They're Already Starting With This Crap

As soon as the Winter Classic ended, you knew everyone was going to start gushing about what a wonderful event it was - even if there was a whistle approximately once every six seconds during the first two periods. This one, hot off the presses, is entitled "NHL Sets Higher Bar with Latest Classic".

For Marco Sturm, it was his son wanting to stay on the ice at the family skate the day before the Winter Classic.

Doesn't every kid want to stay on the ice when the session is over? I mean, I'm 28 years old, and when the sessions at Cantiague Park end, I start to cry and beg the attendant for five more minutes on the ice.

Maybe it was James Taylor's lyrical version of the national anthem.

Isn't EVERY version of the national anthem performed by a singer considered "lyrical"?

It is not a stretch to suggest that for every Boston Bruins player, every Philadelphia Flyers player, every coach and manager, and the 38,112 who jammed into the Fenway Park stands, there will be a separate memory of the Winter Classic that they will tuck away forever.

OK, first of all, this is a one-sentence paragraph. Second of all, this isn't even possible. Third of all, people are going to have exactly two memories of this game - it was cool to see a rink at Fenway, and the Bruins won in overtime. In that order.

First, would this audacious plan work? The Buffalo experience on Jan. 1 2008, answered in the affirmative.

Fun fact - if the Winter Classic didn't debut in Buffalo, it would NEVER be held there. Somehow, I doubt the allure of Ralph Wilson Stadium could attract non-hockey fans.

Corporate sponsors are clamoring to get on board and NHL teams are now bidding to host the event.

Keep this sentence in the back of your mind.

"It is a cornerstone of the strategy we began over three years ago to build scale and connect with our fans in ways we haven't done before, using all of the platforms available to us," commissioner Gary Bettman said Friday.

Except, of course, ESPN. This game was listed ninth in ESPN.com's top stories just an hour after the game was over, behind non-stop college football coverage. That'd probably change if ABC was airing the game. Not saying it's fair, but that's the way it'd be.

Success is said to breed success, but at the same time, the bar has been set extremely high and the risk of backsliding, of having an event that doesn't measure up and therefore becomes subject to criticism or disappointment, goes up.

The bar was never NOT high. Last year's game set the bar as high as it was going to go. This year's game just happened to have a better finish. Now, every Winter Classic will have to be held at an iconic stadium and feature two major-market, media-friendly teams.

The NHL has for the first time opened up a bid process to come up with a host for the 2011 game.

Hey, this sounds familiar! I think I read this somewhere before.

The process will force teams to think outside the box in suggesting venues and activities that will "wow" the league.

I'd imagine the bids of teams like Nashville and Columbus will be pieces of paper stating simply, "We know we have no chance of ever getting a Winter Classic. However, we're submitting this so we can tell our fans we're in the market for a Winter Classic someday."

The New York Rangers, for instance, are the only U.S.-based Original Six team that has yet to play in a Winter Classic, and it is important they are involved given their heritage and importance to the league.

Wrong. A GOOD Rangers team is important to the league. The current Rangers team doesn't do anything for the casual fan outside of New York. It'd be like putting the Knicks on a Christmas Day game... oh wait, nevermind.

Yankee Stadium may not be a possibility, though, with word college football will be using the facility over the holidays; so, the league must consider ways for the Rangers to host a game somewhere else or invite them to play in the contest as a visiting team.

Let's also not forget that the new Yankee Stadium has been open for exactly one year. A game there isn't what it would have been a year or two ago. I'd rather see a Winter Classic at the decaying carcass of Giants Stadium than at new Yankee Stadium.

One memory many fans will cherish from Friday's Winter Classic was watching former Bruins great Bobby Orr skate onto the ice as the team's honorary captain. Former Philadelphia captain and GM Bob Clarke was the Flyers' honorary captain, and to see the two Hall of Famers skate to center ice together for the ceremonial puck drop was a nice moment.

It was also a "nice moment" when Clarke pulled the ultimate dick move, "winning" the ceremonial faceoff despite being the road team. What a prick.

Are we saying that places like Tampa, Atlanta, Carolina or Phoenix should never have an Outdoor Classic?

What's an Outdoor Classic?

Wrigley and Fenway were no-brainers, but now it becomes more difficult to find those iconic venues.

This is actually a good point. I guess there's a first time for everything.

