It’s always been a point of pride for me, to be a hockey fan. I’ve always seen the sport as a step up from the rest of the professional sports in North America: players just a tad bit classier, fans just a tad more evolved, and games that much better.
As players of other sports find themselves making headlines for spousal abuse, brandishing weapons, and indictments on drug use, the NHL players are working on making the sport a pro-gay place, coming together for player safety, and all around improving the sport.
But this past summer has been a moment to hang my head in shame.
For the third time in 20 year, the NHL is headed for a lockout. I don’t even know where to begin, angry, indignant , and overall astounded at the behavior of owners makes me wonder if I’ve invested my time, money, and attention into the right sport. The first lockout was only a partial lockout and I truly don’t remember enough to point fingers as to what went down. I was 6. The second lockout, all signs pointed to the players pulling the privileged and entitled act. But this time around? Twitter has shown us a whole new angle and it’s not pretty if you’re an NHL owner. And it makes me sick. This summer alone, I’ve probably spent $300 on NHL licensed gear, all this money is making its way into the pockets of these pricks who don’t seem to care about retaining fans.
Blame Bettman, blame Fehr, blame Honey Boo Boo, doesn’t really matter, we aren’t having hockey and this sucks big sweaty monkey balls.
I’ve seen lists going by Twitter on ways to survive the NHL lockout, I’ve also seen bloggers give thanks to the last lockout as it helped launch their careers, but more importantly, I’ve seen the public outcry of fans who have been craving that hard hitting sport. I love hockey. And sadly in the NYC area, we won’t get hockey if there isn’t a season. MSG’s tv channel has the rights to all Rangers, Islanders, and Devils games-- but also the Knicks games. They don’t need to fill the time with AHL broadcasts: NBA games, MSG Vault, Top 100 Slam Dunks of All Time, and the 1000th showing of Serpico will replace the NHL season in a snap.
Forget all the writing I do, I don’t care about that, I want to watch the damn game! First and foremost I’m a fan. And I know that I’m not the only one that feels like this. There’s petitions going around begging people for support, but if the owners won’t listen to logic, why would they listen to little pixel marks made by peons mean anything to them? It comes down to the money and egos. The love of the game is gone. Somewhere along the way the owners stopped being fans of the game and started being the shrewd businessmen we see today.
Now don’t get me wrong, the businessmen can be fans of the game, but these guys lost that love a long time ago. How do I know? Why release a statement about refusing all offers that don’t include rollbacks 15 days before the CBA expires? Why not just extend the CBA another year and make sure the season happens? They’ll make far more money with the season in full swing than they will in lockout mode. But money and egos run this league and it’s making me sick.
DAMN THE MAN! SAVE THE SEASON!