I am heartsick. I love the Jackets and the NHL. I went to my first game on March 29 , 1972 in Boston as the Bruins beat the Minnesota North Stars 7-3.
Posted on 02/09/2005 6:37:29 PM PST by SamAdams76
Last week, espn.com, the Internet site for all-sports TV station ESPN, asked its American subscribers to weigh in on the NHL lockout. "Do you care that the NHL is expected to cancel the 2004-05 season?" they asked.
Of the 146,514 responses, 73% said "No."
Given what we north of the border have been surmising over the past few months, that percentage is not terribly surprising. Hockey coverage in the States is as hard to find as cricket coverage in Canada. It's a boutique sport at best.
What is surprising is that many actually responded. Were they giving away free cars?
We in Canada love and care about hockey in a way unmatched around the globe, but I'm starting to doubt if Canadians care as deeply as we think about the current labour dispute. Given his or her druthers, every hockey fan in this country obviously would choose to have the NHL back on ice and back on our TV sets. But in light of the equally obvious fact that it's not going to happen anytime soon, I am sensing little in the way of passionate outrage that you might expect of a people deprived of their game.
Lockout conversations tend to peter out after a minute or two, simply because there's not a lot to say. Once you get past "Are they coming back?" and the obligatory negative response, talk turns to more urgent matters, like the price of kids' sticks.
So, what in the name of Gordie Howe is going on here? It certainly isn't that we don't care, because down deep we do.
My own belief is that in an age of unfathomable player riches, not to mention ticket prices, the public has disconnected itself from the people who play and run the game.
Trevor Linden may expect us working stiffs to appreciate the principle behind his association's stalwart refusal to accept a cap on their salaries that would reduce the average salary from $1.8 million US to $1.3 million, but the truth is nobody I know can relate to such thinking.
If you can believe the industry numbers, there is a $2 billion pie (shrinking with each passing day) to be divided. How can such an economic reality get lost in the semantics of "salary cap" and "linkage" and "cost certainty."
For heaven's sake, at $1 million a year a middle-of-the road NHLer will gross more in two seasons than about 90% of the population earns in 40 years of working.
In the realm of professional athletics, hockey players have managed in general to maintain their image as "real" people; good guys, humble and as well-grounded as the small towns where so many are from. But in recent years, it has gotten so that the only people who can afford to go to watch them play are rich and well-connected themselves.
Because it's hockey and because it's Canada, folks will cheer for the sweater (whenever that sweater reappears). They will pine quietly for the game they love but care little for the "plight" of the millionaires who play it and the billionaires who own the teams.
As this charade of a negotiation drags on yet another week, each side rooted to the same patch of ground it occupied two years ago, the players and owners will continue to wage their little war through the media for the hearts and minds of the people in the street.
As far as we can tell, though, those hearts and minds already have moved on.
Pitchers and catchers report to training camp in 10 days. You think anybody is going to care about hockey at that point?
Hockey, That's the game they play with rocks and brooms right?
I work with a guy from Winnepeg, and he no longer gives a crap about the NHL.
What is the NHL?
I am heartsick. I love the Jackets and the NHL. I went to my first game on March 29 , 1972 in Boston as the Bruins beat the Minnesota North Stars 7-3.
John Kerry's service in Vietnam is a more interesting subject than hockey.
I love going to see my Sharks but they better get a clue. Golf had a higher TV rating than hockey in 2003-2004. And I'm dead serious.......poor state of affairs for this sport if they don't start getting their sh** together....."just put the puck in the net, EH?"
I think its like soccor on ice, but not as exciting or high-scoring.
What's the NHL?
Are there still hockey fans?
It's Bush's fault.
There's a lot of truth to this. I consider myself among the most avid hockey fans on the planet, and yet my interest in watching hockey diminished considerably once I started playing the game.
Hockey isn't a cheap sport by any stretch -- and it's hard to cough up lots of money for hockey tickets to watch someone else do what I love to do myself.
Really? When is the last time you saw digging in the corners, fights, or 10 goals scored in MLS or the English Premiere League? Soccer is a fine game for the 30 seconds when goals are scored. Otherwise it is a big track and field meet.
But the early 1970s Bruins were just awesome. Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, Derek Sanderson, etc. If they didn't go out drinking every night, they might have won 5 or 6 Stanley Cups during that era. And if Bobby Orr didn't blow out his knee, he would have paired with Ray Bourque and they would have been winning Stanley Cups well into the 1980s.
In the early 1990s, hockey fell out of favor with me. The neutral-trap style of play and the sissification of the sport made it into a very dull game.
I quit caring about hockey and pro basketball when the seasons became endless and the regular season was rendered meaningless by the playoff formats.
What labor? Hockey is a game, play. Done by players and not laborers. What is this world coming to. Can we get alone? Eh?
I hear they're both pretty upset.
I grew up in Needham and watched every game on Channel 38 with Fred Cusick calling the action. ( I even remember Don Earle before him.) I still have the LP "Goal Bruins". I've met and gotten autographs from Orr, Esposito, Bucyk, Cashman (he was trashed), Sinden, Rick Smith and Ace Bailey (God Rest His Soul).
Baseball and basketball made me care less with their strikes as well.
Who gives a darn, I'll watch other entertainment.
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