It's finally over. It was over, then it wasn't and now it is.

After canceling their season last Wednesday, coming back to the table on Saturday and then reassuring us all what we were hoping for already on Sunday, National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman once and for all canceled the remainder of the regular season and playoffs. He gave a tidy little parting shot at the NHL Player Associations executive director Bob Goodenow in the process. The jab seemed to be the culmination of an emotional roller-coaster ride centering around the owner's wish for, among other things, a salary cap of around $42.5 million, the figure that they feel will allow the league to finally start turning a profit.

The players thought that $49 million sounded better.

Bettman, in so many words, said that the two parties will have to agree to disagree and see who comes crying back to the table first. My money is on the wealthier side winning out.

It is truly a sad day when a professional sports league has to cancel an entire season because of greed, even if it is just hockey. This labor dispute is now notorious for being the first on the North American continent to end an entire season.

But I guess I'm really not that upset.

I have rather enjoyed seeing that Linda Cohn and Dan Patrick don't have to rush through NCAA Hoops highlights to get to all of the hockey highlights that always seem to bump the UMKC vs. Oral Roberts reels. No, it is fair to say that I am actually pretty pumped.

But then there are guys like Archie Bennitz. Archie passed away last month, but not before issuing a final request to his son. In Archie's will he instructed his son to criticize both Bettman and Goodenow for "denying him the pleasure of watching the NHL on TV this year." He went so far as to call them both "skunks." Archie was, needless to say, a Canadian, and he just wanted to see some hockey before he died.

But not me. I am much more interested in hearing about BALCO and steroids for the next few months or watching re-runs of "Mama's Family" than I am in seeing the fruition of a hockey season.

Again, unlike me, there are fans of the Phoenix Coyotes (yes, that is an NHL team and, yes, they are in Phoenix, a city with an average temperature of 90. In the shade. In December).

These fans, upon voicing their devastation to anyone in Phoenix who will listen, which basically comes to a grand total of 14 people, were rewarded with free ATP Tour tickets. The ATP tour is the professional tennis circuit. Well, from one fringe sport to another, I guess you go where the action is.

Speaking of moving on to where the action is, I am starting to gain a fonder appreciation for Detroit Red Wings forward Brendan Shanahan.

Last week, Shanahan announced his intentions to switch sports and play for the National Lacrosse League's Toronto Rock.

Sure it helps that Shanahan is part owner of the franchise, but if you can't hack it playing a fake sport, you might as well try your hand at one that really matters.

With pre-lockout ratings that were lower than the Arena Football League and Women's College Basketball, Shanahan might not be the only player who is going to walk away in search of greener pastures. He is, in effect, just following the lead of the thousands of supporters of "legalized assault on ice" who have long since fled hockey looking more athletic, less whiny, sports figures to emulate. Perhaps that explains the near-meteoric rise in the PGA's and the Nine-ball World Championships Tournament's ratings.

Hockey is gone; you can imagine my excitement. I spent too much time during the last few months hoping for the residual calm that the NHL lockout provided and worrying about the inevitability of its return. A whole hour, in fact.

Now I can focus on more pressing issues, like the World Table-Tennis (not Ping Pong) Championships and planning my next visit to the dentist. Though hockey is about as much fun as watching table-tennis and orthodontia, I find the latter both more rewarding.