From New York to Phoenix, from Vancouver to Miami, Gary Bettman, the commissioner of the National Hockey League, is regarded almost unanimously as a buffoon of the highest order. Bettman, along with union chief Bob Goodenow, are considered the men most responsible for the cancellation of the 2004-05 season. Newspaper columnists and television commentators seem to take special delight in bashing Bettman, an easy target.

The New York Post also included another group responsible for the two sides failing to reach a collective bargaining agreement. It said, "a coalition of small-market and hard-line clowns who have seized control of the league," were integral to the cancellation.

To that, I say, good work, Gary. Way to go, Mario Lemieux. Nice job, Ken Sawyer. Congratulations, small-market owners and "hard-line clowns."

They're angry in New York, Detroit, Philadelphia and the other markets where the philosophy is fiscal prudence be damned and full speed ahead toward economic ruin. We should be pleased in Pittsburgh, where it was becoming increasingly impossible to put a competitive team on the ice under the economic conditions that existed in the NHL.

No question, the cancellation of the season is a major setback to a league that was reeling even before the owners declared a lockout before the 2004-05 season began. But it's not a dagger to the heart. A dagger to the heart would have been to cave in to the demands of the union and abandon the absolute insistence on a salary cap.

To have caved to union demands would have saved the season, but killed the league.

Playing some semblance of a season was extremely important to the health of the league, but not at the expense of failing to negotiate a salary cap.

What seems to be forgotten is that the NHL was something approaching a terminally ill condition before the lockout. Television ratings were a joke, public acceptance -- beyond hard-core fans -- was minimal. Hockey might have been considered by some to be one of the four major sports, along with football, baseball and basketball, but it has long since fallen from that group. Auto racing has a significantly larger following.

To have returned to that status might not have been the death of the NHL, but it would have been the death of the Pittsburgh franchise.

The absolute need for a salary cap can't be overstated and no one should know that better than people who follow Pittsburgh sports. Although the Penguins, Pirates and Steelers play in the same market, the Steelers have an opportunity to win a championship almost every year. The Penguins and Pirates have no such chance. There are several reasons for that, but the largest, by far, is that the NFL has a salary cap, which limits the earnings of the players, and the NHL and MLB do not.

When the players capitulated and agreed to a salary cap in the final days of negotiations, they were demanding the cap be set too high. Such a level would have done nothing to ensure the continuing existence of the Penguins.

To have negotiated a contract without a cap or with a cap that was set too high would have made the earlier cancellation of most of the season a waste. To have done that would have replicated the folly of Major League Baseball, which, during its last negotiations with the players' union, settled for the best deal it thought it could get, rather than the best deal.

We see the result of that agreement with every glance at the baseball standings. The Pirates and many other small-market teams still can't compete.

Bettman and enough owners were not going to accept something similar, and for such a stand they deserve our applause not our criticism.

The NHL has been accused of trying to crush the union. That's certainly not an honorable tactic, but labor negotiations always have been one of the most vicious aspects of American life. Both sides always want too much. If the owners can gain a significant advantage over the union, that's one of the prizes of victory.

The NFL crushed its union during that league's last work stoppage. The result is a weaker union, but one that still serves its players and sees itself as a partner with the league rather than an adversary.

It's clearly the model for the rest of professional sports.

The NHL might never achieve such a relationship with its union. But, by not caving in to popular demand, Bettman at least allowed for the possibility that such a day might come.