Every time I see Tie Domi, or hear him talk, I have the urge to whack him on the side of his head. The smirk on his face, the glint of wiseguy in his eyes, and the way he plays hockey, and just the size of his melon head, all irritate me.

He gets the same reaction from most hockey players I know. But that's what he's all about. He stirs up trouble both on the ice and in the stands. Hell, he even got that Flyers' fan to fall into the penalty box with him back in 2001 by squirting water over the glass at a heckler and - what else? - smirking.

So I know that I've really had it up to my eyebrows with the No Hockey League and the No Hockey League Players Association when Domi says something with which I completely agree.

The Toronto Maple Leafs forward was quoted in the New York Times last week as saying if the leaders of the players union and the league can't get a deal that ends this lockout, they should be replaced.

"If these guys (NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow) don't get a deal done, there's going to have to be new faces in there," Domi told the Times.

"There's a lot of ego, and they don't want to put their pride aside. The fight is over. These two guys have got to get a deal done. They'd better, or they won't be around too long. You need trust. I don't know if these two guys at the top can get this done. That's the bottom line."

I hope when the union meets in Toronto on May 24, Domi makes his feelings heard. Maybe if the players dump Goodenow, the owners will abandon the hard-liners who are acting like the best way to do business is to not do business at all, and they'll dump Bettman.

Because I am really, really sick of reading about meetings that end without progress, that the sides are inching toward a deal, followed by the childish, elementary-school behavior of those running the negotiations.

Take this week for example. Over the weekend, Bettman's top negotiator, Bill Daly, told Rogers Sportsnet, the Web site of a Canadian news media company, that the union leadership "grossly slanted" to the players its interpretation of the league's latest offer.

Daly was quoted as saying: "It appears more and more as if (Goodenow) is simply intent on continuing the fight, and trying as hard as he can to do whatever it takes to avoid making a deal."

Not to be upstaged, Goodenow's second, Ted Saskin, shot right back. "I am not surprised that Bill would be embarrassed by what Gary and the league proposed to us on Thursday. I am surprised that Bill would be upset at us having informed the players.

"I challenge Bill to release their proposal to the public if they believe it is not being fairly analyzed. We are totally confident that anyone who reviews the league's May 5 floating payroll tax proposal would be equally puzzled by its intentions and would also see just how unworkable it was."

Tuesday, the union and the league met in New York for another day of non-progress negotiations. They declined comment on the results of the talks but said they would meet again Wednesday and Thursday. Bettman and Goodenow said they would delay trips to Austria for the world championships to continue talking.

Meanwhile, rumor has it the union and the league made faces and shot spitballs at each other.

Domi's right.