Lockout over: Insider reactions

As the interminable NHL Lockout III has finally come to and end, formalities aside, of course there will be a flood of comment from league executives, players, coaches and media to keep up with for those fans who have not been turned off the NHL for good.

Not wishing to be any different, here are a small handful of reactions and insights that might have slipped though the filters of Dreger, LeBrun et al.

Steve Tambellini: “I’m excited by the opportunity to now have 14 different ways to win the draft lottery.”

Rick DiPietro: “The pensions issue was important, as I wanted other players to enjoy the security of a healthy, guaranteed income many years after they can no longer play.”

Paul Holmgren: “The amnesty buyout provisions mean I will still have enough cap space to sign Steve Mason to a 7-year, $40m deal once I let Bryz go.”

Don Cherry: “YA KNOW, THIS BECKHAMBAR FELLA COMES OVER FROM GERMANIA AND GETS ALL THE KODOS AND EVERYTHINK FROM YOU MEDIA TYPES. HOW SOON WE FORGET, EH?”

Alex Kovalev: “True, I’m no longer an NHLer, but once he heard the sides were putting in a 16-hour shift, Mike Keenan insisted I flew down to join the talks.”

Raffi Torres: “The owners were worried about the long term financial risk of funding the players’ pensions, but we assured them that we would do everything we can as a group to keep our life expectancy really low.”

Brian Burke: “Our fans should be grateful that I have ensured the Maple Leafs will be playing games beyond the first week of April this year.”

Jay Feaster: “After the last lockout caused problems for me in fitting contracts under the cap in Tampa, it’s gratifying that my hard work and that of my predecessor has left the Flames with so much cap flexibility to go with a young, contending roster.”

Marc Bergevin: “This buyout calculator on capgeek.com is good. I only have to type ‘Sc’ and it auto-completes to ‘Welcome back, Marc. Why not just bookmark this page to save time?’”

Jim Rutherford: “So if contract term limits differ for signing your own free agents compared to others, how long can I sign Joe Corvo for the next three times I re-acquire him?”

Mike Babcock: “I’m just a coach, so I don’t worry about the cap and that stuff. It’s not like I have to replace Nick Lidstrom in the line-up with Carlo Colaiacovo or anything.”

Greg Jamison: “Thank God that embarrassing, seemingly endless dispute over money, perpetuated by excruciating posturing and tedious legal interventions is over.”