TORONTO (AFP) - As the last strains of "We are the Champions" died in an emptying arena after Canada's World Cup triumph, elite professional ice hockey slipped into a coma from which it might not wake for years.
National Hockey League owners were due to lock out their millionaire players Wednesday, determined to ram through a salary cap to stem what they say are multi-million dollar losses.
Hockey sages are betting the game will be in the deep freeze for months, possibly years.
For a clue how fans are feeling in the hockey heartlands of Canada and the northern United States, imagine England without the Premier League, Italy shorn of Serie A, summer with no golf majors, Wimbledon or the Monaco Grand Prix.
Canada's captain, Mario Lemieux, will be in the bizarre position of locking himself out of the Pittsburgh Penguins dressing room, as he both owns and plays for the team.
"We're supposed to be partners," Lemiuex said, when asked about the bitter fued between owners and players.
"It's not a question of going to war or winning a battle. The next few weeks are going to be very important for the future of our game."
For Lemieux, who has beaten cancer and already come back after a 3 1/2-year retirement, the clock is ticking faster than most, as he is about to turn 39.
Martin Brodeur, the peerless Canadian goaltender who has won three Stanley Cups with the New Jersey Devils, didn't want to think about the future, preferring to savour Canada's 3-2 win over Finland in the World Cup final.
"It's definitely disappointing after the high we are living right now not to be able to play hockey," he said. "But the business part of the game is going to enter everybody's life come tommorow."
The NHL board of governors was due to meet Wednesday in New York to rubber stamp the shutdown, which will cancel training camps ahead of the league's scheduled start in early October.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says his 30-team league needs cost certainty with player salaries tied to revenues while NHL Players Association executive director Bob Goodenow rejects any form of salary cap on the NHL's 700 players.
The result is a showdown similar to those played out in North American basketball, where owners outlasted players in a 1998-99 dispute, and baseball, where the 1994 World Series was lost before a luxury tax plan was formulated.
NHL owners locked out players for 103 days in 1994 and 1995, wiping out nearly half a season. A prior deal was extended in 1995 to allow NHL talent into the Olympics and in 1997 to add four NHL expansion clubs.
The NHL claims it lost almost 300 million dollars last season, about the same amount it has set aside as a "war chest" lockout fund, and wants salaries to be 50 percent of league revenues.
If the lockout drags on for a year or more, some teams like the Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers, and even Lemieux's Penguins may not survive.
Blue chip NHL talent has looked elsewhere for jobs.
Canadian forward and Boston Bruins captain Joe Thornton will play for Davos in the Swiss League and many European stars like Toronto's Mats Sundin and Colorado's Peter Forsberg, both from Sweden, will return to the clubs that nurtured them.
An informal 4-on-4 league based in Canada and dubbed the Original Six Hockey League will start as soon as this Friday, drawing many mid-ranking pros, mostly Canadians.
But some players will just stay home, trying to get used to not going to the rink for practice in the mornings and games at night -- the only life they have ever known.
"I'm just going to coach minor hockey, my kids," Brodeur said.