Jeremy Roenick telling it like it is....

CBC Sports: Jeremy Roenick rants about NHL lockout:

True to form, here's Roenick (Philadelphia Flyers) speaking the truth in an "I told you so" moment...

"'If people are going to sit and chastise professional athletes for being cocky, for being suck asses, they need to look at one thing and that's the deal that we are probably going to end up signing here in the next three weeks,' Roenick told the newspaper. 'They'd better understand that pro athletes are not cocky. Pro athletes care about the game.

'Everybody out there who calls us spoiled because we play 'a game,' they can all kiss my ass. They can all kiss my ass because we have tried so hard to get this game back on the ice.'

Roenick said everyone – the league, the union, the players – are all responsible for the lockout, he just wishes the NHLPA listened to its constituents more closely.

'They could have listened to their players,' he said. 'They could have listened to the players who had an idea of where this thing was going. They could have listened to me, they could have listened to Robert Esche, to Jarome Iginla, to Chris Pronger, and to sign a deal close to what we had in February. '

'... Now that we're at this point, I realize I was right. That deal we could have signed in February beats the [crap] out of the deal we're going to sign in July.'"

Perhaps we'll see a deal very soon. Me hopes!

A.L.