Yes, hockey came. It came all the same.  It came without NHL jerseys and Stanley Cup flags. It came without talking heads and know-it-all sports wags.  Hockey is here, and it may be the best that you’ve seen in many a year.   Talking heads said that hockey is dead.  Welcome NASCAR.  But hockey’s alive. Don’t buy that pundit jive.  Pro hockey is bigger than pro football by far.

Hockey is the second largest professional sport in the Northern hemisphere after baseball.  NHL or no, the show goes on in the minor leagues. While NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and the NHLPA’s executive director Bob Goodenow struggle for supremacy outside the reality curve of realistic salaries that meet attendance, marketing and television revenue, every league from the AHL to the SPHL will benefit by the lockout. 

Whether it has been the infusion of more quality talent or just a sense of the opportunity to shine, the opening weeks of the season in most leagues have seen a renewed energy and some great games played, perhaps as if to say “Screw all of you who thought we’d roll up our ice and go away.”

2004-2005 is a gift to hockey fans from Anchorage to Houston, from Providence to Bakersfield.  During the pre-season, players from the margins of all leagues were becoming big fish in smaller ponds.  Fan interest, particularly in markets near major league towns, is on the rise, as NHL fans are getting their hockey jones by checking out the minors.

Rich Player, Poor Player

The NHL owners’ resolve seems firm.  It is the union, the NHLPA, that is beginning to fraction with in fighting between the hockey haves and have-nots. The superstars are all for league contraction.  What are a few more third tier hockey players, after all?

Stars like Dallas’ Mike Modano,  Jersey’s Scott Niedermayer, and others say they’re cool with contraction.  The level of play would be better, they say.  Of course, there is no proof of this.  Most big salary players don’t live up to their big salary.  It’s a lot of the hungry from the second, third, and fourth tier that put the numbers into the books, because they have to perform at a higher level to become one of those fat-city superstars.

As good as they are, only Mike and Scott’s agents can say that they’re worth the kind of money that other major league athletes are worth with a straight face.

Barry Bonds goes on a home run streak, and even the McKenzie brothers would stop to check it out.   Modugno can bring in the hockey faithful at expansion Dallas, but his reach into the crossover world of sports fans that aren’t regular hockey fans is almost nil.  NASCAR drivers are far more recognizable, because the organization invests millions in making them household names.