Don Cherry's hockey commentator position is on ice now that the NHL season is officially cancelled, but that doesn't mean he has nothing to say.

"I don't know what happened, it was so sad," a disappointed Cherry told CTV's Canada AM, one day after the season was cancelled after more than 150 days on lockout.

"The hockey players, I'm afraid, they don't know what they're in for. That was the best offer they will ever get."

The NHL's announcement came after the deadline for the NHL Players' Association to accept a final $42.5-million US salary cap proposal passed without a word. The NHLPA had proposed a salary cap of $49 million.

Hockey Night in Canada's Cherry says it sounds like $45 million could have been the magic number.

The ever-forthright, never-shy Canadian icon said fans who claimed to be glad the season was over were "liars."

"I think they're liars. They love it. The switchboards at TSN, they're jammed more than they ever have been."

But in the United States, the cancellation is "just not registering," Sports Illustrated's Michael Farber told CTV Newsnet.

"There has been a collective shrug in the United States throughout this," he said. "Truly, we are at the dawn of a new era with the NHL."

Cherry predicts hockey won't resume until January 2006.

He said the players have no reason to be upset if replacement athletes take their coveted spots on the rink and in the hearts of fans.

"The players cannot get upset because they have been replacement players in Europe, in the American league and other leagues. They have taken other guys' jobs so they can't be upset when somebody else comes and takes their job now," he said.

"Whether the people will pay to see replacement players is another question."

Farber said he thought the players had a higher moral ground in the negotiations.

"But high moral ground recedes rapidly when you jump off a cliff. That is what has happened now. Both sides have jumped off a cliff. The game is lying in a ditch."

Cherry called the last-minute negotiations between the NHL and NHLPA leading up to the cancellation "ridiculous."

"It should have been done a long time ago, but I guess that's how they negotiate in big business."

For Cherry, no NHL means no regular paycheque.

"I haven't had a paycheque since last spring so you know, you do the best you can with what you got."

He misses the playoffs most, he said. After all, he has been a fixture on the scene for 24 years.

When asked about his employment future, who knows, Cherry mulled, maybe he will go back to coaching or go scouting with his son.

Would he go on the road with jazz crooner Michael Buble, who also appeared on CTV's Canada AM Thursday morning? He said he was open to suggestions.

"I need the money," Cherry quipped.

But he warned fans not to get too comfortable without Canada's once-favourite sport.

"We have to get ready because we're going to get murdered in the press and the media and everything. Hockey will be back," he said vehemently.

"And it will be as great as it ever was, so don't give up.... It's the greatest game in the world."