The game also has to celebrate its biggest stars, and that's why we don't have any problem with Pittsburgh and Sidney Crosby being involved in a second game, or Detroit hosting a Winter Classic in the near future even if the Red Wings have already been in one.

We are guessing it is a formality that wherever the game is held next year, the Washington Capitals and Alex Ovechkin will be involved in some way. It is mystifying that three events have passed without the Caps being involved.

You can bet that Ovechkin and Crosby will each play in three Winter Classics before they retire. God forbid NBC and the NHL promote the other teams in the league.

In the end, the challenge of maintaining the Classic's magical spark isn't about being fair, it's about making the right choices.

Awesome. So teams like the Islanders will always be stuck playing second fiddle to the "big" teams and attractive venues. And the "right choices" will always be what yields the biggest TV ratings, not what hockey fans want to see. Get ready for Rangers-Capitals next year, which will be followed by some regurgitation of past Winter Classic matchups. Thank goodness NBC is here to expose the unheralded talent in the NHL.

Beauty And The Moulson

It was only a matter of time before the Matt Moulson puff piece was written. This actually came out about a week and a half ago, but it was so horrendous I had to share it. No, there are no Molson Canadian beer puns in this one... but fear not, as some awful wordplay still awaits you! By the way, sorry if the font jumps around in size a bit - you can blame ESPN.com's cracked web staff for that.

ST. LOUIS --

Ooh, look at me! I get to write an article from the road, and YOU don't!

At the risk of offending Linda Hamilton and the entire Moulson family and that furry guy in the old television series (Ron Perlman)

Anyone have any idea what this means? Me either. But I'm sure it'd make sense if I were like 30 years older.

and maybe even John Tavares, there is more than a little beauty-and-beast action with the New York Islanders' dynamic duo of top rookie Tavares and out-of-nowhere winger Matt Moulson.

Beauty-and-beast? Dynamic duo? Asinine alliteration? The books I read my 19-month-old daughter feature more clever wordplay.

But put it this way: Moulson, the hitherto anonymous 26-year-old winger who quickly has become the cheese to Tavares' macaroni through the first quarter of this surprising season for the Islanders, was drafted in the ninth round of the 2003 draft, 263rd overall.

There are 43 words in this sentence. I'll sum them up in four - Matt Moulson was unheralded.

They don't even have a ninth round anymore. GMs figured it was better to pack up early and go golfing or head to a bar than stick around and draft players in the ninth round.

Or, the eighth and ninth rounds of the draft were lopped off after the lockout because GMs had like a week to prepare for the draft once the lockout ended. Or the owners didn't to be stuck paying two extra draft picks. Either way, I'm sure it had nothing to do with golfing or drinking. By the way, Mark Streit was a 9th round selection of Montreal in 2004, meaning the Islanders probably have more 9th round draft picks on their active roster than any other team in history.

Does Moulson, who has 18 points, including five multipoint efforts, through the Islanders' first 23 games, get tired of being treated like the hockey guy who fell to Earth?

He laughed.

"It doesn't really bother me," he told ESPN.com. "I'm here now in the NHL. I guess I have an interesting story to tell. It's always interesting for people to find out things like that and maybe a good story for some younger kids."

See, this is why we don't go the route of some of our Blog Box colleagues and actually talk to the players. They do a good job with it. We can't. Why? Because hockey players are BORING. Sorry to say it, but it's true. What was Moulson supposed to say here? "I'm tired of being treated like the hockey guy who fell to Earth"? Furthermore, what does that even mean? Did Moulson arrive in a UFO? My head hurts now.

Indeed, an apprehensive Moulson was in regular touch with agent Wade Arnott as the July free-agency period approached and his contract with the Los Angeles Kings expired. "I was bugging him every day, 'Where do you think I'm going to end up?'" Moulson said.

I'm sure Wade Arnott was like, "Who's this Moulson guy who keeps calling me every day?".

Tavares was among the first people Moulson called when his deal was completed during that first week of free agency.

"I was right on the phone to Johnny, and it was a pretty good moment," Moulson said. "I still didn't know what was going to come of it, but I was excited."

I distinctly recall reading about the Moulson signing and loudly exclaiming the following words - "Who the hell is Matt Moulson?". So did every single Islanders fan out there - even the ones who *knew* he'd work out from the moment he signed the contract.

"Matt was a guy that I knew from my days in Providence when he was playing in Manchester. I thought he had the ability to score. But I went back and I watched some of the goals in the NHL, which were goal scorer-type goals, and as it turned out through exhibition, he was our leading goal scorer," Gordon told ESPN.com.

