Let’s
hail the Johnny Come Lately’s that are the NHL and NHLPA.
Sure
it was only 113 days after the previous CBA expired that they managed to agree
to a new one to get the 2012-2013 season underway, but better late than
never. And why wouldn’t you announce the new deal on a Sunday morning when
everyone is either asleep or getting ready for the opening week of NFL Playoff Football. NHL – you always entertain me.
Now
of course even better than that is the league holding off on releasing a
schedule and actually starting the schedule on the same weekend the NFL is in
its Conference Championships Games. Thumbs up.
But I’m
not going to pretend that I won’t watch. Call me a hypocrite or whatever. I
love the game too much to not get sucked into debates about which center the
Canucks should use in neutral-zone 2nd period face-offs on the left
boards. It’s going to happen. But like many friends I’ve spoken to about the
NHL returning, I’m adhering to a cool principle. “I’ll watch – but I won’t pay.”
Works for me.
So
while the NHL makes dubiously entertaining decision after dubiously
entertaining decision... here are 10 things that you can get excited about for
the upcoming season.