On the Wings

Jamie Fitzpatrick, about.com Pro Ice Hockey Blog:

“The tempest will pass in a few days. But it’s a good reminder to Gary Bettman about the new dynamic he has created. Bettman and the NHL owners invested several years in a cynical campaign to paint hockey players as greedy, privileged fat cats. It worked nicely, as most fans stayed happily ignorant of the core issues in the labor dispute, bought into the myth that it was all about achieving competitive balance, and simply decided they had no sympathy for a bunch of millionaire jocks (and thus supported the NHL).”

UPDATE 10:38

Kara Yorio has a good article about the perception of fan ignorance, but keying more in on how the league wouldn’t have cancelled the season if it didn’t have an assumption that the fans were going to return no matter what. And that we’ll forgot about promises for drops in ticket prices.