Mon Sep 20/04
You can go home again, but when you do it will still suck

Well-written op/ed piece by Dave Bidini (of modest Rheostatics and book-writing fame) in the New York Times today with regards to where the NHL and its PA can cram it and how many walnuts they can do it with. Whatever solution lies at the end of this dank tunnel will consist of too many hundreds of thousands of words to be of any interest to the average fan — it's unlikely even to contain the word "fan" — so I think it's worthwhile to consider, as Bidini does, how much we have gained and how much we have lost in this great sport.

The hockey, despite the league's temple-bashingly infuriating refusal to call the rule book, is faster and more skilful than at any time in history. Apart from octogenarian crankiness, why can't anyone see that? Perhaps because to attend an NHL game is to be aurally, visually and economically assaulted at every turn, to be held hostage by people who believe that having children clamour all over you in pursuit of flying t-shirts is suitable recompense for beer that costs $7 too much. It isn't. Bidini makes a good point about the shite music they play, too. My kingdom for more "clap-along song[s] with a chorus about 'the good old hockey game'." (You know, I don't think Stompin' Tom would want the Times to know the name of the song.)

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