Do you trust your boss and/or the person who owns your company?  This is precisely the reason why we’re in a lockout situation in the game of hockey right now.  Trust.  After salaries escalated into the multi million dollar stratosphere, and expansion into non traditional markets, the players and owners still don’t trust each other as far as they can spit. 

     It just boggles the mind that NHL owners screwed themselves by creating more competition, which in turn drove up the bidding for free agents.  Why the hell did the Flyers offer Shea Weber a 110 million dollar offer sheet?  I’m sure the Preds are saying, ‘thanks for nothin’.  Yes, the owners created this mess, but since it’s their league, they have the right to tighten the clamp whenever they want.  And that’s what they’re doing.  How can the players trust the owners when they recklessly spun things out of control?  But would you turn down a boatload of cash if it was offered to you?  Of course not.

     The best run businesses are the ones that look after their employees.  They are treated with respect.  Their input is welcomed and the ideas actually used.  You’re working hand in hand with management to increase productivity, instead of trying to find new ways to screw each other.  Hockey players aren’t working the line at GM.  They’re in a highly specialized career where success is dependant upon superior skill.  And that is their achilles’ heel, because no matter how long this lockout goes, they can’t cry poor.  I got one thing to say to Donald Fehr:  the NHLPA is not a union, so quit acting like one when it becomes convenient.  You can’t have it both ways.  It all comes down to trust.