got great results in last
spring's playoffs. Since hockey is the number one past time in my
city, the present lockout has a direct effect on the city's economy
and it's people. The Bell Center (where the habs play), is always or
almost sold out every night. We have a good young team with speed and
a lot of potentiel. Here's how the nhl-lockout affects me and my
beloved hockey team. The population in Quebec is getting older, and by
the same way, the Canadiens are in a transition, they have to get a
younger crowd to buy season's tickets. Last few seasons were
encouraging and i was thinking of buying a package of 10 games and
eventually be a season's ticket holder. Anyways, the current situation
will hurt them in the short and long run because...i won't be buying
tickets anytime soon.

On a more serious note, here's the reason why i'm emailing you. Like i
told you before, i live in a great hockey city, filled with history
and passion for hockey. In the winter, people are going to sports bars
on saturday nights, go out downtown, or have tickets to the hockey
game. Every game is a happening. My girlfriend is curently studying in
a cooking school in the Montreal whereabouts, and on the weekend she
was working in a new sports' bar in the heart of downtown.
Unfortunatly the place closed down 2 weeks before Christmas due to the
current lack of sports activities. The 'sudden' bankruptcy of the
sports bar has to be related to the NHL lockout in some way. This
place would have been filled with hockey fans every game night. My
girlfriend is still looking for a new job as i write this email.

Thanks for all the positive info you've giving us over the last weeks, months.

A real fan of the game
Alexandre *******

PS: Sorry for the spelling, grammar mistakes... i'm french-canadian, hahaha.

Monika-Toronto

2005-01-31T21:01:00.000-08:00

I've had requests from a few people to write about my
feelings/opinions on this blasted NHL lockout, and believe me, I've
tried so many times. I can be very controlled and objective when I
write, but no matter how I start, anything I compose about the NHL
right now just turns into the verbal equivalent of an automatic 21
gun lone finger salute. I love the game, I love the players who dazzle
and disappoint, often in the same play, and I also love the owners who
coughed up the cash for good teams. Who's side am I on? Ironically
enough, even though I operate a business, I lean to the players side;
they weren't the ones controlling the purse strings and selling
franchises to non-viable markets. However, the owners do have some
points I can agree with.

God how I miss NHL hockey, but what I miss the most isn't the actual
NHL hockey games; it's the emotional involvement of being part of that
magnificent roller coaster known as the Toronto Maple Leafs. I'm
thinking, it's the end of January and we should be freaking out over
the "looming" trade deadline - only a few weeks away! We should be
discussing the impending Belak and an 89th round pick for Pronger
trade. We should be posting about Captain Clutch's heroics yet again.
We should be making up our own rumours, not posting Eklund's.

I miss the power, the passion, the unpredictability of hockey. Yes, I
know I can watch OHL, CHL, ECHL and many other leagues; I've tried,
but no matter how good the games, I just can't watch them. Why the
hell not? Simple - it reminds me too much of the games I didn't get to
watch this season. I've had more time with my family and friends,
seeing how I don't have to freak out at not being by a TV or radio for
game time, and that's great. I've had time to knit all sorts of
useless things, like Christmas doilies knitted from sparkly green,
red, or white yarn. YIKES! I'm only 34, far too young to spend my
nights knitting special occasion doilies. Good Lord, this lockout has
really gone too far now! Even my nearest and dearest have all
mentioned I lack some of my usual energy and zippiness. Hmm,
coincidence? Definitely not! Gearing up for the games has been a
significant and meaningful part of my life, more so since I discovered
online hockey buddies; meeting up with them made even a crappy game a
great experience. I've just missed out on 5 months of that.

And please, don't tell me to get a life and get over it. I have a
life, and despite the occasional aggravations that spouse, child,
work, relatives create, it's a pretty damn good one, thank you very
much. I have a life, but without my beloved Leafs games it's just
nowhere near the grand ride it was. In the slightest chance that
anyone involved in the negotiations actually reads this, please, ask
yourselves, is it more important to save face, or the season?

Brian-Carolina

2005-01-31T21:00:00.000-08:00

Hey Ek... just thought I'd drop a brief line to add my 2c to the debate.

I think the thing that has gotten me the most out of this whole thing is how it has affected my 3 year old son, Nate. Ever since he could walk, he's loved hockey, even in warm(er)North Carolina. He's got his own goal, numerous child-sized sticks, and various balls, soft pucks, and real rubber pucks. At least once a week, he says, "Play hockey with me, Dad", and we'll get down on the hardwood floor to shoot pucks. Now, he's gotten to the point where I'm the goalie and he's the shooter. He tells me, "You have to stop the puck and then fall down - that's what goalies do". Now my 1 year old has a stick that he uses mostly to hit his older brother with. We went to the draft this Summer in Raleigh and watched the WJC on TV every night it was on. We used to attend ECHL games a couple of times each year before our local club left (due to finances, of course).

At least once a month (it has dwindled... it was once a week), he asks if we can watch hockey on TV. Although I'm a counselor, trained in working with children around very sensitive issues, I've struggled with how to explain the situation to my son. I've told him that the "hockey people are very mad at each other, so they're staying home". He asks if they're yelling at each other, and I tell them that they are. Nate seems to think that maybe they need to go to "time out", since "that's where I go when I yell".

I hate that I can't watch hockey on TV with my son. I hate that I can't drive to Raleigh to see the Hurricanes play the Penguins. I hate that, in our most recent Thanksgiving trip back to Pittsburgh to visit my family, we couldn't catch a Pens game. Just this morning, my son asked me as I was getting ready for work, "Daddy, are you going to wear your jersey like me?", which only reminded me of how much we're missing.

This isn't about money. It isn't about "cost certainty", luxury taxes, or impasses. It's about my 3 year old son and the other children of all ages, who simply want to watch hockey and can't. I certainly hope that some of what you're reporting comes to pass. If not, I think I'm with Nate - they both need to go to "time out".

Brian Gmutza
"Vapor Trail"