Yes, because scoring goals in exhibition games guarantees success in the regular season. You know who led the league in points during the pre-season? Former Islander Mike Comrie, he of the eight points in 16 regular season games. But I'm sure he'll rebound in plenty of time to win the Hart and Art Ross Trophies, even if he's got mono right now.

"The thing that's good about Matt is if he's not scoring from the tops of the circle, he's scoring from the front of the net. That ability to score from two different places, you're talking about two different types of players. Some guys don't like to go into traffic. But the fact he was willing to do that, I thought it would be a good complement for John."

Truer words have never been spoken. And by "truer words", I mean "cliches that apply to virtually every forward in the NHL".

And?

"We didn't have a lot of options," Gordon added.

That's more like it.

"Actually, when people kept cutting down my skating, cutting down my skating, Mike O'Connell, when he was with L.A., he told me to look at a player named Andrew Brunette," Moulson said, crediting the former Bruins GM who is now with the Kings' player-development staff.

"I used to tape all his games and watch them and watch what he did," Moulson said. "[Brunette] may not be the fastest guy out there, but he's great at protecting the puck and making plays around the net and getting to the net. He was up and down in the AHL as well starting his career, and he's made a pretty good player of himself and pretty good name for himself in this league. He's someone I followed closely."
Okay, this is actually something useful. This is something I didn't know and is nice to hear. It makes infinitely more sense to emulate a guy like Brunette than a superstar. But nobody does it, because you never see the grinders on SportsCenter. Oh, wait, you never see the superstars of the NHL on SportsCenter, either.

This week Moulson met his guide, who of course had no idea he'd had any impact whatsoever on his career.

"He gave me a stick last night," Moulson said happily.

You mean Brunette stuck him, as in speared him?
ZOMG! ROFLMAO!

"No, no, he signed a stick and gave it to me last night. I got it this morning," Moulson said.
Oh. See, hockey players ARE boring.

"I got it this morning, and I had a grin from ear to ear. I told him he was one of my favorite players."
I'm sure Andrew Brunette has never been referred to as "one of my favorite players" by anybody outside of the Brunette family and Matt Moulson.

"I told him when he made the team out of camp, 'Treat every day like it's your last, because you don't know,'" Gordon said. "'You battled high odds to make the team, but that doesn't mean tomorrow won't be a different day. You have to prove everybody right that we made the right decision every single day.'"

That's right, Scott Gordon. Matt Moulson's singular focus over his first 27 games has been to prove to everybody that Garth Snow is a genius. As opposed to, you know, proving that he's actually a pretty good player. Moulson, that is, not Snow. We all know Snow could never make it in the post-lockout NHL.

"It seems funny from where I started from until now. I get two goals against Boston [Monday night], and I'm upset because I wanted a third one. I'm not disappointed but wanting more after that. Coming from where I came from, I never thought I'd be wanting more after a two-goal game in the NHL."
If I had a two-goal game in the NHL, I'd be wanting more. But it'd probably involve sexual favors, as opposed to a third goal.

Beautiful.
The first few times I read this, I thought to myself, "That's an odd way to end this piece." Eventually, I realized it was a play on the copious beauty-and-the-beast analogies found in the article, many of which I edited out for the benefit of your sanity. I still have no proof of any beast-like tendencies in Matt Moulson, or Andrew Brunette, for that matter. So, you know, hooray for Matt Moulson and all that.

Dave Tippett Is The Greatest Coach In The History Of The 2009-10 Phoenix Coyotes

As soon as the Coyotes started out 2-0, you knew the media - the same media who has all but forfeited the team's games - would come out gushing over the Coyotes' "surprise start", right?

The Phoenix Coyotes could play their last home opener ever this weekend, what with the team in bankruptcy, the ownership situation unsettled and the possibility of relocation never all that far from the conversation about their future.

Relocation that, if you recall, requires a $750 million payment to the city of Glendale. Nice try, though.

If that wasn't bad enough, chances are the Coyotes -- a mix of minimally experienced young players, castoffs and a sprinkling of talented veterans -- will miss the playoffs for a seventh straight season while bringing up the rear in the Pacific Division, if not the entire league when all is said and done.

That's right, folks. The entire 2009-10 NHL season has already been played, and the Coyotes finished 30th out of 30 teams. But, like participants in a reality show, everyone has to act like it's all happening at the same time we see it on TV.

