The Toronto Sun's Steve Simmons offers many lockout-related thoughts in his Sunday column, but his main thrust involves the fact that while both the NHL and NHLPA shoulder blame for the third lockout of a certain owners' commissioner's regime, the true Chairman of the Board has clearly mastered the villain's role:

Almost every time Gary Bettman opens his mouth, I have this tendency to want to slam my fist right into it.

And I’m not, in any way, what you’d call a violent person.

It’s his way, his voice, his condescension, his verbal cadence, his don’t-you-understand-I’m-the-smartest-man-in-the-room vibe that makes him so impossible to believe or trust.

So here we are again, held hostage by the NHL boss for the third time — a distinguished record of most work stoppages by one commissioner — with an absolutely unnecessary lockout, his league with record revenues, the players with record high salaries, fighting over increments and percentages. And this time, without a need to change the game, without a philosophical argument, with Bob Goodenow long gone, there is no one to truly detest from the players’ side.

But instead there is — and should be — disgust from hockey lovers and disappointment across the board with both sides and the knowledge that this is Bettman’s NHL, his fight, his personal lockout, his private contempt for the paying customer.

Continued