To players, their agents and team management alike, the lost NHL season of 2004-05 remains one big, bad, dark memory. Nobody who went through the longest lockout in sports history has a good word to say about it, which is why they all say their NBA brethren should do their utmost to avoid what many predict will be another long lockout.
“It wasn’t fun at all. I don’t know all the details of the NBA situation right now, but I know that if they have a long lockout like we did, nobody will remember it well,” said former Avalanche winger Ian Laperriere, who had just signed a lucrative four-year contract with the Avs in 2004 only to lose the first year to a lockout that wiped out the NHL season. “About the only advice I could give is to try to stay positive, but that can be tough.”
Loss of income is the obvious hardship of a work stoppage for a player. But it’s more than that, Laperriere said.
“As a player, all you really want to do is play the game. When you can’t do that, you can feel lost and empty,” he said.
If a player has a family, spending more time with them can be about the only positive of a work stoppage, Laperriere said, but that has its limits too.
“If you have a job and you’re not doing that job, it doesn’t make you as happy or fun to be around,” said Laperriere, who missed all of last season with an eye injury that may force him to retire from the Philadelphia Flyers. “Yeah, it’s good to spend more time with the family, for sure, but they want you to be happy too with what you’re doing.”
Former Avalanche coach Marc Crawford was coaching the Vancouver Canucks at the time of the 2004-05 NHL lockout and remembers thinking one thing above all: “It was, ‘Can’t we all just get along?’ ” Crawford said.
Crawford’s Canucks were hurt by the lockout, missing the playoffs when the NHL resumed in 2005-06 after making the playoffs four consecutive seasons. So, too, were the Avs, who missed the playoffs for the first time since moving to Denver and seeing the loss of stars such as Peter Forsberg and Adam Foote because of the new salary cap that was implemented.
That some teams could look much different personnel-wise is another reason those who love the NBA should fear a long work stoppage. Former Avs captain Joe Sakic, now an executive adviser with the team, remembers the shock when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman officially called off the entire season, on Feb. 16, 2005. Overall, the NHL lockout of 2004-05 lasted 310 days, starting Sept. 16, 2004.
“We all thought there would be something that would save at least part of the season,” Sakic said. “There were all kinds of stories and rumors that something would happen to let us play a shortened season, but when it didn’t happen and the reality sunk in, it was tough. We would have had a good team that year and were looking forward to having a chance, even if the season was just a sprint, not a marathon.”
Should a long lockout occur, Laperriere said players will have no choice but to try to stay in shape as best they can. If they don’t play in another pro league — such as in Europe, as many NHL players did — they also had better get their financial houses in order.
“You lose paychecks. Of course, that affects your life as a family,” he said.
Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com
