stripethree

…but it is not often I anticipate an episode of SportsCenter as I did yesterday night. Why you ask? NFL? No. College Football? No. Wait, wait, College Basketball right? Believe it or not, no.

Hockey.

Yes, I said it, the sport America loves to ignore (second only to soccer) and that nearly killed itself with a year hiatus, but yes, I said it, hockey. I have waited 15 long months since the Tampa Bay Lightning, a team from one of the last parts of the country you’d be expecting ice hockey to take place, walked away with the Stanley Cup, to see hockey again. My beloved Detroit Red Wings are aging (aren’t they always) and were last seen as the top seed in the Western Conference playoffs getting bounced by Jarome Iginla and the sixth seeded Calgary Flames who came within a game, no, a goal of winning the Stanley Cup last June. I will still, of course, cheer for them. In fact, I need an Yzerman jersey. My old Fedorov sweater is resigned to the closet at home, it no longer fits, in more ways than one. Where is he playing now?

I like the rule changes. I like the salary cap (parity!). Barry Melrose said it best on last night’s SportsCenter, it was something like ‘How can you not like the changes the game has made. Buffalo scored 6 goals tonight. Do you know how long into the season it usually takes Buffalo to score six goals in a night?’

Welcome back hockey. I missed you.