And So It Begins

When I started writing here on HBIC, I never thought I'd be suffering through another lockout again. After losing the entire season in 2004-05, I thought we might have finally come to our financial senses in the NHL and found harmony amongst the players and owners. Instead, we saw revenues and the salary cap ceiling jump every year, and now we find the owners looking for cost certainty again. With neither side at the negotiation table today, the lockout will indeed take place, and the risk of losing another hockey season now becomes very real.

There's no guarantee that we're looking at a lost season right now. Training camps were supposed to open in the next week or so, and they still can if both sides are committed to getting a deal done. But that's the fly in the ointment over all of this, right?

I started writing this article out of pure anger and resentment towards the sport I love, but I came to the realization that I'm doing nothing more than regurgitating the same rhetoric over and over that the media is. I'm not connected to anyone on the inside, and I surely have no media credentials to get me an invitation to the NHL Offices in New York City. Instead, I'm going to spare everyone my rants about Bettman, Fehr, the NHL, the NHLPA, millionaires, billionaires, and every point of negotiating contention that we've come across over the last month of hockey headlines.

So what exactly am I writing about?

I want your over/under, readers. The last lockout went for 310 days before the NHLPA flinched and came to an agreement that the owners apparently thought would bring economic stability. Because it feels like 2004 all over again, I want to know...

OVER/UNDER: Does the NHL lockout in 2012 fall short or go longer than the 310-day lockout in 2004-05?

Hit me with your thoughts in the comments, readers. Personally, I see this one dragging on for a long, long time again.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!