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Remember the year 1919? It was the year Afghanistan gained its independence for the first time, the year we crowned our first Miss America and the year we finally passed the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote.

Are memories of what you’ve heard about this year still a little sketchy? Well, maybe this will jog your mind.

The year 1919 was the last time the Stanley Cup Finals weren’t played. And why not?

No, it wasn’t because greedy hockey players were insisting on high-profile contracts. No, it wasn’t the owners’ refusal to pay their players more money, and no, it absolutely didn’t have anything to do with the two words salary cap.

Yes, as I’m sure many of you have guessed, it was an outbreak of Spanish Influenza that caused the cancellation of the 1919 Stanley Cup Finals.

Now, for the third time in 12 years, more than 20 million NHL fans are going to have to endure yet another work stoppage, a sad commentary for what seems to be a dying sport.

The lockout, which began Sept. 16, already has consumed over 50 NHL games in the 2004-05 season and is the first work stoppage in professional sports since the 1998-99 NBA season.

So, how did the NHL lockout come to be? To begin, the lockout didn’t just sneak up on the NHL and its players.

Since the collective bargaining agreement was signed in 1994, both the NHL and the National Hockey League Players Association knew problems were’t far beyond the horizon, with NHL revenue steadily decreasing and players’ greed and salaries steadily increasing.

Since 1994, average player salaries have increased by 260 percent to $1.8 million, while average team revenues have climbed only 160 percent, sending ticket prices skyrocketing. And what better way to complement years of increasing ticket pricing than by shutting down the whole sport.

Good call, guys. I’m sure once the NHL heads back to the rink, fans will be waiting at the gates – yeah, right!

The question that haunts hockey fans is: When will the puck drop on a new hockey season – if it ever does?

Well, as a point of progress, the last time the NHLPA and the NHL met was Sept. 9, which isn’t promising.

The NHL also told teams Tuesday to keep booking events for their arenas through December, because it doesn’t look like games will be played anytime soon.

In my opinion, the whole situation stinks.

It all comes down to one simple word: money. But, then again, doesn’t it always?

The owners cry wolf because they claim they don’t have enough money to pay their players, and the players tear up because they’re not willing to take a pay cut.

The two sides are like Rams butting heads, with neither gaining an inch of ground.

It’s time for NHLPA Union Chief Bob Goodenow and NHL President Gary Bettman to stop acting like a couple of 3-year-olds fighting for toys at recess and start acting like the professionals they are. They need to do the jobs they’re getting paid for even through the entirety of the lockout.

If the two fools would pay any attention to the history of sports, they would know that everyday the lockout continues, the NHL is losing more and more fans.

It took years for Major League Baseball to fully recover after its 1994 strike, and baseball fans still are bitter at Bud Selig for just that reason … or maybe they are just because he’s an idiot.

Either way, this lockout will spell certain doom for professional hockey in the United States.

Those players who won’t put a skate to the ice without a guaranteed dollar amount will be checking groceries at the local supermarket instead of defenders against the boards.

Every professional athlete or anybody involved in professional sports at one time had a love for the game. They wouldn’t have entered the profession if they didn’t.

Now the love for the game is eclipsed by million dollar contracts and huge endorsement deals. It seems the only true love resides in the fans.

It’s time for all professional sports to start respecting and serving the very reason they exist: the fans.

So, as a fan, let your feelings be known. E-mail, call, do whatever you can to let the NHL know what kind of job they’re doing and force change. Until a big change finally does occur, keep them in the penalty box where they belong.