As many people know (or maybe not), the National Hockey League has been locked in a season-long strike. Every day, the season is getting closer to being cancelled.
This brings up a very interesting and important question; does anyone really care?
Has anyone even noticed that the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Mighty Ducks have yet to set foot in an NHL arena? If it weren’t for ESPN mentioning every once in a while that the season is on the verge of being cancelled, I wouldn’t even remember that hockey is a professional sport.
Why would they ever think of bringing hockey back? Obviously, there are six or seven big hockey fans that are still upset about the strike, but we in the United States (Maine, North Dakota and Minnesota excluded) don’t usually agree with Canadians anyway.
After all, in Los Angeles, we have so many other sports and activities to keep us occupied. Not only do we have everyone’s favorite team, the Los Angeles Lakers, trying to get their season going PS (Post Shaq), but we also have the resurgent Los Angeles Clippers, who are giving the Lakers a run for their money.
Being a bigger basketball fan, as most of America is (again, besides Maine, North Dakota and maybe Minnesota) actually works out much better now that we don’t have to see boring highlight videos of the one goal actually being scored in a hockey game.
No hockey highlights means more dunking, behind-the-back passes and alley-oops to Lebron and Kobe. No hockey means, instead of seeing highlights of a 1-0 “thriller,” we get to see the Phoenix Suns run up 115 points nightly and barely pull out a real thriller.
No hockey on ESPN means we get to see more college basketball. Recent games, including one between the second ranked North Carolina Tarheels and the seventh ranked Duke BlueDevils, show the true meaning of exciting and thrilling.
What else is there to do besides watching basketball? We have baseball season coming up just over the horizon and we all know that Arte Moreno’s Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are going to be competing with southern California’s real Los Angeles team, the Dodgers, for L.A. supremacy.
What about something other than sports? Well, how about going out to get something to eat? You can go see a movie (I heard the Mighty Ducks movies with Emilio Estevez were entertaining.)
How about reading a book, or talking on the phone? I’m sure if you want to watch TV, you can find some “Seinfeld” re-runs. I’ve got a good idea: How about seeing how long it takes for an ice cube to melt? If it takes 20 minutes, then you’ve just wasted as much time as you would have watching one boring period of hockey.
But we live in Southern California. Get off your butt and go outside. Take a bike ride, play a round of golf, shoot some hoops, or throw the football around with your neighbor. Go swimming or have a few friends over for a barbeque. Anything would be better then sitting and watching the Naptime Hockey League.
If the NHL never came back, I don’t believe we’d really miss it anyway. You can’t feel bad for any of the players or the owners. The average sports fan, making between $ 40,000 and $ 50,000 per year, can’t possibly understand how players and owners, making millions or hundreds of millions of dollars a year, can argue that they each want to make more money.
You know what the absolute saddest thing about this is? Not only did it take me longer to write this, but it also took you longer to read this than any of us would have actually spent watching the NHL this season anyway.
