No More NHL

Ten years ago, I was mightily peeved about the baseball strike. For some reason, though I like hockey more than baseball, I can't get so worked up about this lockout. I suppose it's because it's pretty hard to get too worked up about hockey in September. The baseballers stooped their game right at the start of the home stretch with several records and milestones looming. That's pretty much half the fun of baseball anyway, checking in every night to see how this guy or that guy is doing against history.

The special part of the NHL season is the playoffs. They have until December to save that, I'm told. As always is the case with these obnoxious labor disputes, I have some small fascination with the idea that the sport may emerge with a radically different look. It hasn't happened lately, but what if it could happen this time? Can the WHA get off the ground and challenge the NHL? Can anything move more teams back to Canada? Personally, I'd be curious to see a North American sport with a multi-tiered league system like most countries have for soccer. Who know if it could be made to work, but it would be interesting to see the local hockey teams playing for promotion. Especially since the local teams are what we're going to have to get used to watching for a while.