Frank Take: NHL's recurring nightmare

The question every hockey fan wants answered: will there be an NHL season this year? My take: no. Want to know why? Because, well, we’ve seen this before.

It's really that simple.

It’s true, the issues that have caused both lockouts differ. In 2004, the divide between NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Bob Goodenow, the executive director of the NHL Players’ Association, was clearly apparent. The core issue surfaced over the construction of the salary cap, with each side stubbornly resisting any form of compromise.

The war that commenced was bitter and agonizing.

“What happened eight years ago,” Bettman recently said, “is something that none of us ever want to go through again.” (NHL.com)

And that’s the sentiment from the commissioner. Imagine how brutal it must have been for the players. They lost a year off their careers, millions in salary, and were forced to eventually sign a deal which gave them a 24 percent salary rollback. Ultimately, they lost an entire season for nothing.

Fast forward to 2012 and the owners remain the antagonists, taking directions from their inflated egos, a GPS  that announces, “my way or the highway!”

Most crucially, the owners have proven they care about money over everything, including the consequence of losing NHL fans.

Currently, the owners feel there are too many paramount issues in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA), despite witnessing NHL’s revenues grow to 3.28 billion dollars annually. One of their principle concerns is the need to protect against the front-loaded, long-term contracts that continue to pop up throughout the league at an increasing rate.

Where are the players through all of this? Well, those that are not playing hockey overseas must be sitting at home entranced in a cloud of deja-vu.

Once again, they find themselves victims at the hands of their owners. The stoppage has occurred because the players, those in the NHL and in the minor league systems, don’t want to see their salaries diminished and want their rightful cut of NHL’s revenue.

Sadly, any player who trusted Bettman in 2005, who, after completing the newly minted CBA, spoke of a powerful “new partnership” between the owners and players, has been utterly duped. All that talk proved to be hot air, and, simply put, a second lockout in the past eight years is a disgrace for the NHL and for its fans.

The 2004 lockout set the league back astronomically. Ticket sales diminished, T.V. ratings plunged, and there was a distinct pain within every true NHL fan who felt abandoned.

Remarkably, over the last eight years, the league had made a distinct comeback.

Thanks to some thrilling playoffs match-ups within the past few years and a new generation of stars, T.V. ratings and ticket-sales have risen from the dead. Hockey was finally coming back around.

Just when the scar of 2004 had sealed itself and healed, the owners ripped it right back open.

However, within the last three days, there has been optimistic talk of renegotiations.

Yet, that doesn't change the fact that the lockout remains in the hands of the owners. And those hands are firmly clenched in a fist.

In other words, don’t get your hopes up — remember, we have taken a ride on this Zamboni before.