The Icemen Goeth
I know that mine is just another voice in the see of opinions regarding the NHL hockey lockout this season, but there are some things that I keep hearing that really upset me. Here is a summary of some of my opinions regarding the labour stoppage.
1. Neither the owners or players are deserving of sympathy. The sooner the public embodies that opinion, and as soon as those in charge realize that, the deal will be made sooner. Their bills will still get paid. Hockey will go on, regardless of whether or not the NHL is place to find the best in the world.
2. Contracting teams is a good option. Removing the less profitable teams will fix a few things (as long as no Canadian teams are contracted). On a mathematical basis however, I'd prefer a league with either, 30, 24 or maybe 26 teams. I'm all about symetry, and those numbers give the best possible league formations.
3. The talent pool is as deep now as it was in the early 80's. People always gripe about a watered down talent pool with too many teams. Twenty years ago, we were pulling from two countries, Canada and USA. As the most recent World Cup of Hockey proved, there are at least 5 other countries (Russia, Sweden, Finland, Slovakia and Czech Repblic) that put out great hockey players. You can argue that new styles of play make the game more boring, but the talent pool is as deep or deeper now than it was in the day when Gretzky scored 200 points in a season. No matter how many teams there are in the league, the good teams will stay good, and the bad teams will stay bad, that's the nature of sports.
4. The best alternative is a International Super-league. This is an original William Loewen idea, so I'll work out the details of it soon and get them on paper so that if the NHL never really becomes viable again, then investors can buy into my idea and we'll have world class hockey again.

   [ posted by William @ 11:42 PM ]