Who cares about Hockey?

A year ago I would have been in hell without hockey. My Saturday nights were filled with Hockey night in Canada. One of my best days was hockey day in Canada. I was a little too drunk to remember the last game, but damn was it fun.

Now the I'm sports reporter. I watch more hockey than I ever have before. Last weekend I was at a arena for all of Saturday and most of Sunday afternoon. I watched five full games and a couple partial matches, so I could fill three pages for the Wednesday's paper. I didn't mind watching the hockey, but I don't think I would have made it home to watch the second game of CBC's double header. I'm not missing the NHL at all. I don't have the time.

Last year was different though. I had a morning shift on Saturday, so i could catch both games Saturday night. Then I had some time to hit a pub for a couple more hours. It was a good time to get a group of friends together, drink some beers, bitch about our teams and have a good time. It was a nice stress reliever from college and work for me.

With the lockout going on for two months, I trying to figure out who really cares about the game of hockey and the NHL in particular. It's definitely not the player or the owners.

If either one of them cared the season would have started already. The players could realize they're making way too much money for something they love to do, if they actually love hockey. Or the owners would screw the cost certainty and just not pay the players the huge salaries. Let's not put a cap in writing, just have an agreement with the other owners that we won't pay too much for players. There wouldn't be any businesses in the world if every business practiced the same ridiculous spending NHL owners do.

I think it's the fans that are getting shafted. The people who hang out with friends and watch the games. The people who have their weekends off and need some stress relief.

But even those people are turning to other leagues or sports. The WHL is having huge attendance increases. Basketball will take off, especially if the Rapters do decent. I know more people talking NFL than ever before. I've managed to talk a couple of people into a fantasy league that would have never tried.

Hockey is gone for at least a year. I don't think anybody cares. It's not the two sides not talking. It's not the fans that have found new sports, and it's definitely not me who gets paid to watch hockey.

Good bye NHL. It was fun for the first 24 years of my life, but I'll find other stuff to do for the rest of my good old days.