Last Saturday morning, I went to the local video store to see
what they had in the way of mind-numbing video games and movies. I
was in a good mood and planning on enjoying a Saturday afternoon
off.
Last Saturday morning, I went to the local video store to see what they had in the way of mind-numbing video games and movies. I was in a good mood and planning on enjoying a Saturday afternoon off.
One reason for my cheerfulness was that, on Friday evening, the NHL rumor mill was all but confirming that the hockey season was going to be un-cancelled and that play would begin immediately to set up an abridged playoff scenario that would eventually award the Stanley Cup for the 2004-05 season.
On my way out of the store after failing to find anything decent to rot my brain with, I overheard a man in a Sharks jacket talking about the big news with a store employee. Of course, I had to chime in.
“Oh yeah, it’s a done deal,” I declared as I crashed their conversation, ready to regurgitate all of the erroneous information the evil four-letter network had provided me with only 12 hours ago. “Gretzky and Lemieux went out to New York and got involved. There’s going to be a season after all. Isn’t that great?”
I told the guy in the turquoise jacket that I was an Avalanche fan and that I worked as a sports writer. We talked for a minute or two about the state of the game and what we thought would happen in the upcoming months as far as the fans coming back to the game was concerned.
He seemed to be slightly more forgiving about the whole thing than I was at the time but we were in agreement that, no matter how badly the whole thing was handled, a partial hockey season is better than no hockey season at all, which is what we as fans were looking at just hours prior.
What a joke.
It looks like it’s going to be a “You’ll get nothing and like it” scenario after all. After months of no negotiations, followed by a couple of days of heavy talking between the union and owners, the season was officially called off. Only to apparently be saved at the last minute (or after the last minute I guess), only to be called off super-officially and permanent-like a day later.
If my movie-renting Sharks fan wasn’t totally fed up with the NHL on Saturday morning after being jerked around and told that things were back on, he probably is now.
Sorry to keep harping on this issue, folks. But it’s out of my system now. That is, until this weekend when no doubt, Ray Bourque and Gordie Howe will go to New York to meet with owners, followed of course by “breaking news” from Dan Patrick or whichever hair-do is lucky enough to be on the desk when the season is again un-canceled.
On the lighter side: The hockey mess hasn’t managed to take the smile off my face this week. We’ve got too much good stuff going on locally. Not only are the local boys’ and girls’ basketball teams beginning their playoff runs, where the likes of Kyle Sharp and Amanda Link will get a chance to showcase their talents for the last time on the high-school stage, baseball and softball are getting into full swing. The days of sunflower seeds and sunshine are fast approaching and Michael Luna and Clint Wheeler’s hardballers, as well as Scott Smith and Julie Berggren’s softball players, should all be in the mix for league titles this season.
Also, I just found out that I will be able to travel to Bakersfield next week to watch some of the best Haybaler and Mustang grapplers compete in the state wrestling championships. Maybe no hockey is a good thing. It’s space we can use in the paper to give our local athletes even more coverage as they continue to represent our community well with their hard work and dedication.
