News from the NHL Website

It's nostalgia time at the NHL website.

No current news, so talk about playoff series that took place 15 years ago. No front page news about the labor issues, although there is a link to "CBA News", which, at first, made me wonder why the NHL cared so much about the Continental Basketball Association, but then I realized that in the world of labor law, "CBA" stands for collective bargaining agreement. How touching that the sports world has reduced itself to the point where everyday legal acronyms are becoming commonplace.

Meanwhile, there is no ice hockey, and word out of Detroit is that part of the reason for the fan unrest is that the beloved Red Wings aren't playing. Why is that significant when thrown into the post-mortem analysis of the Friday Night Fight? Because, the argument goes, the fans say and do almost anything at Red Wings games, where they throw an occasional octopus (thanks to TIGOBLUE for straightening me out that it's an octopus and not a squid) onto the ice. So, if the Red Wings were playing, presumably these fans would be taking out their frustrations on the hockey players (who are separated from the fans by wood and plexiglas) and not basketball players (who are not so separated but may be some day).

Remember, the NHL is a sport that tolerates highlight videos of on-ice fisticuffs, and some teams run replays of the best fights on their scoreboards for fans to enjoy during down times at home games.

The NBA, in contrast, runs features on spectacular dunks and passes that set up spectacular dunks. Fighting somehow doesn't make it into that league's highlight films.

So check out the NHL website, where endless film clips from some of the great heavyweight brawls of all time (such as Dave Schultz versus just about anyone, including Serge Savard and John Van Boxmeer) would be preferable to endless banter about proposals, counterproposals and the economics of a league whose next chapter in its long history just well might be Chapter 11.