Random Thoughts on the NHL Lockout

Things I miss about the NHL:

1.- Putting on out-of-market games on TV as background noise as I do other things in the living room (computer, clean, etc.)

2.-

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2.-

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2.-?

That is right:  I cannot even come up with a second item on this list.

To be fair, 18 months ago, I watched the Bruins win the Stanley Cup (at Captain Morgan's lounge in Wrigley Field of all places) and four months later, trekked to Boston to watch the Stanley Cup banner being hoisted at the TD Gardens.  That was pretty much the pinnacle of at the very least my Bruins fandom, if not my NHL fandom.  Everything after that seems a little anti-climatic, even though I did enjoy watching the Kings' improbably Stanley Cup run last year.

That being said, I really do not miss the NHL. And the lockout is actually saving me roughly $30 a month, as I cancelled the out-of-town sports package on cable to which I had been subscribing for years.

I am not quite at the point where I am wishing for a pox on the owners' and players' houses, but there would be some fantastic amount of ridiculousness at the NHL having to self-inflictedly cancel its season, just when it appeared to be making some popularity gains in the US.

The best thing that could happen would be for a lost season to force the NHL to address some structural issues; i.e., to abandon markets that clearly have not or cannot sustain a franchise (e.g., most of the franchises in the Southern States, except for the California franchises and potentially Dallas) either through contraction or relocation.  I am guessing that that would require a leadership (and philosophical) change at the league offices, which seems doubtful at best.

So let us look forward to pitchers and catchers reporting in 43 days and having to put up with bandwagon Blue Jay fans rediscovering baseball...