No Hockey For You!

It's a sad day in professional sports when a player's strike keeps the season from starting on time. These things need to be worked out in the off-season, seriously guys, what are you doing? But, you know, it happens. What has never happened before in professional American sports (a narrow category, I know) is a strike causing the cancelation of an entire season.

Until now.

This is kinda sad for me. I enjoy watching hockey. And the hockey playoffs are a pretty spectacular phenomenon. Somehow, during the playoffs, the game is elevated to a higher level. There's a serious level of tension for every game. Oddly, by the time you get to the Stanley Cup, it's a bit of a let-down. But that's neither here nor there... no season, no playoffs.

Other than the hardcore fans, the people that are going to most affected by this have to be those teams in markets where ice-hockey is an anachronism. Like the Tampa Bay Lightning or the Dallas Stars (and lest we forget the expansion Nashville Predators). These teams have a hard enough time convincing locals that hockey exists.

Ah well. This should be good for the NBA and minor league hockey teams all across North America.

As an aside... Does anyone else think it's more than coincidence that the hockey strike came at around the same time that high-definition televisions were becoming popular and widely available? Perhaps there was a little performance anxiety now that they knew that the people at home would be able to see the puck. Or perhaps hockey as a sport is an illusion and high-def would reveal that there is no puck. Just a bunch of loons on skates!