NHL Hockey: Concentrate on Winning the Second Half

As Bear Bryant once famously said, "Don't give up at halftime, concentrate on winning the second half." And that's pretty much all that hockey players and fans can do at this point. With only 48 games to play in the season left from the lockout, the NHL teams have half the time to work for that three and a half foot trophy that is the oldest in North American sports; The Stanley Cup.

The Blackhawks defeated the reigning Stanley Cup Champions

26 teams played today, for a total of 13 games sure to keep most (if not all) hockey fans content with their lives.

Games included:

NJ-NYI 2-1
PIT-PHI 3-1
COL-MIN 2-4
OTT-WPG 4-1
CHI-LA 5-2
NYR-BOS 1-3
TOR-MTL 2-1
WSH-TB 3-6
CAR-FLA 1-5
DET-STL 0-6
CBJ-NSH 3-2
PHX-DAL 3-4
ANA-VAN 7-3

Aging Martin Brodeur picked up a key win in today's game versus the Islanders

Now anyone who even knows a moderate amount notices that some of those scores are not what is normally predictable. St. Louis shutting out Detroit? Toronto beating Montreal? Anaheim crushing Vancouver? And these are not pre-season games, sparing fans the pain of how terrible their 3rd and 4th lines are. These are the big games, with the starting lineups.

With the depart of Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit was still expected to be a superior performance in this season, while the New Jersey Devils were expected to fall with the elderly Martin Brodeur in the crease. Pittsburgh defeated Philadelphia with the return of Wunderkid Sidney Crosby. Philadelphia appears to still have some goaltending problems in the way of Ilya Bryzgalov.

Detroit suffered a surprising shut out versus St. Louis; conference rivals

In perhaps the biggest upset of the day, the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the reigning Stanley Cup Champions, the Los Angeles Kings, possibly showing their prowess to obtain the Cup once again in the 2000s. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, as well as Marian Hossa and goalie Corey Crawford showed true teamwork and offensive talent, enough to take on the league for the remainder of the 47 games.

Once again, the favorites to win the Cup include San Jose, Vancouver, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh and Boston. The West could come away with the trophy again, but as everyone knows, game 1 is far to early to be making predictions, regardless of the lack of games.

It's a Great Day for Hockey.

Down But Not Out: NHL Hockey Has Returned

Hockey is Home boys! 

Welcome home hockey fans. Brian Burke was finally fired, the Southeast teams are getting more dangerous, and Gary Bettman uttered his third apology for an NHL lockout. But, as any hockey fan can attest, the NHL is back, and better than ever. With a 10 year contract and 8 year opt-out, it will be a long, good while before fans have to deal without their beloved sport again.

Because in all honesty, 3 lockouts in a hockey fans lifetime is really ridiculous. Kids born in the early nineties raised off of their parents gushing about the likes of Gretzky and Lemieux and Yzerman and Howe became huge hockey fans, and have had to suffer 3 lockouts.

Let's put this into perspective, for those fans outside of hockey.

In the past 40 years there have been a total of 16 strikes and lockouts among the four major sports. This includes eight in Major League Baseball , three in the National Hockey League, three in the National Football League and two in the National Basketball Association.

Now, before all the baseball fans come bitching out of the woodwork, there was only one time a season was cancelled, and that was the 2004-2005 NHL lockout. True, the MLB lost a World Series, and the NFL lost  all but 9 games in 1982. See, the sympathy is available, but for hockey fans, it's just not acceptable. Three lockouts in a lifetime, including the loss of an entire season is just unimaginable. 

However, now the 2012-2013 NHL season is on. All of the planes for the next week or so will be filled with Russians, Finns, Americans, Canadians, and Swedes alike, coming back to the league that matters. (Although the KHL was pretty entertaining, and I feel bad for all the Russians with KHL season tickets who will show up to a team with just Ilya Kovalchuk.) Gary Bettman is the most hated man in hockey, Zach Parise is back in Minnesota, and the NHL still gets to bask in the glory of Martin Brodeur for one more season. 

Hockey is back, fans, so turn of that NFL 32, and pull out those dusty jerseys from the closet. 

Turning Point: For Better or For Worse?

Yesterday, the 12th day of the lockout, the NHL cancelled its entire preseason in a move that has left a great many Canadian-Americans very sad. (See left)

The players are still signing European contracts, the most recently being Tavares signing with a Swiss team and previous Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson signing to the Finnish League.

Basically, everything is falling apart. But, today the League subsequently announced that their labor talks will resume in New York giving everyone false hope.

Now, I don't like to be cynical. I'd love to see this article and believe that these will be the talks to end the lockout, but it's just not true. First of all, these talks aren't even about the main issue. Instead, they are debating on how to split the $3 billion annual revenue, according to ESPN. Secondly, many big names have given up hope and joined the sister European leagues, thus causing many fans to give up hope. I mean, I don't know about the rest of you, but I've already got my KHL streams and my SM Liiga subscription.

While it is true that the regular season has not been touched, and is still scheduled for October 11, the league's subsequent actions are sending a very clear message: there will be no NHL hockey this year.