To call this a mess would be to understate the situation and how much it has consumed the organization at every level for the last five months. But for the time being at least, the off-ice problems seem to be on the back burner with Phoenix becoming one of the NHL's early pleasant surprises thanks to an impressive start that includes a well-earned road win against the reigning Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

Phoenix is 2-0. They've played exactly 2.439% of their schedule. Settle down.

Dave Tippett took over the job when Wayne Gretzky resigned a few days before the season opened. He replaced the game's greatest icon and stepped into circumstances where failure seemed more likely than not. Yet in the space of a couple of weeks, Tippett has managed to instill a level of structure and discipline that has made Phoenix's game virtually unrecognizable from last season, and certainly a lot more effective than anyone realistically could have imagined.

Let's try this again. THE COYOTES WEREN'T THAT BAD LAST YEAR. They were fifth in the West at the All-Star break. They probably would have made the playoffs if not for their horrible late January and February where they netted a total of six points from fifteen games. They were 23-15-3 at home - you know, the place everyone is trying to move the Coyotes from.

Oh, and at least someone realistically imagined the Coyotes playing well this year.

More so when you consider Tippett really didn't have to be there. A veteran coach widely respected for his teaching ability and no-nonsense approach to things, Tippett was fired unceremoniously by Dallas' new management in June after averaging more than 45 wins in six seasons and with two more seasons remaining on his contract. Someone with Tippett's pedigree could have waited for another opening, but instead he took what might be described as a leap of faith and has become a steadying force for a team that was in disarray.

A leap of faith is taking, say, the Devils job, knowing that Lou Lamoriello fires coaches like every week. But taking a job in a place with really nice weather, with absolutely no expectations, and when everyone has already written your team off as a horrible failure? That's a win-win situation. It's even better than taking a cushy TV analyst job.

[Tippett:] "I think the players have done a phenomenal job blocking out all the distractions and stuff that was in the media. Now it's up to us, and the big thing now is that we're playing and we can control things on the ice."

No, you can't. According to Wes Goldstein, you already missed the playoffs. If you already forgot, scroll up a few paragraphs.

"I had a feeling we were going to need a coach, and it was clear there was one guy for us," Maloney said. "Back then, Wayne also thought Dave would be right for this. He's got a quiet strength to him, and knowing what our team looked like, we thought he was a perfect fit."

This is bullcrap. If Gretzky or Ulf Samuelsson was coaching this team and they won their first two games, Don "We Got The Better Lindros" Maloney would be singing their praises ad nauseum. In addition, I have no idea what "quiet strength" has to do with anything.

So far, he has been.

Perhaps we should wait until Dave Tippett hits the 2.440% mark on this season before calling him a "perfect fit" for anything.

Only The Lord Saves More Than Ray Emery

There are a lot of people out there who write about hockey. Unfortunately, many of these people are awful at their jobs. Channeling the spirit of Fire Joe Morgan (but with a lot less snarkiness), here's our response to a recent article that was particularly loathsome.

Some teams in the National Hockey League have a reputation of struggling between the pipes, and the Ottawa Senators were one of those teams. But now with Pascal Leclaire in net, they can finally say they have a number one goaltender - maybe for the first time in the history of their franchise.

This would be a good time to mention that the title of this piece is "Emery-Flyers Marriage A Good Fit For Both Sides". As in, neither the Ottawa Senators nor Pascal Leclaire were mentioned. The Senators, by the way, have had above-average goalies for this entire decade, be it Patrick Lalime, Ray Emery, Martin Gerber or Dominik Hasek. And if Hasek isn't a number one goaltender, I don't know who is.

The Philadelphia Flyers are another one of those teams that have been plagued in goal since Ron Hextall left the team in 1999.

I know I said in my season preview that the Flyers haven't had a great goalie since Hextall. But they're hardly "plagued". They just happened to have a number of goalies that didn't have very long shelf lives. Since Hextall left, Brian Boucher led them to the 2000 conference finals, then Roman Cechmanek finished second in the league in GAA for the next three years. Cechmanek was followed by Robert Esche, who finished fifth in GAA in 2003-04. Does that sound like a "plague" to you? Me either.

OK, maybe they haven't had a ton of luck since the lockout, but they had stellar goaltending for the first half of this decade. It just happens that that stellar goaltending has come from a bunch of different people.

