It is now Day 10 of life without NHL hockey. Please send help.
Okay, so I haven’t melted down completely. I’ve thrown a few minor tantrums, but for the most part I’m holding it together quite well; as well as I can with the threat of a winter without the NHL looming over me.
I’m sure you’re all aware that we are currently in the early stages of an NHL lockout. There’s no escaping it, seeing as there’s a news piece on it every night detailing how the business negotiations have turned into a ‘he stole my lunch money,’ ‘well, he didn’t want to be my friend at recess’ fight. Or how a daily wave of NHLers have fled the country in search for leagues overseas that will pay them and haven’t barricaded the locker room doors.
Okay, rant over. I’m trying to stay positive. There is still a chance the two sides can come to an agreement in time to salvage the rest of the season.
In case of an emergency, here are some tips on how to survive the cold, long Canadian winter if the 2012-2013 NHL season is cancelled (oh the horror!)
Watch hockey: Just because we won’t be able to watch the professional millionaires doesn’t mean hockey has ceased to exist completely. My suggestion: hit up a Major Junior game. We in Airdrie are lucky. We have five WHL teams within a three-hour radius of us and one is the reigning league champion.
Junior hockey is just as exciting to watch some nights. It’s a perfect mix of the innocence of minor hockey and elite players on the cusp of reaching the professional ranks. Plus, there isn’t a better annual tournament to watch than the World Juniors. Boxing Day at my house would be unbearable without it.
Watch other sports: What? You mean there are other sports being played in the winter in North America? Huh. Who knew? Yes, there are several other sports one can watch in the place of hockey and some of you already do. The 100th Grey Cup is being held this year. There’s still a chance Saskatchewan -, ah, forget about it. There’s the NBA, NFL, soccer, skiiing, figure skating, etc. Bonus: with no hockey on, the fan bases of other sports may be a bit more forgiving of bandwagoners this year. Maybe. No guarantees, though.
Sidenote: NFL replacement refs = hilarity. I’ve made it quite clear that I’m not an NFL fan, but even I’ve made a point to watch the highlights because of how hilariously awful and baffling some of the calls have been recently. For non-fans like me, it’s entertainment. For the Monday Night diehards, it’s a black spot on a great sport.
Watch hockey part II: Wherever your favourite players end up, there are still ways to watch them play. Albeit it’s via an Internet livestream that looks like it’s being filmed on a Blackberry, but, hey, it’s something. We also have entertaining hockey being played right in our backyard. The Thunder and Xtreme have both kicked off its new seasons.
Live music: My lockout upside motto this year is no NHL = can’t buy hockey tickets = more money for concerts. It’s weak, but it’s what’s holding me up. I already have tickets to a pair of shows, but the downside is that I’m currently running through my concert bucket list faster than I can replenish it. First-world problems.
Watch hockey part III: It’s called ESPN Classics for a reason. One saving grace is that ESPN and the NHL Network have been playing old games every night, spanning from last year’s playoffs to the 1970s. Sure, you may already know who’s going to win, but they’re still fun to watch and in some cases, they still invoke the same emotions they did when they were shown live.
For example, I still get nervous when Zach Parise scores the game-tying goal in the third period in the gold medal game of the 2010 Olympics even though I know (spoiler alert!) that Crosby wins the game in overtime. Or how, as I watch with a pit in my stomach as the Vancouver Canucks eliminate the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 7 of the 2011 playoffs. R.I.P. Chris Campoli’s Hawks career.
Miscellaneous: Watch the news, take up knitting, start a reading list, try Zumba, keep track of the lockout through Twitter (almost as entertaining as the games I tell you), join a beer league team, whatever will get you through those dark, lonely Saturday evenings.
For the sake of NHL fans everywhere, let’s pray or wish on a star that the lockout is solved ASAP before we begin hearing the phantom strains of the Hockey Night in Canada (NHL on TSN?) theme song, sleeping in our jerseys because we have nowhere else to wear them or become completely jaded with the sport altogether. Fingers (and toes and knees and ankles) crossed.
