I’ve wanted to write about the NHL season for a while, but I really don’t know anything about it, and I’m too much of a bum to do the research. So I’ve brought in a guest blogger to do the honors. My good friend KGE doesn’t have a blog of his own but I’m trying to talk him into it. Give it a read and leave him a comment with some feedback. Maybe we can talk him into starting a blog of his own.

Why millionaires should not have a union:
MHO about the NHL Lockout
– KGE

As of the start of this writing the National Hockey League has been locked out for 53 days, 15 hours, 25 minutes, and 12 seconds. There are no negotiations scheduled, and at this point none likely for the foreseeable future. And almost nobody cares. That is what should scare the hell out of professional hockey, both management and labor. This season is on the brink of disappearing and almost nobody cares. The Stanley Cup may not be awarded for the first time since it was cancelled due to an influenza pandemic¹ and almost nobody cares. Half of the league could potentially disappear if this goes on for more than a season and almost nobody cares.

Here is my message to the National Hockey League Players Association: MORONS!! YOU ARE KILLING THE GOOSE THAT LAYS THE GOLDEN EGGS!! MAKE A %$^#ING DEAL!!

I don’t blame the owners. It is kind of hard to do that. They have spent the last decade inflating salaries beyond any reasonable level for a sport that gets the same TV ratings as arena football². They have had two franchises file for bankruptcy, with a third perilously close, in the last 5 years. They know that they are foolish, shortsighted men who are not to be trusted. And so they are seeking a system to protect the sport from themselves. A salary cap will prevent somebody from going on a drunken rampage and giving Bobby Holik 8 million a year. A salary cap will keep the Detroit Red Wings from acting like the Yankees³ and keep the New York Rangers from acting like the Redskins⁴.

It is hard to blame the players too. They don’t want the good times to end. They want salaries to continue to escalate out of control. I can see where I might like my salary to jump like that too. But something has to give. Under the proposed CBA the average NHL player’s salary would be 1.4 million dollars a year. Average! It is awfully difficult to feel sorry for a group when the base proposal would make the average player a millionaire. Players have said that they will never accept anything even vaguely like a salary cap, and cite the NFL as why they won’t. Unless I am mistaken, under the current system in the NFL the sport has thrived, taken over the #1 spot in America from baseball, and everybody has gotten filthy stinking rich!

I am just a fan. All I want is to watch my Flyers play this year. Hell, I will settle for watching any hockey this year⁵. But if a deal isn’t done, and soon, then the NHL could slip from irrelevancy into oblivion. In the United States almost nobody cares about hockey. An extended work stoppage will make it so that almost nobody will even remember hockey.

¹- Raise your hand if you remember the pandemic. If you are less than 85 years old, put your hand back down, you stinking liar. It happened in 1919.

²- Nothing against the AFL mind you, I think it is a cool sport. Go Rampage!!

³- That would be spending huge amounts of money to contend for the championship every year.

⁴- That would be spending huge amounts of money to crash and burn every year.

⁵- I have been watching as much minor league hockey as I can. Go Phantoms!!