In the last 10 years, the Flyers have really struggled to find a goaltender that can do the job and now they have Ray Emery who seems to be a much different guy then last year based on opening night.

A different guy? What does this even MEAN? Has he converted to Islam? Does he tell different jokes in the locker room before games? It's okay to say he was a whiny bitch in Ottawa, but now he isn't.

He shut out the Carolina Hurricanes in the season opener

Good for him. But I was wondering how he did when the Hurricanes were on the power play.

and did a particularly good job when the Hurricanes were on the power play.

Wow! That's amazing, especially since the Flyers had the league's 6th best penalty kill last year, while Carolina was only 18th on the power play. It must have taken a Herculean effort for Emery to shut the Hurricanes down.

It's obviously going to take longer than one game for the Ray Emery experiment in Philadelphia to work

BUT HE WAS PARTICULARLY GOOD ON THE POWER PLAY!!!

but at this point in time, considering what his cap money is

According to NHLNumbers.com, Ray Emery is the 29th highest paid goalie in the league at $1.5 million. Goalies making less money than Ray Emery:

- Chris Osgood ($1.45m)

- Martin Biron ($1.4m)

- Jonas Hiller ($1.3m)

- Scott Clemmensen ($1.2m)

- Steve Mason ($0.9m)

- Semyon Varlamov ($.85m)

- Jonathan Quick ($.57m)

- Pekka Rinne ($.725m)

Just about all of these goalies have either had better careers than Emery or have more potential than Emery. So let's stop pretending he's on some great contract. He's got your typical take-a-flier contract (see Biron, Martin). If he sucks, no biggie. If he does well, he'll cash in elsewhere. This is the NHL equivalent of Michael Vick's contract with the Eagles, only no dogs were killed.

and considering that he came back with a lot to prove after having been in exile for all intents and purposes in Russia, it's going to be a good move for the Flyers to have this guy.

Emery signed with the KHL on July 8, 2008. He could have competed for a starting job in the NHL if he really wanted to. Instead, he went to Russia, dominated an inferior league, and suddenly he's a valuable commodity? If you say so.

The Emery-Flyers marriage is a really good fit for both sides. In other words; a team who desperately needs a goaltender to step up and do something for them and a goaltender who desperately needs a good team to surround him and allow him the opportunity to get back in the good grades with the NHL.

I'm not sure what it means to "get back in the good grades" with someone. But hopefully it means Emery does well. If he doesn't, it could get ugly. Emery couldn't handle things in Ottawa. Philly fans are a bit more... um... angry than Ottawa fans. Thankfully, we have seen that the Flyers and Ray Emery are a match made in heaven and that Ray Emery will go 82-0 with 82 shutouts as the Flyers sweep through the playoffs. After all, he was particularly good on the power play.

The NHL Is Absolutely SCREWED

There are a lot of people out there who write about hockey. Unfortunately, many of these people are awful at their jobs. Channeling the spirit of Fire Joe Morgan (but with a lot less snarkiness), here's our response to a recent article that was particularly loathsome.

A new season is dawning and life for the NHL can't get any worse ... or could it?

Yes, it could get worse. MUCH worse. Remember five years ago, when there WASN'T a new season dawning?

I'm talking about a league that in three months went from showcasing one of the greatest exhibitions of playoff hockey in decades -- the seven-game Stanley Cup Final between the Red Wings and Penguins -- to dismissing Wayne Gretzky as collateral damage in a bankruptcy case that even with a judicial decision remains unresolved. There was also the dispute between DirecTV and Versus that threatened to black out opening night games, rumors of fiscal distress in South Florida, Atlanta, Long Island and elsewhere, yet another owner (Boots Del Biaggio) doing the perp-walk for investor fraud, fallout from Dany Heatley's ugly forced trade, a hijacked players association, and a young star in handcuffs for allegedly pummeling a 62-year-old cab driver over 20 cents change.

OK, let's compare this to the NFL. This year, the NFL reinstated the recently jailed Michael Vick after a whopping two-game suspension. They have a top-10 draft pick who intends to sit out the season because he wants more money. An insane amount of retired players are either dead broke, horribly brain damaged, or both. One of their star players is in jail for shooting himself in a night club. NFL players are suspended on a weekly basis for drug abuse or off-field discipline problems. And the NHL is the league with a problem? Please.

