NHL Lockout...Good! Zholtok dead...bad

The NHL announced that they are forfeiting the annual all-star game which was supposed to take place in Atlanta next January. You know what? I think it's good that the NHL is going through a lock-out. Ex-Hab Guy Lafleur said last week that the NHL should file for bankruptcy, start the league under a new name with new rules governing player contracts and salaries. That's not such a bad idea.

NHL players are utterly stupid. I wish that the lock-out lasts for the whole season. If it lasts long enough that financially struggling franchises have to eventually fold before a new season starts, players will realise that their idiotic and babyish ways will lead them to a loss of jobs. If 4 teams decided to fold because they are losing too much money, that would equal to about 100 players looking for jobs somewhere else. Not counting all the office workers for these teams. Geez, even the NHL had to layoff half of its staff when the lock-out started. That sucks.

Hockey is the best game out there and they are too damn stupid to actually sit down and figure out a way of making things work. Teams complain they are losing money? Well blame it on the damn league and all the expansions. Who in their right mind would actually think about putting a concession in Anaheim, Nashville, Columbus, Atlanta??? These cities are not interested in hockey. Instead, bring back hockey to the country it belongs to: Canada and cities like Winnipeg, Quebec, Hamilton and others. Yeah we might have small markets here, but I would rather see teams in small markets that LOVE hockey rather than small markets in the US that don't give a shit about hockey.

Another reason why teams are losing money is simple: The talent pool is too small for the number of teams, which makes the game boring as hell, the teams weaker (if you don't have enough money to sign good players) and then, half the teams miss the playoffs. I miss the good old days of the 21-team league prior to the first expansion of the 1990's. Back then, 16 teams made the playoffs, 5 didn't. Even if you didn't have a decent team, you could still make the playoffs and hope to get some extra revenue for 2, maybe 3 extra games where your arena would be packed. Now, there are 16 teams that make the playoffs but 14 DON'T! That's 3 times as many teams as 15 years ago! Before, teams had a 75% chance of making the playoffs (which is where the action is btw) and now, that ratio is down to 53%. Don't expect Columbus to be making the playoffs 3 years in a row...That'll be the day.

Long live the NHL lock-out, kill the worthless franchises and have the players lose jobs because of their foolishness...they deserve it.

On a sadder note, ex-Hab centre, Sergei Zholtok died after a hockey game this week. Apparently he'd had arythmia for a while. Just goes to show you that even if they are highly trained athletes, anyone can die without notice. I mean yeah I guess it's not all good to play hockey if you know you have heart problems, but if the docs tell you that you're ok to play, you're ok to play. Poor guy, only 31 years old. He had 2 young sons. Man, this is pathetic...dying at 31 when you're supposed to be in great shape...and it's sad for the 2 little kids.

He had a decent carreer, playing in 588 games, scored 111 goals, assisted on 147 and drew 166 penalty minutes. He had a career-best 26 goals for the Canadiens in 1999-2000. He also played for Boston, Edmonton, Nashville, Ottawa and Minnesota.

Hopefully, he made enough money playing in the NHL for his family to go through life for a while...I hope he was bright enough to save...I mean, when you make more than 1 000 000$ per season playing hockey, you have to be able to live and save for things like that...Else, what good would be the NHL CBA if the players make a ton of money but don't save some...

Anyways, just some thoughts on hockey. Stay tuned because there most probably will be a lot of that on here!