Lost in the hubbub over the NHLPA’s civil war is the fact the current collective bargaining agreement hasn’t worked out as well as NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and the team owners and governors expected it would.

According to Bettman and company the purpose of the season-killing lockout of the cap was “cost certainty”, claiming it was needed to save struggling NHL franchises, placing the blame for those clubs' woes upon “greedy players” and their expensive salaries.

They also claimed early in the lockout it was necessary to make ticket costs more affordable for their fans. Bettman eventually backed off that comment when some pundits and season ticket holders pressed him on the issue, correctly pointing out ticket prices were determined by markets, not by salaries.

Still, the damage was done as most hockey fans neither understand or care about the business of hockey and bought that line hook, line and sinker.

Four years later, so-called struggling small market teams in Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa are doing well and spending up to the cap ceiling each season, but it was the increase in the value of the Canadian dollar since 2003 and not the salary cap which was responsible.

Had the value of the Canadian dollar remained below .70 cents US as it had from the late 1990s through to 2003 the Oilers, Flames and Senators wouldn’t be the big spenders they are today.

For struggling US-based teams it’s done nothing to help them.

A salary cap doesn’t resolve poor management, the chief reason why the Atlanta Thrashers, Phoenix Coyotes and Florida Panthers have performed abysmally since the lockout.

A salary cap hasn’t made it any easier for an average Predators team to sell pro hockey in Nashville.

A salary cap hasn’t increased the Blue Jackets revenue when they don’t own the arena in which they play.

A salary cap hasn’t prevented the Tampa Bay Lightning from their seemingly endless ownership problems and debt.

A salary cap hasn’t provided the New York Islanders with better management or constructed the new venue they so desperately need.

The salary cap has done little to keep down players’ salaries. The best players’ still get top dollar and even the salaries of mid-range talent increased substantially compared to the final two years leading up to the lockout.  Those who appear to be seeing limitations placed upon their salaries were low-level players and aging veterans.

As for ticket prices, after most NHL teams slashed them for the first post-lockout season out of fear fans would need enticement to return prices quickly rose again.  In 2005-06 the average NHL ticket price was $41.16 US. By 2009-10 it was $51.41 US, the highest in NHL history, jumping more than $10.00 in only four short years.

One has to wonder if the league will again trot out the meme about high salaries making it difficult for so-called “small markets” to be competitive and making the game too expensive for fans.

Maybe Bettman and the owners will again try to tar the players as the bad guys but given the rise of the hockey blogosphere since the lockout they might find that a difficult sell.

Blaming the players won’t improve poorly-managed teams or make attending the games more affordable for hockey fans.

It’s quite possible the league could try to exploit the currently fractured NHLPA in hopes of squeezing the players for more concessions but that’s not going to address the problems facing the Islanders, Predators, Thrashers, Panthers, Lightning, Blue Jackets and Coyotes.

One hopes the league will be more proactive in trying to improve the lot of those clubs rather than falsely tarring the players as the scapegoats but given its contentious labor history that seems unlikely.