I can't, for the life of me, believethat it has come to this and that we won't have hockey this year.
It took the NHLPA way too long to realize a lot of things. First, that the NHL Board was serious about constructing a new financial model for the NHL. Second, that Gary Bettman was acting with full board support. Third, that the NHL and its teams have way more resources to fight this battle than do the players. Fourth, that life under a cost-certain system would be no worse, and probably better, for the vast majority of the NHLPA members. Fifth, that whatever Don Fehr and the MLBPA was telling them was a lie.
The NHL took the last offer off the table. That means we're back to an enforcable tie between player salaries and league revenues. There are rumours that NHL players are up in arms having come to the realization that their last chance to win a salary pool that was independant of the league's fortunes has come and gone. Good. Maybe they'll rise up and dismiss Bob. Maybe they'll enter into a true partnership with a league that has offered them $1.3 million on average to play a game. Maybe they'll take a hand in reaping the rewards that a true partnership can bring rather than settling for being hired hands.
Or maybe they'll sit and sulk until October and then realize that it's not going to change, that playing in any other league involves a salary cap, and that no other option that can pay them more exists.

I can't believe it. But the NHLPA had better start.