When Fehr worked for the MLBPA it was the players on strike. At the NHL the owners locked them out. I don't think you can blame Fehr in this instance.
This statement just shows you didn't follow the negotiation soap opera over the past couple of months. Fehr is most definitely to blame. If he didn't pull his shady tactics and piss off the owners back during the Dec negotiation week, we would have been playing hockey a month ago.
The owners locked them out because the old CBA led to a league that was unsustainable. You can't run a league where the players are getting 57% (all other leagues are split 50-50) and only 8 of 30 teams are making a profit.
Why would you give the league satisfaction by watching, I would let them all rot. This is not a league that can afford a work stoppage, they are barely hanging on as it is. They are not the NFL where the fans will forget.
You just don't know or understand hardcore hockey fans very well then. They are the most loyal fans of all the major sports here and at this point the majority are just glad they'll be able to watch hockey again. Some of the casual fans may be turned off, but whatever. That just means tickets will be cheaper for me, though here in Boston, it won't be much. You can guarantee the Garden will be sold out for every one of the 24 (or 25) home games.
The season should have been lost so the owners really feel the pain.
The owners wouldn't be the ones feeling the pain. 14 of 30 teams LOST money last season (in a year of record revenues for the league). Missing the season would have saved these 14 owners money, so saying they would have "felt the pain" if they missed the whole season isn't very accurate IMO.
The second you start to root for them and give them money the owners will thing the whole thing was worth it. The only way to tell then you don't approve is to boycott the game.
These owners are multi-billionaires in many cases. While they obviously want to make money, not making money won't exactly "hurt" them. Boycotting the game at this point is only going to hurt the arena staff, concession workers, parking lot attendants, servers and bartenders in the bars by the arenas, etc who have already suffered enough and been hurting more than anyone else as a result of this lockout.
The players should have called the owners bluff and walked for the season.
Why the hell would the players willingly want to give up a year of salary and a year of their career? They aren't getting any younger. There are tons of guys in the league who might only have a year or two left in their career. The deal they agreed to is more than fair. It just shouldn't have taken this long.