The Ghost of Lemieux

The NHL season was officially cancelled today. To which I, along with most people, say: who cares? Hockey is a terrible TV sport, and they just moved all the teams around and gave them strange names that I can't recall, which makes the sport harder to keep track of and even harder to care about.

The only cool thing I think they've done in hockey over the past few years was to put in the Fox Puck- remember that? The lit-up puck with a trail behind it on the slapshots? Without it, I just can't keep track of the puck, especially when it goes in the boards. There was a general revolt against the Fox Puck, but it made the game better for us casual fans. Sure, rip us half-hearted, channel-surfing folk, but maybe if the puck was easier to follow we would have watched more and the season would still be on. They stuck with the yellow, computer-inlaid first down marker in the NFL, and that seems to have worked out okay.

That said, hockey's great in person. Especially the fights. If they ever get this operation back together, I would like to get to a Sharks game sometime...