Smits admitted he's received plenty of tweets and messages from friends and family wondering how he can bury the hatchet with Montreal, considering how many still feel sour about the way Montreal beat Edmonton last year.

“After Evan had finished warming up, it was time for me to go in and face the shooters,” recalled Smits, who was back in Edmonton on Thursday. “And, any time the ball went over the goal, the fans on that side weren’t trying to just toss the ball back; they were trying to hit me. They were throwing it as hard as they could. They were throwing objects at me.”

So, when you recall Tuesday night’s epic CONCACAF Champions League semifinal second-leg match between the Montreal Impact and Alajuelense — a nail-biter of a game in Costa Rica that saw the Impact “lose” 4-2 but hang on for a 4-4 aggregate score, with the edge being away goals — you should also stop and think back 11 months.

Smits — who won the NASL Golden Glove last year for posting the best goals-against average in the league — will leave for Costa Rica after the Jacksonville match. His loan only extends to April 8, so he will be back in Edmonton for the April 12 home opener vs. Carolina.

“The Collective Bargaining Agreement is scheduled to expire on January 31, 2015,” Foose wrote in an e-mail. “When it expires, the obligation not to engage in a work stoppage also expires. I do not want to comment on when or if there would be a work stoppage. All I can say is that unless there is a Collective Bargaining Agreement in place, there is always the possibility of a work stoppage.”