In case you may have forgotten, hockey is that sport in which players don heavy sweaters and bladed skates, all while pushing a hard rubber disc along the ice and into a net. It’s understandable to not remember what it looks like. After all, it’s been five months since the sport has graced our television sets.
The news wire has been slow over the past couple weeks. Since the NHL owners spurned the rebuttal offers of the NHLPA, both sides have hunkered down for a deeply bitter battle. However, the news coming out recently has a positive air surrounding it. The owners and NHLPA will meet again on Tuesday, presumably to discuss the core economic matters. One thing that has been noticeably different about these talks is the relative media silence surrounding them. At this juncture, both sides seem to be agreeing that a public fight would not be beneficial for anybody. Feel free to read into that as you deem necessary.
Even assuming the best-case scenario, there is no realistic chance that we will see a full season. Though training camp and the pre-season would be abridged, there wouldn’t feasibly be hockey until December. To that point, it’s possible that we would have a season much like last year’s NBA schedule, which lost about 1/3 of their season during the lockout. But honestly, I don’t know many hockey fans that wouldn’t take that deal right about now.
As so eloquently put by Conor Oberst (better known as Bright Eyes), “The story is in the soil, keep your ear to the ground.”
Photo Credits: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
