Even after several weeks of talks, there remains a vast chasm between the NHL and the NHLPA at the bargaining table. If the two sides can’t come to an agreement in exactly one month’s time, hockey fans will be faced with the second labour stoppage in eight years, which is something we haven’t seen lately from any major sports league in North America. But as much as the prospect of a second lockout being called before the Flames even get a chance to trade Jay Bouwmeester makes my skin boil, I doubt that I’ll ever give up on our national pastime. And it seems I’m not alone in this sentiment, either…
Making matters worse in this case of hockey-fan battered-wife syndrome is the fact that our abuser is one Gary Bettman. If he’s not the worst commissioner in pro sports today, I’d hate to meet the man who is.
