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Don Fehr, executive director of the NHLPA, reflects on the lockout

NHLPA Member Meeting

of the NHLPA meets with the media at Marriott Marquis Times Square on September 13, 2012 in New York City.

Bruce Bennett

Remember the lockout - that pesky, 113-day work stoppage that finally came to an end on Jan. 6 and truncated the 2013 season down to 48 regular season?

Yeah, no one really wants to think about it, especially when the season is coming to a close and there are numerous playoff races in both conferences.

But, Montreal Gazette hockey writer Dave Stubbs caught up with NHL Players’ Association executive director Don Fehr and gave him an opportunity this week to reflect on the back-and-forth negotiations between the players and owners, represented by commissioner Gary Bettman

For hockey fans, it wasn’t much fun watching the same updates on television, watching the same old shots of Fehr and Bettman walking in and out of hotel lobbies. Apparently, the NHLPA executive director felt the same way.

“I said something like, ‘Hopefully you’ll be watching hockey players again very soon and not people in suits like me and like Gary,’ ” Fehr told the Montreal Gazette.

“I really mean it — the redeeming virtue of hockey is that it is so captivating, so all encompassing, so engrossing that when you get back into it, that’s what your focus is. And I never really had much doubt that that would happen.”