The Bell Tolls For Thee
With my apologies to John Donne, I think this statement applies now to NHL hockey fans. It seems that many fans only know how to sit and grumble about the inactivity of the league and the union. That frustrates me as well, but there are some pretty wild comments being made by hockey fans, even here in southern Ontario. Among the more blasphemous statements, is "there is no hockey". There is still plenty of hockey. Around here, both the Kitchener Rangers and the London Knights are having phenomenal seasons, and tickets are impossible to get. Closer to Toronto, where the legions of Blue and White Maple Leaf fans are moaning the loudest, there are tonnes of OHL teams, teams that get almost no support.

As long as hockey fans sit idly by and wait for the NHL to resume, there is no push for them to start talks again. The last thing NHL folks want is to realize that hockey fans will turn elsewhere for their hockey fix. As soon as we start doing that, they'll go back to the tables. Hockey fans, go watch a game, Jr. A, Jr. B, Sr. A, church league, even old men's pick-up hockey. Those games are fun as well, the seats are cheaper and also closer to the action than you could get at an NHL rink. Funny things happen at community hockey games, you find you bump into people you know, you don't feel gouged when you buy a hotdog, and you won't get a stress attack trying to get out of the parking lot. People in Kitchener and London are already doing that, that's why I can't get tickets.

   [ posted by William @ 3:56 PM ]