Excuse me, Mr. Modano...

We really don't mean to bother you, but Bob sent us to talk to you. Hey! Get back here! That's better.

You see Mike, Bob read the comments you made a few hours ago and, well, he wasn't too pleased. Now, you're a superstar in this league, and what you say matters. Your opinion carries weight. We're here to tell you what your opinion should be. Because, well, it seems you were misquoted this morning. Something about the players being nervous? That couldn't have been right. So you are going to tell those reporters that you were misunderstood this morning, and that the players are as together as they've ever been. If you don't? Well, let's just say that there may be an....unfortunate accident. Understand? Excellent. Thanks for the cooperation Mike.


Now, I'm not saying that the NHLPA would resort to these tactics, but it does seem that every player who says the slightest thing anti-union tends to change their tune awful fast. And to be honest, I'm getting sick of it all. The rhetoric, the retractions, the 4 months of complete nothing. One offer, one counter offer. Four months. If real companies and unions operated this way they'd be underground in no time. So now, we sit here for the next two weeks waiting for something, anything, hoping that someone will break.

Hoping that someone, anywhere, will get off their pigheaded stance. The lack of negotiation still boggles my mind. Let's pray that someone decides that the fans are what's important here, and that we are sick and tired of watching a bunch of overpaid millionaires (players and owners) whine about how to divide hundreds of millions of dollars. Fortunately, I have a solution:

-Fire Bettman
-Fire Goodenow
-Fire anyone else who's been directly involved in the "negotiations"
-Bring in Brian Burke to represent the owners' interests.
-Bring in a panel of current and former players.
-Have an independant moderator and debate for 3-4 days straight. If there is no consensus, bring in an independent arbitrator to hear the arguments for another 3-4 days and have the arbitrator draft up a CBA to be used for what's left of this season and all of next season with scheduled negotiation sessions every month from now until a new CBA can be agreed upon.

But of course that will never happen. That would involve putting the fans first. What a concept. We pay their salaries, we fund their arenas, we buy their merchandise and concessions. We spend hours upon hours pining over these teams, living and dying with them. We are the reason that they all have jobs.

I don't care who solves it as long as it gets solved. We all know it can't be solved if the sides aren't talking. I want a solution that is sensible. I want a solution that will work in the long term. I want a solution that keeps this league running healty for years to come.

I want hockey.