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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
NHL lockout: 'This sucks'
Winnipeg fans lament coming winter of discontent
Winnipeg Jets fans showed their gratitude for the return of NHL hockey when the Jets played their final game last season. Are the signs going to be saying ‘thanks for nothing’ this season? (TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store
As the clock ticked down on the NHL lockout Saturday night, the emotions of Winnipeg fans ran the gamut from sad to mad to quiet resignation.
The prospect of a winter without hockey was difficult to fathom for many fans, just 16 months after the NHL returned to Winnipeg.
"This sucks," said George McCorrister, as he nursed a beer at a sparsely populated 4Play Sports Bar Saturday night.
"It could be a long boring winter."
He lays much of the blame for his plans to watch a lot of NFL football and UFC this fall and winter at the feet of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.
Darren Walker, a long-time Jets fan who used to have WHA season tickets and shares tickets for the current Jets, believes the NFL model - where teams split the gate 50-50 - is what's needed to avoid having lockouts every few years.
"That's what gives the Green Bay Packers a chance to win the Super Bowl every year," he said.
"We've become acclimatized to millionaires fighting with billionnaires. The owners are asking the players to save them from themselves."
Fans could do their part by voting with their wallets but he knows that won't happen - at least in Canada.
"They'll just take another puff on the NHL crack pipe," he said.
Dave Shorr, who "celebrated" his 14th birthday on April 28, 1996 - the day of the last-ever game of the old Jets - said he would be sad about the lockout if it was unexpected.
"I'm more like a father who's disappointed," he said, sitting beneath a Jets poster at The Toad.
Having the Los Angeles Kings win the Stanley Cup last season created a great opportunity to grow the game, but that's going to evaporate with the lockout, he said.
"Nobody is doing what's right for the league, the fans or the game," he said.
geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 16, 2012 A4
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