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Don Cherry: ‘If I’m betting, I’d say no’ NHL season

Don Cherry

There’s still time to save the 2012-13 campaign, but Don Cherry certainly isn’t holding his breath.

“If I’m betting, I’d say no [NHL season],” Cherry told CBC’s Matt Galloway.

That’s a depressing reversal from his August prediction of a two-month lockout.

At this point, we can’t count on getting a full 82-game schedule even if the lockout ended today and the Winter Classic is reportedly in danger.

There’s still time to save the season, but Cherry thinks that if it doesn’t happen by Jan. 1, then “we might have [the season] gone.”

Cherry also lashed out at critics who blame NHL commissioner Gary Bettman for the lockout.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” he said. “[The owners] had a vote at the start… 30 said yes [to the] lockout. It wasn’t Bettman. If they had said no lockout, there wouldn’t have been a lockout. He’s the guy everybody goes after, it’s ridiculous. If 20 owners walked up to him right now and said ‘we’re going back,’ they’d go back.”

If you’re looking for a somewhat more optimistic look on our chances of having a 2012-13 campaign, then you might be interested in what Jeremy Roenick has to say.