I have been reading article after article about how the NHL wants to spice up the game and make it more exciting to watch. From removing the red line, to net changes, to illegal defenses, I have heard dozens of different ideas on how they want to improve the product on the ice.

Well how about getting the game actually ON the ice in the first place?? It seems as though so many people in the league are sitting around coming up with these radical ideas on how to improve scoring and make hockey more entertaining, yet, last time I checked, there hasn't been ANY hockey, entertaining or otherwise.

Let's face it, you can have the players dress up in clown makeup, and make scantily clad women referees, and make the nets the size of soccer nets, but if the NHL ends up using lesser-skilled scabs next year, the league will be a bigger joke than ever, no matter what gimmicks they try to push down the paying public's throat. (Anyone remember the XFL? I didn't think so.)

A message to the NHL: Hey fellas, if you are worried about fixing hockey, try starting with the part that is most broken . . . the fact there IS NO hockey right now.

Anyway, enough ranting . . . by me that is. Flyers goalie Sean Burke had a mini-rant when asked about the proposed increase in the size of the nets.

"I mean, making the nets bigger, all it's going to do is increase the score. But you're still going to have to watch - or not watch - the same hockey that's basically been unwatchable on TV for the last five or six years."

Jose Theodore was just as upset:

"Excuse my French, but this is bull**** . . . This is junk, and I hope it's not serious . . . The idea of a bigger net is crap. I was drafted as a goalie who has spent his life, since I was 7, learning to play the angles. And now, all of a sudden, they're thinking of doing this?"

As for the meeting that is to take place between the NHLPA and the NHL on Monday, Bob McKenzie at TSN isn't optimistic.

Sportsnet reports that the NHL might hold off filing a complaint against the NHLPA with the National Labor Relations Board until talks between the sides are completed next week.

Scott Burnside at ESPN is critical of the NHLPA, saying it is acting like a bully by threatening its membership with sanctions should they choose to become replacements.

The Rodent chimes in on all this stuff.

Sorry for the late update. I am just having a busy week.

HDH

Recent Articles 19 Years Of Mike & The Mad Dog

Web Hockeybird.com