Let's Play Hockey
Are you fortunate enough to live in a city with an NHL team? Are you smart enough to understand that hockey is the greatest game ever invented? If so, then you'll know and perhaps even cherish the name Alexander Ovechkin. Alex, as he prefers to be called, is one of the bright young stars who are leading the NHL back from the brink of failure. Another is Sidney Crosby, who I saw lead Canada to its World Junior Hockey Championships win in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Two years ago, the NHL season was cancelled because of a player strike. The players lost that battle but the fans won the war because the strike gave the players and owners the breathing space they needed to clean and speed up the game. As a former Canadian, I have a soft spot in my heart for the rough and tumble days of the NHL when games were often delayed because of the blood and Chiclets left on the ice after a bench clearing brawl. But as a hockey fan, I know that the game that the NHL is playing now is the best that it has ever played. And guys like Ovechkin are flashy, flamboyant, exciting, and they have a tendency to score goals which defy the laws of physics. Want an example? Have a peak at this video. Be sure to watch all the way through so that you can see the goal in slow motion.
The NHL All-Star game is tonight. In an apparent effort to prove to its fans that it still has some of its stupidity left over from the rough and tumble days, the NHL chose to have the game broadcast on the VS network. Never heard of it? Neither had I. If you have DirecTV, it is channel 608.
Good afternoon Steven,
The only thing that will save the NHL is to can their commisioner, Gary Betteman.
Er, ah, sorry, a team in Nashville? Two teams in Florida? Oooh, I especially get excited for the home and home series with Columbus! Not gaining new customers while turning away loyal customers has not been an ideal business model for the NHL. TV coverage will only get worse, thank goodness for Hockey Night in Canada.
Booooo for Gary. Go Wings, I guess.