I’ve held my tongue on this NHL debacle, but now that the corpse of the 2004-2005 season has finally stopped sitting up in the coffin to insist that it’s still alive, I wanted to offer a couple comments.

First, I’m not sure I’ll lose any sleep over the players and owners and all the money they’re flushing. There’s plenty of blame on both sides, and others have done a far better job than I can articulating the specifics. However, there’s one group of folks I feel very bad for.

It’s amazing how when the rich and powerful go to war it’s always the peasants who take the worst beating, isn’t it? The guy who delivers the beer to the cheap seats, the woman serving up the nachos between periods, the kid working the parking lot – they’re all losing money that they need. Not working and losing a few hundred thousand or a few million isn’t an option for them. I feel for the people who run sports bars – and the waiters, cooks, and bartenders there who are seeing a lot fewer profitable hours as a result of the stupidity and greed of a bunch of millionaires. Sports stores losing money on merchandise sales, too. The ripple effect runs to the edge of the pond and back again, hurting those worst who can afford it the least.

Second, I note on ESPN.com that the league is planning rules changes designed to make the sport watchable again. Hallelujah. Of course, if the idiots had listened to the people who have been complaining about these very issues ever since the goddamned Devils perfected the left-wing lock, or whatever they were calling their brand of rugby-on-ice back then, we might not have arrived where we are now re: the leagues financial problems, huh?

As much as I’d like to see certain folks lose their asses and wind up panhandling for change on the corner of Speer Blvd. and Colfax, my concern for the well-being of the workers who depend on the sport for much-needed income leads me to sincerely hope that next year the league can get back on the ice with a better game.

A rising tide lifts all boats, right?