from Adrian Dater of All Things Avs,

Something really bad is happening between the people who love hockey and the game’s highest league. I can only try to put it in my own perspective here, of course. What it is increasingly coming down to is: it seems like a lot of us are in the developing stages of an irreconcilable divorce from the NHL.

I may be wrong, but I sense it. A slow but sure drift away from the league. I’m not talking about our love of the game itself but the league and its principals in power, who have once again decided it is better to play no games at all than play the games if it means getting two or three fewer percentage points in “hockey-related revenue.”

I may be wrong, but I do not feel like the bread-and-butter fan will be back to NHL games whenever the masters of the universe deign to drop the puck again on a real game. Not this season anyway. I’ve just talked to too many people that I trust to be hardcore hockey fans who say they really are tired of all this and don’t feel like giving their time, money and attention to this league as much anymore, even if they come back.

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