For the last few months, I progressively lost patience, eventually claiming that I just didn’t care whether there would be NHL hockey this season. Then on Sunday morning, I suddenly changed my tune. Learning the news that the dreaded lockout was finally over, I couldn’t contain my excitement — a significant contrast to how I was feeling just a short time prior. When NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Players’ Association Director Donald Fehr addressed the media early Sunday morning, the anger wasn’t running through me like it had in weeks past. In fact, I was amused. Seeing the two men stand together, a 5′ 6″ Bettman and a 6′ 4″ Fehr, was reminiscent of an old Simon & Garfunkel album cover. All Fehr needed was a blonde afro.
From the perspective of a near-lifelong Los Angeles Kings fan, I had the benefit of seeing the 2012 Stanley Cup champions use the lockout to shake off their championship hangover. Had the season started on time, Conn Smythe-winning goaltender Jonathan Quick, who had off-season back surgery, would have had to miss at least the first month of the regular season. With the delay, Quick is healthy again and will be in the Los Angeles net when the puck drops to open the season, which will most likely be a 48-game campaign beginning on January 19. In addition, like King fans everywhere, I am simply looking forward to seeing, at last, the champions raise their much-deserved Stanley Cup banner to the rafters of their home, the Staples Center. Of course, not everyone shares my perspective.
On a poll done by TSN.ca asking, “The NHL is coming back… are you?” only 51.8% said yes while 28.6% said yes but that it would take time and the other 19.4% said they weren’t coming back. While I certainly understand where those who voted no are coming from (and I don’t blame them), I’m going to give the NHL and the Player’s Association the benefit of the doubt by giving them the chance to acknowledge how they’ve damaged the game as a result of the lockout (the league’s third in 18 years) and most importantly, a chance to apologize to everyone affected by the work stoppage from the fans to the arena workers to the bar and restaurant owners. However, unlike eight years ago, “Thank you fans!” painted on all 30 ice surfaces around the league simply won’t cut it this time. I wholeheartedly understand that Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr were simply doing their jobs answering to the owners and players respectively.
With that said, somewhere along the way, the intentions of Bettman and Fehr were lost in translation. It didn’t appear as if either man cared a great deal about what the fans thought and that was most apparent over the holidays as the NHL posted a greeting card on their Facebook page only to receive an abundance of backlash from angry fans tired of the senseless drama. I, for one, took a great deal of pleasure reading some of the hostile responses directed towards not only the league but the player’s association as well. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out how important the fans are to the game of hockey. Of the record $3.3 billion the NHL made last season, all of it was generated by the fans whether it was through tickets, merchandise or cable and satellite packages. To suggest that the league and its players owe a lot more to the fans this time around is simply common sense.
While the NHL has plenty of fans in the United States, the end of the lockout is arguably most beneficial in Canada. For 50-plus years, Saturday nights have been synonymous with hockey. Whether we go to the arenas, watch with friends at a bar or simply turn on the TV from the comfort of our own homes, Canadians see hockey as a way of life and whatever hostility we hold towards those who run the game will subside. When the NHL returned in 2005 after an unprecedented canceled season, I vowed that I would never forgive the NHL and the PA. Yet, a few weeks later, I was back supporting the game I grew up watching with adoration. In fact, the only reservation I had about hockey eight years ago was that the Los Angeles Kings were one of the worst teams in the league so I had to force myself to get out of my element and find some entertaining hockey to watch.
The fact of the matter is simple: while any strike or lockout is maddening, it is every employee and employer’s right to make as much money as they can. While the thought of millionaires and billionaires fighting over an enormous share of money while minimum-wage arena employees scramble to find new jobs seems ludicrous, the owners and players were only doing what they thought was fair. Let’s not forget that not all players are as talented or as wealthy as the likes of Sidney Crosby or Steven Stamkos. So, to those players, the money they lost during this lockout was a lot more significant than that of the top-tier players, especially those who are in the twilight of their careers.
To call the end of the NHL lockout a polarizing issue is an early front-runner for Understatement of the Year and don’t be surprised to see that 19.4 percentile of fans vowing not to return diminish significantly within the next few months. To be honest, if fans aren’t tuning into this year’s Stanley Cup Final, it won’t be because of hard feelings but because few fans will want to watch hockey in late June.
Speaking for King fans, we have the banner-raising and the championship defense to look forward to. But fans of teams across Canada have their own reasons for coming back. Canuck fans want to see their team take care of unfinished business, Oiler fans are itching to see their talent-laden team develop into an eventual powerhouse, Senator fans are hoping last season was more than a flash in the pan while Leaf and Canadien fans just want to see their teams back in the playoffs.
Despite all the hard feelings, hockey is back and there are plenty of great storylines to go around. For those who don’t want to come back right away, all we can do is hope that they will have a change of heart as time goes on.
The last few months haven’t been pretty. In fact, much of it was downright embarrassing. While we can argue that this lockout should have ended a long time ago until we’re all blue in the face, it is a case of better late than never — and that’s good enough for me.
While Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr are likely still in New York where they have had the vast majority of their negotiations, perhaps the two men can extend an olive branch to the fans by holding a free concert in Central Park where they can perform Bridge over Troubled Water.
Hey, I’m a hockey fan. It’s in my nature to dream.
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Ryan Cowley is a writer at Toronto Standard. Follow him on Twitter @RyanACowley.
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