Drop the puck without me

The National Hockey League returns tomorrow to, judging by the local and national media reaction, save us all, or at least the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The prospect of an even further prolonged absence of its Hockey Night in Canada cash cow has forced the "public" broadcaster to end its seven-week lockout of the Canadian Media Guild.

This page refuses to buy into the "Hockey's Back" (tm) hype because I didn't see hockey go anywhere over the past 12 months. What I saw was a gritty Czech Republic side beat Team Canada for the World Championship. I saw the London Knights run over all comers for the Memorial Cup. I saw the Pacific Coliseum filled to the rafters for the WHL Vancouver Giants. With all that hockey going on, I didn't have time to notice the cavemen who run the NHL trying to bust the players union and throw cold water on any rule changes to make the game more entertaining, at least until the prospect of the league's implosion forced them to relent on both counts.

Sorry, but I won't be tuned in tomorrow to watch Todd (convicted of assault) Bertuzzi and the Vancouver Canucks face off vs. Coach Wayne (I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Peter Pocklington and George W. Bush) Gretzky and the Phoenix Coyotes. Dave Zirin's recent book What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States points out several athletes in baseball, football, basketball, track, tennis, and several other high-level sports who stood up for the labour, anti-war, anti-racism, and women's movements. A couple of minutes in Don Cherry's Coaches Corner (the supreme arbiter of what qualifies as sound character in the NHL) readily explains why Zirin had no NHL players to write about.

Besides, with an NHL season drawing out until the first two weeks of summer, it's not like major league hockey is going away anytime soon. Some of us are forgoing the force-fed Canadiana and instead watching the only sport that matters in the month of October.