Hockey Lockout

Players Behind Bars

The National Hockey League (NHL) has a great history. Many think the 'original six' was the beginning. This is not so. In 1917 it consisted of five teams, namely the Montreal Canadians, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs and the Toronto Arenas. Toronto was the only team with artificial ice. During the 1923-24 seasons a franchise was granted to the first American team, the Boston Bruins. As can be seen the first six team NHL occurred in 1924-5 but varied greatly from the six teams promoted today as the original six. In the 80 years since the original six teams were in place, the league has grown extremely rapidly, presently having 30 teams. [NHL History]

Hockey is the Canadian game, but has also turned into a profitable business. The current commissioner of the National Hockey League, Gary Bettman, may have ruined the league for years to come. Bettman and the rest of the NHL owners are locking out the players demanding what they are calling "cost certainty." Their method for this is a salary cap. The owners are clearly at fault for the crisis at hand, and are the cause for the cancellation of the 2004-05 seasons. The owners caused each and every one of the problems they now wish to solve; they were not very welcoming to negotiations, and were not willing to bend from their unreasonable proposition of a 'hard cap'.

The owners have been the masters of their own demise. The New York Rangers, in the last few years have had an incredible pay role. Who is it that is trying to buy a winning team, by tripling salaries? Not the players - the Rangers owners. Consistently as the league grew from the original six to the thirty teams there are now, the salaries of the players grew with it. The owners did not buy franchises for the love of the game, but to make money. To make money the team must win. Owners have been constantly spending more money to buy their players. The players dedicate their lives to the sport, are constantly on the road, and sacrifice their bodies for the game. The player's goals are to be the best that they can be. Did the players make the contracts? No - the only wrong they have committed was signing the dotted line on the bottom. The owners then take this action against the players to try to protect themselves from their own check books. [Lockout]

The NHL players association made the first offer to start the season. At this time the players offered to take a large pay cut of twenty-four percent. This was a considerable amount of money. It was a substantial first offer, one which the Players Association (PA) wished could be built upon through negotiations, and a settlement made. Other than the owners clear rigidity, they appeared to be reluctant to come to any type of reconciliation. Once again the owners fell back upon their need for so called "Cost certainty". If they want to conclude this dilemma, they would have to strike a deal with the players. Why did the players always have to initiate all talks? Why weren't

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