Despite my best efforts to avoid getting sucked into the media coverage of the NHL lockout over the past 4 months, I have inevitably been subjected to bits and pieces of news as I have perused my feeds in Google Reader. Last night before I went to bed, I did the usual once-over of my feeds just to catch up on the news of the day and strangely found myself with a bit less apathy towards this whole lockout mess. I actually read a few articles on the state of things and found myself thinking “Wow! They could actually solve this.”.
Just to back up a bit, I certainly wasn’t surprised that this whole mess actually happened. Greed will do what it will do and there was more than enough to go around between the owners and the players. I didn’t think I’d missed NHL hockey per se, but I did miss being able to see that kind of hockey. Having the ability to just throw on the game I love over dinner on a Tuesday night was something I enjoyed. Sure, there were a few CHL games on, but those were usually on Friday nights so it really didn’t scratch that mid-week hockey itch. Despite the fact that I coach several teams, there is a huge difference between coaching and sitting back and simply watching a game as a fan. I was definitely missing that. I’d managed to take in some of the Spengler cup games over the holidays, plus a few games of the World Juniors and enjoyed both, but they were both over too soon.
Returning to this lockout mess, I found it very strange that after nearly 4 months of feeling and saying “I don’t care”, “I hope they both lose”, and “I’m never going back”, I was suddenly hopeful that there would be a season and I could get back to watching hockey. Logically I know that the NHL isn’t the only “game” in town when it comes to hockey but nothing else was really able to replace it. Much to my chagrin, I wasn’t really eager to have it replaced. Had I been completely taken in by the NHL’s marketing team, as well as that of their sponsors and corporate partners? Was it the high-definition broadcasts? The six zillion camera angles with the ultra slow motion replays? The “Captain Obvious” play-by-play announcers? The forced and often painful “insight” granted us by “experts” in between periods? Or was it that the whole kit-and-kaboodle was just what I had come to find entertaining (or simply comfortable)?
This morning I did my usual start-of-day crawl through the news and shock! There it was plastered everywhere that a deal had been reached. Oh Joy! Oh Rapture! There stood the two principals in this whole soap opera announcing that it was over, seemingly proud of themselves for conquering the inevitable. As I read the news and watched the accompanying, often painfully repetitive videos, all I could feel was this sense of ambivalence. Yes, I can once again go back to watching my hockey on Tuesday nights, get my fix of Ron and Don on CBC, and listen to the empty cliché responses of the players to the leading and softball questions of interviewers. Yes I can once again see spectacular displays of skill sprinkled amongst long stretches of mediocre hockey dominated by systems of play designed to all but eliminate those same displays of skill. Yes I can once again watch many of the “stars” of the game make half-hearted attempts in regular season games and then disappear in playoff games when it counts most.
Many fans will return immediately, and many more will trickle back in over the next few years. Too many of us grew up with it and it has become a very significant part of our lives. I know I will be back, but not because I strongly support the game or the teams or players. I will be back because it is comfortable, not because I really care. I’m not sure how many other fans will be back for the same reason, but Heaven forbid that the NHLPA or the owners ever make it feel uncomfortable for the fans again.
I had more to write about how I think the owners and NHLPA need to be represented by people who have actually played the game, but that is a whole other rant.
Updated:
I just read a quote from Buffalo Sabres goaltender, Ryan Miller: “I hope that fans will forgive us for the role we played in this lockout.” It is a nice sentiment, Ryan. My advice is that you the players need to give fans reasons to forgive you instead of just asking for it. Why don’t you make sure that for every game covered under this new CBA, every player brings 100% to every shift regardless of whether they are a star or a grinder? Why don’t you bury the hatchet with the owners right now and give everything you can to grow the game and repair the damage done? Why don’t you make sure that at the end of this CBA, the players are proactive and make a first, reasonable offer to ownership long before there can be any talk of another work stoppage? Do all of this and maybe the fans will forgive the players. As for the owners, that’s an entirely different matter.