Detroit News column
February 17, 2005
by Bob Wojnowski
In the end, it was there for everyone to see, televised coast to coast, the stunning result of stubbornness, arrogance, stupidity and mistrust. The National Hockey League collapsed under the weight of its own vices Wednesday, and that’s the really sad part.
This is the really scary part: No one knows when it will return, and what it will look like when it does.
What we witnessed was unprecedented in North American sports history, the cancellation of a major pro league’s entire season. But even today, it’s hard to know exactly what we saw, and what it all means.
Death of the NHL as we know it, and Hockeytown as we know it, and the high-flying Red Wings as we know them? Yep. Incalculable devastation to a sport? Probably. Demise of high-profile careers, including that of Wings captain Steve Yzerman? Possibly.
Ottawa Sun article
Feburary 2, 2005
by Bruce Garrioch
Steve Yzerman says NHL players can’t sell out the next generation. The Red Wings’ longtime captain and star centre told the Sun in an exclusive interview near his Detroit home yesterday that if the union was to accept the current offer from the NHL to end the labour dispute, the NHLPA would be ’selling out’ future players.
Saying he doesn’t expect the lockout to be settled this year and isn’t sure if hockey will be back before next January, Yzerman admitted he may have played his last game if there isn’t a new collective bargaining agreement in place by September.
‘I just kind of sit and wait,’ the Nepean native said. ‘I try to be objective, and as a guy who is still playing, I understand the league’s concerns. I know what’s been offered to the players. I’m at the end of my career, whether I play again or not, I know the players just want a fair deal.
