Drop the Puck!

Well, it's all over except for the ratifying! And it's about time too.

Now, I haven't been one to have hard feelings about who's fault it was that there has been no hockey for a year and I'm not going to start now. Hockey was losing money and something had to be done. Now, it's done.

I want to see my game back on the ice so I can support my Canucks on a regular basis and watch Hockey Night in Canada again. I want to involve myself with another hockey pool. I want to go to a couple games at the Saddledome to see the Flames play my Canucks. Dammit... I just want my hockey back.

It's gonna be great in the next month and a bit. I always loved the off-season as much as I do the regular season and playoffs when the games are playing. This month and a bit will be a condensed version with the Draft at the end of the month, contract buy-outs, free agent signings and a whole lot of math (how nerdy!) and speculation about team budgets/caps. That's gonna be a competition in itself. Fantastic!

My Canucks are gonna have a hard time with all their signings, but at least their budget will be easier to contain than let's say the Maple Leafs. With only Bertuzzi, Linden, Jovanovski and a couple youngsters signed to contracts, the budget will be easier to adhere to. Unfortunately, the potential loss of Markus Naslund puts a little bit of fear into how to fill holes, if in fact he decides not to come back. There are going to be a lot of big names on the market and it'll be interesting how much of a pay cut these free agents are gonna take to play for a team.

The one downfall about having the salary cap in place will be that there will be a lot of shifting of players every off-season. You'll have a small core of players from year to year that will more than likely stay with the team for long periods of time, but to make cap room, players will have to move. I don't like that at all. That's one of the reasons why I don't enjoy the NBA or MLB as much as I did before. Teams are hardly ever the same. Big names move and smaller names get shifted under the radar and your favourite team isn't the same team that made the playoffs last year and there is the potential that they won't the next. I'm just glad that the Canucks have a guy like Marc Crawford behind the bench. A good man and a good coach.

With teams on an even playing field (or rink, if you will), the chances that smaller market teams like Nashville and Miami will both have better chances that their teams advance further into the playoffs than say the perennial big teams that did the seasons before. Canadian teams will find themselves in better situations and maybe, just maybe, we'll find ourselves with a Cup in the near future. That'd be nice, eh?

I have a feeling that the "fan base" that gave up on the sport will come crawling back with accepting looks on their faces sooner than they're holding out. Hockey is one of the best spectator sports in the world and once it hits full speed, people will begin to realize that again and the asterisk beside the 2004-2005 season will be just that... an asterisk.

If you loved the game before the lockout, you'll love it again. The NHL is the best brand of ice hockey in the world on an annual basis and that sort of reputation will always win back the people who supported before. Just you wait and see.

Wouldn't Sidney Crosby look good with an Orca on his chest? I think so.