BTW, that "great exhibition in playoff hockey" aired on a Friday night and wasn't even shown in New York bars because most New Yorkers thought a regular season game between the Mets and Yankees was more important. Great game (Wings-Pens, that is), but let's not pretend it was some seminal moment in sports history.

You want to say it can't possibly sink any lower. Not even the NHL can slide so far so fast, but there is cause to wonder: If all that was what the summer brought, what's on the horizon for fall, winter and spring? Thankfully, there is some good news:

The games are back.

Whew. I was really beginning to wonder what was on the horizon for fall, winter and spring. I forgot hockey players actually play games. Thanks for the reminder.

Joining Ovechkin at the top are the twin stars of Pittsburgh: Sidney Crosby (the Penguins' second coming of Lemieux, albeit in a much smaller package) and Evgeni Malkin, last season's scoring champ and playoff MVP. In Boston, Vezina Trophy-winning goalie Tim Thomas and Norris Trophy defenseman Zdeno Chara are the inspirational forces for a surging team. They are supported by the vastly underrated Marc Savard, who feeds slick passes to a player many Bruins fans consider the Next Cam Neely: winger Milan Lucic.

There is strength of size and number in Philadelphia where the complete game of Jeff Carter and heady play of Mike Richards have fans speaking in tones reserved for the days when Bobby Clarke and Bill Barber carried the Broad Street Bullies to glory. It doesn't hurt (unless you're the competition) that the Flyers brought over the much-feared Chris Pronger to anchor their improved defense. If Ray Emery competes to the level of his ability in goal, the Flyers should contend for a spot in the Cup final this spring and could well win it all.

In the West, the still-potent Red Wings will try to blend the usual mix of veteran stars and emerging talent and reach the Cup final for the third time in as many seasons. Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Nicklas Lidstrom anchor the group, but the supporting cast is hungry for a chance at redemption. That will happen only if the multi-talented Sharks can't find their game again in the postseason, or if the swift, determined Blackhawks of andJonathan Toews continue to grow.

This thing reads like a NBC press release. A whole paragraph about the Flyers, who lost in the first round last year. Half a paragraph about the defending Stanley Cup champions. Half a paragraph about the Bruins, who have had exactly one good season since the lockout. Meanwhile, the Red Wings get two sentences and the Sharks and Blackhawks get to share one whopping sentence. Sounds about right.

After building on a startling jump in momentum coming out of the 2004-05 lockout and largely delivering on its promise for a better, faster, more exciting game, the league's momentum, at least regarding public perception, appears to have stalled. One might argue that it has actually crashed.

Public perception has "crashed", even though the league has better TV ratings than it did before the lockout. That the NHL has done this with ESPN going out of its way to avoid covering hockey, if not sabotage the league altogether, is huge. Furthermore, good luck finding even one hockey fan who gives a rat's ass about the "public perception" of the NHL.

A rising tide of anger doesn't bode well, especially when the league, which might have laid claim to the higher ground after the costly lockout brought the owners' much-wanted salary cap, is grieving almost every issue that comes before it, costing the players time and money and building an overriding sense of ill will. As a fan, you might argue that all this shouldn't matter, that these are professionals who are (highly) paid to play. But hockey players are people, too, and the issues that are rocking their usually secure world are taking a toll.

I have no idea what this paragraph means. That's especially true of the 80-word introductory sentence.

Most aren't likely to go away, not without another fight or three, but at least there is hockey on the ice now, hope in the hearts of fans, and a very good chance the game will produce a season every bit as memorable as the last. For those who truly love hockey, pretty much all we can do is hope...that we can see the games.

OOH! A shot at the NHL's TV contract! How original!

In what has become an eternal quest to find a TV provider other than ESPN, the league's current U.S. cable provider, Versus, is in a snit fight with satellite distributor DirecTV. The dispute has scuttled some 14 million viewers. It's a problem that may yet be resolved, but it smacks of the kind the league had with Madison Square Garden over internet rights, and it seems to open the door for MSG or some other regional network to cut a deal separate of league partners and concentrate on serving places where hockey draws an audience without trying to air games in areas where people simply refuse to watch.

These run-on sentences are making me nauseous.

Oh, and MSG can barely service New York and New Jersey. I'm sure the other 48 states will be no problem.

Of course, those people will be missing some good stuff on the ice. So, yes, let us hope for the best -- especially that things don't get worse.

YES. Things are SO awful now. Patrick Kane punching a cab driver is far, far worse than a lost season and the legitimate fear that the league would fold. Godspeed, NHL.