After watching the Red Wings beat the Penguins two nights in a row, it looks like we could be done with ice hockey for the 2008-09 season before next weekend. The supposedly mighty Pens were said to improved over last year’s version which lost to Detroit in the final, but really, are you seeing it?
But the most important fact about the first two games of the Stanley Cup final is this: NBC didn’t want to delay their latest reality show “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here,†so Games 1 and 2 were played on back-to-back nights. That’s right ice hockey fans, your league has been forced to take a back seat to Heidi and Spencer from the Hills. I hope that makes you feel pathetic.
It’s becoming a real concern that the man running the NHL, Gary Bettman, is even more incompetent than he’s seemed before. While this is the guy who actually cancelled an entire season – with devastating consequences to the league’s fan base – it’s becoming more and more apparent that he is unfit for the job of commissioner. Frankly, I’m surprised that in the wake of this horrible playoff scheduling, the refusal to change rules to help the game and now this battle for the Phoenix Coyotes (a little on that in a minute), why hasn’t anyone started a petition to remove this schmuck from office?
On the Coyotes: So the league is blocking the sale of the team, which is bankrupt because the investor, Jim Ballsillie wants to move the team from a horrible hockey town like Phoenix, to probably the biggest hockey market in the world, the Greater Toronto Area? How does this make any sense other than the fact that Bettman has a grudge against Ballsillie? Do you see NHL fans, the league is actively trying to destroy itself and it’s taking your love and money with it.
One word describes the Wings, SOLID, all ’round.