Boo hiss, a pox on Gary Bettman and Bob Goodenow for their inability to get over their egos and come to an agreement to get the NHL season starting on time. The way I see it, the only two good things that have come out of Bettman's tenure were expanding the league so that Tampa got a team (yay Lighting!) and letting each player on the winning team spend 24 hours with the Stanley Cup. Other than that, the rule changes that came in on his watch are lame, he's really a basketball guy and doesn't have appropriate respect for the game, and well, I'd be happy to see him go.
Hey, here's an idea, maybe if everybody starts making daily calls to the commissioners office and the NHLPA asking "is the lockout over yet?" they'll get so sick of getting bombarded with calls that they'll work something out.
YEah Bettman pretty much killed hockey as far as the NHL is concerned. Not to rain on your parade... that you still seem to be having... but one of his many many many errors was expanding the league. It really killed the escense of hockey and took the sport from cities that truly had a love for the game... Winnepeg, Hartford, for example, and gave it to cities that didn't even know the definition of the word cold. Ask any hockey fan that was a fan prior to bettman and they'll agree 100%, or ask any fan that is a fan of a team that has existed longer than bettmen's tenure.
But I'm glad the league folded, and so should you! Your team got the last cup so salude! Drink from the cup and rejoice. Personally I think hockey needs to go dorment for a while, go back to its roots. Have people go play in their home countries for a while and in smaller leagues and then maybe in a few year start a new league up that has its act together. Is the AHL still around? I used to have Chicago Wolves ball cap.
This lockout will be a while I'm betting because the players don't like bettman or the owners, there's plenty of hockey venues in other countries, and the sport isn't wildly popular like baseball or even the NBA. So saddle up for the long haul, it may be a while.
Posted by: holton at Septiembre 19, 2004 10:44 PM