It’s entirely possible this post will be overtaken by events. Maybe by the time this is read by most people, i.e. Monday sometime, the whole thing will be settled one way or the other.

As of late Sunday night, it is looking like the season is well and truly dead. Perhaps, for once, the rumours of the season’s death have not been exaggerated.

I have been optimistic the whole time. In my opinion, it is the players’ union which must give ground in this negotiation, seeing as it is the owners who are (in a few centres) literally facing bankruptcy without some form of cost-certainty agreement. Bankruptcy. As in, sell the Zamboni. I was optimistic, because I thought the NHLPA had a fraction of a morsel of a spicule of a brain in their collective heads…

But Goodenow has so misled the players that they think the owners will fold. Personally, I think it’s impossible. When it’s the bank on the phone, telling you they’re going to auction your office furniture unless you get the right deal, I think that stiffens your spine a little bit.

And now there’s a few hundred second line centres, third line wingers, 3rd through 6th defencemen, backup goalies, and the rest of the not-quite-household-names, who are well and truly screwed. They are all, every one of them, one year slower, one year fatter, one year more brittle. Coming up behind are scores of 18 year old and 19 year old keeners, who are more eager and more willing to play for, say, an average salary of 1 million, compared to 1.8 mill.

Every one of those aging middle-rankers is now totally buggered by Goodenow’s immobility.

Buggered, just like every hockey fan in Canada.

As they used to say in Parliament, back when honour mattered: “shame!”