But, at least official harmony was restored to the NFL.

I Want You Back: NSYNC Narrates the NHL Lockout

As I'm sure anyone with a pulse has realized, the NHL is going to be locked out. Nothing you, or I, or that crazy Vancouver Canucks fan does can stop the savage take over of the season. I feel your pain, I really do. Every few days they throw us a bone on ESPN: Players file for Injunction, Everyone loses hope. We're talking, but haha, screw your hopes and dreams. This is going to be a decennial thing now! As if this is something we as hockey fans are supposed to be excited about.

Regardless, the nitty gritty of the Lockout goes something like this:

Bettman: It's my money and I need it now!
Owners: It's OUR money and WE want it now!
Players: I like money. I like hockey too... decisions.
Owners: They are deceiving and disobeying us! Lockout for reasons!
Then lockout occurs. It is super effective at crushing hearts and souls across Canada and America.

One solution was Greg Wyshynski's suggestion that hockey fans across both countries have a movement in the way of "Occupy the NHL Store" which not only pokes fun at the capitalism of the thing, but also would be a pretty prevalent place in New York in which to draw some serious media attention. I think it's a good idea.

(You read nothing, I am not supporting this in any way that would later result in me not being hired by any sports network.) 

If you want more information, any ESPN story lays it out pretty well. These deadlines are not being met and for some reason, no one can play nice and compromise. All of those lessons in Kindergarten about sharing were complete crap. If you complain about money, you get it, no matter who suffers. Real world lessons here guys.

So whether you are a casual fan, or you bleed your teams' colors, this is going to hurt you one way or another. So please excuse me while I sob quietly in the corner into my Zach Parise jersey. By the way, the Wild aren't winning the Stanley Cup this year. I bet they don't even make it to the playoffs. But that's another story entirely.

Shout Out: Hockey fans are Hipsters, and I'm going to be a Professional

Remember how earlier I said I wanted us as American citizens to ensue wide sweeping stereotypes? Well I didn't really mean do that! But it seems that since anyone these days can blog about anything (talking about myself here) they did.

Here is an article that suggests that someone is extremely unhappy and albeit a bit butthurt that some people who call themselves hockey fans are somewhat uptight.

Well, from what I gather from both the genius comments below and the amazing layout of the post, this guy has something against hockey fans. He calls himself a "casual viewer" watching a total of 3 games of the playoffs, probably the team to match the city of whatever his favorite football or basketball team is. And I am here to say, that there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. He also states that "casual views" will help save the NHL from being on Versus, even though they have other stations, and the playoffs are shown on NBC every year.

But there is an issue with how he defined all of the fans as "Hipsters". And anyone that doesn't know what a Hipster is, here: (Even though I don't think you get why this blog is funny then)

Referring to young people of around 18-30 years of age, who drink cheap beer (most often Pabst Blue Ribbon, on occasion Budwiser), smoke Parliaments, Lucky Strikes or hard to obtain foreign cigarettes (such as Gauloises) and take recreational drugs, coke being the most popular. Use a great deal of sarcasm, claim to be ironic. Are usually less than 5% body fat, drink copious amounts of coffee and eat children's cereal. Listen to Indie Rock, rely heavily on Pitchfork Media to tell them what's cool. Don't dance at concerts. Wear a mixture of thrifted clothing and items bought at American Apparel (commonly Tri-blend v-necks) and Urban Outfitters. Extremely tight jeans worn by both sexes, pairing these with either a band or b-movie t shirt and a plaid shirt/v-neck and a cardigan along with Nike hi-tops/Vans/Keds. Females often wear retro style dresses and racerback tank tops without bras. Eschew public transport and instead choose to ride fixed-break bikes. Often claim to know about literature and film - will have googled a good deal of Vonnegut and French New Wave cinema.

So there you have it. They basically like everything no one else does in an effort to be different. And here is his definition of why Hockey fans are Hipsters:

They love something that has been wildly unpopular for so long and they cannot STAND anybody enjoying the sport casually like it’s mainstream. Its exactly like the Brooklyn hipsters who are like “I liked the band before they got popular.” Now that the NHL has made a bit of a comeback and there’s some new viewers, or every time baseball/football/basketball fans pay attention for playoff hockey, they get so fucking angry and spiteful and they climb up on their High Horses.

Hmm. First piece of incorrect information: Most hockey fans do not care if their sport is unpopular. It is their sport, and they will love it forever. Second piece of incorrect information: The NHL hasn't made a bit of a comeback. Unless he's talking about the lockout, which he is, and that happened in 2004-05. So not only is it incorrect, it's outdated. Third piece of incorrect information: While some population of the hockey world will do this "climb up on their high horses" most of them will not, I being one.

So, in conclusion, if you don't know what you're talking about, don't blog about it, and don't ensue wide sweeping stereotypes. Because even if they are sometimes true, you just look like a huge jerk.

(Oh, and out of all the pictures of fans you choose the "Hockey lovin' homos?" Nice try, but we all thought they were fantastic. You probably don't get why, we're too underground for you.)