Complete, utter and incredibly greedy bastards.
When these people do get their acts together and there's a season in the offing, I would ask my fellow hockey fans to make them pay for their behavior. Don't buy your season tickets. Don't pay gobs of money to go to a game. Don't watch them on TV and deprive them of ratings-driven payola.
Both sides have shown they're all about the money---so much so that they're willing to completely abdicate their livelihoods to make a point about salary caps. Let's show them we're all about the hockey. They will undoubtedly get their acts together sometime before the next season is to begin. Sometime in late September/early October 2005 would be my bet. One season they could take. Two? I don't think so. Major League Baseball learned its lesson after its players strike: don't piss off the fans as they pay for all this largesse. Can we teach the NHL and its players the same thing? Yep. It could be even more satisfying than ignoring MLB, if you ask me, given the attendance levels at games, which would whoop MLB game attendance each and every time. Which says nothing of the ratings. Particularly during the playoffs. But attendance is the key, because I know the Wild has a sweetheart deal with the Xcel Energy Center and derives almost half of their revenue from ticket sales. How many other teams are the same, I wonder. Cut that off and you've got them.
I can go another year without hockey. What say you?
UPDATE Courtesy o' Michele: FREE STANLEY!
This is a great idea. The cup should be awarded this year---NHL or no NHL. Lord Stanley did hockey a great service by presenting the sport with this cup. And he never played hockey!. He was, however, a hockey parent. It was because of his sons' love of the sport that he commissioned the cup to present to the best amateur team in Canada. It was never meant to be held hostage by those greedy bastards in the NHL. The NHL doesn't deserve it.
FREE LORD STANLEY'S CUP!