Well, there is no question that some blame can be put onto both parties for the cancellation of the season, but I think the majority of blame could be put onto the player's union. Only yesterday did they propose their own 'salary cap' idea after refusing a salary cap for the entire lockout. If they would have put forth their cap plan even a week ago the season could have been saved. The owners, from the beginning, said that there would be collective bargaining agreement (cba) without a salary cap - which again, the player's union rejected all forms of a salary cap until less than 24 hours until the cancellation.
Whether you believe the numbers the owners/Bettman put forth, the truth is the NHL was losing money and had several franchises that weren't financially solvent. The player's seemed to not care. They used the upper franchise's spending as a basis for their minimums, and these upper franchises consisted of just a handful of teams. Using any of their proposals the NHL would have resorted to what the MLB is today... teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers and big spending teams will clearly horde the talent and be legitamate cup contenders before a season would even begin. Whereas the more frugal and smaller market teams struggle to survive with little hope of even contending.
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