Though last minute wheeling and dealing continued up until the final hours, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman today made official what many have been expecting for weeks now, canceling the balance of the 2004/2005 NHL season. The final financial gulf between the NHL and the NHLPA? A mere $6.5 million--the gap between the league's proposed $42.5 million salary cap, and the player's cap figure of $49 million. Imagine that, all those millions in revenue lost, all the hundreds or thousands of people out of a job, and all of those hockey fans alienated, simply because the teams and owners couldn't find a financial bridge worth the equivalent of one Teemu Selanne contract per team.
Surely the NHL will eventually find middle ground and return to the ice, though likely in a trimmed down form. Whether fans will care in the slightest remains to be seen.