Now that the world has woken up to the nuclear winter world without NHL hockey, the remaining people who still care about the league are pouring out their souls through various channels.

Personally, I do have a large rant/analysis of the job Bob Goodenow has done through the past year, and the crucial mistakes he’s made. I’ve already stated most of my thoughts in yesterday’s post (and previous posts) regarding Gary Bettman and the NHL’s role in all of this.

I just don’t have the resolve to write such a rant right now. My emergent apathy continues to devour me slowly, like rust on a ’69 Mustang.

Jason Kirk, a fellow hockey blogger, cancelled his season tickets with the Nashville Predators and wrote a passionate and well thought-out letter to GM David Poile.

Brian Burke, and the rest of the TSN panelists, gave final thoughts on the deal not done:

Brian Burke: My challenge to both sides now would be to please fix one part of this. This thing is blown up. You can say it's going back to square one, but please fix one part of it. Even with a CBA will you stop this useless, senseless wrangling over the financial data. Form a join audit committee and start giving the players a true picture of each team's financial position so we don't have to talk about that anymore.

For the life of me, I could never understand why the NHLPA so refused to have their own auditor look into the NHL’s finances (the NHL even offered this suggestion) or go into a joint-audit with the NHL. Was the NHLPA afraid that the findings would be bleak? Was the NHLPA afraid of the truth? Was the NHLPA just too stubborn? We may never know...but it seems foolish that they would spurn this opportunity to prove the Leavitt report was a total sham.

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The Replacements?

The media will obviously shift a large part of their focus to the prospect of an impasse and possible replacement players.

I know a few angry fanatics claim that they will cheer for the uniform, and not the players. They will support their Maple Leafs/Canadiens/etc no matter who is wearing the uniform.

Would you?

Let me ask you this: Do you watch AHL hockey on a regular basis? Did you watch IHL hockey on a regular basis?

For many fans, including myself, the answer is a resounding ‘No’.

I admit I am a bit of an NHL snob (although I enjoy live Giants games). The difference in pace between the AHL and the NHL is very noticeable to me. Although the NHL is not nearly as entertaining as it was 10 years ago, it is still considerably faster than the AHL. I cannot really stomach too many AHL televised games.

If you get a league of ‘replacement’ players, you are going to have a lot of Lonny Bohonos’s and no Markus Naslund’s. The NHLPA is not going to break that easily (despite the recent bumblings of Goodenow), and the legal red-tape to even get to using replacement players is thicker than the hull of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

I am not a pro-union guy, so I wouldn’t shed many tears for ‘breaking’ a union that may have just demanded too much. Still, I wouldn’t feel comfortable supporting a league and its greedy owners that couldn’t form a partnership with its players.

I may watch such a league, but probably with far less enthusiasm and vigour than the real NHL.

Since I don’t expect we’ll ever get to this point, I don’t feel the need to discuss it further.

I’d probably be better off buying a massive satellite dish and beaming in games from Europe, unless the North American channels pick up more games from the other side of the salty pond.