The NHL has been in a lockout for 86 days and it doesn’t look like they’re coming to any agreement soon. At this point 526 regular season games plus the Winter Classic and all-star game all have been canceled. The league is reporting $236 million lost from ticket sales so far.  In addition, according to The Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau, local businesses and restaurants are losing between $850,000 to $1 million for every missed game.The problem is that the two sides NHLPA (National Hockey League Players Association) and the NHL (National Hockey league) can not settle on some issues. One issue is length of contracts.   The players want to have the contract be 8 years while the owners feel it should be 5 years. They are also arguing about how to get teams under the salary cap as well as the how to split the revenue.

The NHLPA and the NHL should have figured this deal out over the summer instead of waiting so long to negotiate. The lockout is not good because a lot of people that work at the rinks
and in the vicinity of the rinks are losing a lot of money. The economy is the worst its been in 30 years and for a professional hockey league to add to the declining economy is not helpful. There is two things I would like to see happen.   First I think that if the season gets canceled that the NHL should award the the stanley cup to a minor league hockey team. The second thing that I would like to see happen would be if the NHL came out of the lockout all fans should boycott the first week that they come back.  Although we all want to see the games return, there should be something the fans can do to let them know we disagreed with the way they handled this.

~Will DePalma