For the Love of the Game

The cancellation of the Winter Classic tells us at least three things about the NHL lockout.

One, that the league really does have no interest in reaching a conciliatory agreement with the NHLPA. Two, it confirms the league is out to break the players, like water freezing out of cracks in concrete. And three, that the NHL simply doesn’t trust itself. 

On the first point, the leagues lack of interest in brokering a cooperative “shared sacrifice” type of agreement is underscored by their unwillingness to engage in 11th hour negotiations beforehand.

It’s really too straightforward to be ignored. The NHL has continually rejected NHLPA attempts to meet and negotiate, and whether those attempts were sincere or PR-motivated, the leagues’ non-attempts by contrast are telling.

That the NHL takes its fans for granted—especially its Canadian fans—is no great revelation. This is, after all, a league which has trundled itself to the edge of the abyss on so many different occasions that questioning its sense of purpose has almost become a national past-time in Canada.

But with this season's lockout, they may not realize how close it is to falling into that abyss by biting the hand that feeds it: an engaged fan base.

Consider the ways in which the consumption of professional sport has changed since the last lockout eight years ago. The loss of hockey games is the core effect of this lockout, to be sure, but fan experience has exploded since the loss of the 2004–05 season, and there’s really no denying that the tap which has been shut off this time around is one which is quite a bit different from all other taps previously.