Monday, March 12, 2007

The End of the Affair

There isn't a ladder tall enough to get me down from the horse I'm on right now.

It took a lot to get to this point. I swear it did. I put up with quite a bit of garbage but now I'm through. For the next three weeks or so (until the start of the playoffs) this will be the last thing I write about the league formerly known as the NHL. I'm sick of watching it, I'm sick of hearing about it and more than anything I'm sick of complaining about it. But unfortunately I don't see any way to write about the NHL without complaint, so until further notice, we are officially on a break.

I used to think that the problem of the the game of hockey not catching on in the States was cultural, that people in America simply didn't get it. But after watching and following the game this year, with all that's happened, I no longer think that's the problem. The problem lies solely with the game itself and the league that that governs it, the NHL.

You have to ask yourself this question, if you knew nothing about hockey and felt no patriotic urge to watch the game, would you follow hockey? Seriously think about it, if you were not or are not a hockey fan right now, why would you start following this sport?

Don't get me wrong, there are some attractive points about the game right now. There is a wealth of young talent and the games are sometimes fast and exciting (these type of games actually happen nowhere near as often as everybody wants you to believe they do). But there is just so much wrong the product that the NHL puts out, both and off the ice that I have just had enough.

Between the implosion of the NHL Player's Association and the Ted Saskin situation, Chris Neil, Chris Simon, Cam Janssen and officiating that is just so clueless and so inept it makes George W. Bush look like General Patton, it has just become too much for me to process right now and I can't take anything else going wrong with this league. So I'm going to step away and not only stop writing about hockey until the playoffs, I'm going to stop watching it as well. I need a break so that I can come back fresh and strong and bring out the A-game for the playoffs. Because if there's one time you need your A-game, it's the playoffs.

But fear not, there will loads of material over the next few weeks. March Madness starts this weekend and I'm very excited to see how early I can be eliminated from every pool that I'm a part of, that's always a good time. The NBA is winding down and right now Dallas is just crushing everything in their path like an Al Gore-global-warming-storm. There are things NFL-related things going on, as well as maybe even something from the CFL (although I think it's about 6 months to early to be talking about the CFL).

So be strong and don't worry, we can and will survive without the NHL.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey you could start writing about some other sports...like how bout the exciting six nations rugby tournament; which ireland almost one by-the-by. Or how bout the cricket world cup, where the pakistan coach died not shortly after being upset by the irish side (yes, I am a little irish obsessed right now, blarney and all that fun). Or the exciting champions league? Come on, start writing about some sports that I can follow...plus they are pretty darn good.

Yur no. 1 fan,

T. Hersche...no no, lets say Tim H.