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Martin St. Louis on lockout: “It’s tough to take”

Martin St. Louis

Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Martin St. Louis (26) takes a shot on-goal against the Florida Panthers during the second period of an NHL hockey game on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Brian Blanco)

AP

On the heels of the latest round of game cancellations, Martin St. Louis fumed to Tampa Bay Times reporter Damian Cristodero.

“I’m shaking my head every time I wake up,” St. Louis said. “We’re telling everybody we’re going to go to 50 percent, let’s share responsibility to get there. They don’t want that. Again, they want to hit us. It’s us, 24 percent last time and now 12 percent, and doing that when the game has grown the most, it’s tough to take.”

St. Louis seems to understand that some look at the CBA negotiations as squabbles between two very rich parties, but tries to explain the struggle.

“Nobody is crying poor here, and I think it’s hard for the fans to understand that,” St. Louis said. “But it’s about when there’s a problem we have to fix it all the time and they don’t want to take responsibility, too.”

If the lockout remains a problem that simply won’t get fixed, St. Louis admits that the draw of playing overseas is getting stronger.

“I want to play,” St. Louis said. “I need to play. If it’s not here, I’ll be playing somewhere. I don’t know when that date is, but every day I wake up, I’m closer to that date.”

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He’s worried the lockout could hurt his career

“If we have to sit, we’ll sit.”