MacKinnon: NHL fans deserve apology.
How will owners, players deliver ‘make-whole’ offerings to fans?
Hold your applause.
Come to think of it, don’t hold your breath, either.
The NHL and the NHL Players’ Association have been saying some encouraging things the last couple of days during their meetings in Manhattan. Perhaps the most encouraging sign has come from what they have not been saying. No gratuitous insults or summary rejections of each other’s proposals on a new collective bargaining agreement.
Small victories; small mercies.
After a nearly three-month long, totally unnecessary lockout, no one deserves any congratulations for taking some stutter steps toward a resolution.
If the parties somehow do reach agreement on arcana like the “make whole” concept, then perhaps all concerned soon can turn their attention to addressing the deepening goodwill deficit the NHL has with its own fan base.
Or should have, at any rate. In Canada, the last time we endured this rodeo, the fans went tripping gaily back to the arenas, filling the seats, night-after-night right up until, well, until this lockout.
Never mind the players and their justifiable concerns about receiving full compensation for contracts signed under the previous CBA, how will the players and owners go about delivering a “make whole” offering to their fans?
Following the 2004-05 lost season, the NHL produced a far superior brand of hockey, having redrafted some rules to create more flow, eliminate much of the hook-and-hold gridlock the league had devolved into.
They introduced the shootout to break ties — an innovation loved by some, hated by others.
Still, the league improved its product, which may not have assuaged all the hurt of a lost season, but it was significant and largely successful.
At the level of individual clubs, the Oilers literally rolled out the red carpet for their fans in October 2005.
Fans were handed miniature replica Stanley Cups as they entered Rexall Place, along with one of those little fan towels you wave.
There was an on-ice message of thanks.
And the Oilers won in the bargain.
A 4-3 victory over Colorado kicked off a season which would end in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final in Raleigh, N.C., as the Oilers came achingly close to hoisting another Cup, and not a replica, either.
The opening-night presentation back in ’05 also included a half-hour video peppered with thankful testimonials from the likes of Ryan Smyth, Ethan Moreau and Jason Smith.
Thank you, fans, for your unwavering support. How very magnanimous.
Listen, season-ticket holders who now have lived through the equivalent of two unplayed seasons since 1994-95 probably have an entirely different understanding of this “make whole” euphemism.
For starters, never mind thanking the fans, an empty gesture if ever there was one.
No, in the interest of accountability, how about a sincere apology from the players and ownership for having subjected their fans to this entirely unnecessary and destructive head-butting exercise over how to split up a $3.3 billion pie?
It’s hard to offer a public apology, but that’s the point isn’t it? Who said accountability was ever easy? The hockey people talk a great accountability game all the time. Let’s see them walk that talk.
How about a healthy refund opening night, and two other nights besides? How about making three games totally on the house, one for each month of the lockout?
Perhaps Oilers executives Kevin Lowe and Patrick LaForge can mull such matters over as they digest what they learned at the NHL board of governors meeting on Wednesday.
The fans should seriously consider their response to a potential resumption of on-ice hostilities, as well.
If they return like trained seals to fill up Rexall Place this time around like they did in ’05, they abdicate the right to complain about being taken for granted, or overpaying to watch a non-playoff team and much else.
And I know, I know. I’m not holding my breath on any of these suggestions.
But, deal or no deal, this lockout has been disgraceful. Is it too much to ask for the parties involved to acknowledge that and make amends to the fans?