After this past week, there have been lots of rumblings of people moving to Canada. Canada is the land of Molson Beer and hockey. Actually, hockey used to be the heart and soul of Canada. Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier broke out at the same time with the Edmonton Oilers. There were great teams in Calgary, Toronto, Quebec and all over Canada. Hockey has even made and impact for years in many American cities from New York to Boston to Philadelphia.

But as of the printing of this article, the National Hockey League lockout will be at 54 days and counting, with the All Star game already cancelled and the chance of any games this season looking slim.

What is going on with this league?

What will be the major impacts of this lockout?

I used to be a huge hockey fan. My dad has been a die-hard New York Rangers fan his entire life. When I was in fourth grade, the Rangers made a tremendous run through the playoffs, capped by a seventh game, double-overtime win against the New Jersey Devils and then an amazing, seven-game victory in the Stanley Cup Finals. I was elated, hockey was at its greatest peak.

In the summer of 1994, the baseball postseason was cancelled and it seemed like the NHL could move up in popularity among North American sports. It has been downhill ever since.

In 1994, a 103-day lockout hit hockey, canceling the All-Star Game, and cutting the season almost by half to 48 games. Hockey's popularity started to wane.

The New Jersey Devils won the Stanley Cup Finals that year using a defensive system called the "Neutral Zone Trap" and the emulation of that by future teams, turned hockey into a boring, low-scoring game, with no flow. Television ratings declined.

Although many NHL teams were reporting losses and Canadian teams were suffering because of the value of the Canadian dollar dollar, the NHL instituted four expansion teams (Nashville, Atlanta, Columbus and Minnesota) in three years at the end of the 1990's.

National Hockey League teams reported $273 million in operating losses this past season, and after one of the most exciting Stanley Cups in recent history, featuring the Calgary Flames and Tampa Bay Lightening (two very small market teams), NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, declared another lockout. Hockey players are overseas now, playing for teams in Russia and Europe in front of packed houses.

The fiscal problems of the NFL are numerous. The players are making way too much money considering the revenue that is generated by their teams.

The owners are all millionaires who are too greedy to share profits with the players. Bob Goodenow, the head of the player's union, is drawing the line and refusing to budge. The owners are doing the same.

Can an agreement be reached in time to save this season or at least in time to save this sport? Unless some prominent players start making noise, the season is gone like an intoxicated first-year at Pachanga.

But there is hope looming someplace. There have been rumblings that players are becoming fed up with Goodenow's tactics. Most recently, when the forbidden phrase of "replacement players" came out of one owner's mouth, a couple of players stated that they will cross the picket lines and play.

If the players and owners think they can be like baseball and win the fans back, they're crazy. Hockey will never have the grasp on American imaginations that baseball does. They need to work together to save this sport; a sport that I love.

Hockey may not be played this year, but if they don't work quickly, it may never be saved.