NHL Lockout Observations, And The Argument

It's interesting to me that no matter how you look at it, both sides are equally to blame in this lockout.

The owners' problem: Being unable to take baby steps towards running their business correctly. A little change is as good as any, and the unwillingness to accept the 5 percent pay cut for a realistic minimum amount of time clearly puts them into blame.

The players' problem: Being unable to realize that hockey is not a huge money sport. These players are passionate about the game and feel that their passion should be shared by others. It is not. Hockey is not an American sport. Hockey players do not deserve extremely rich contracts.

There is a misnomer in sports, and that is the classification of hockey as a major sport.

As far as the whole "argument" goes on these pages, I do believe certain language in the original Jason post clearly contained, while maybe not intentioned, potshots at another writer's opinions. When I finally was able to get around to reading the post, it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be and contained informative commentary. It did veer quietly into attack--maybe a couple of crumpled paper balls of an attack, but an attack nonetheless. I tried to read it as if I were the one being responded to, and found myself kind of getting irritated even though there were cool-headed, well-reasoned points within the body of the post.

The fact that there is a debate at all means that there is clear blame to be put on both sides in this issue. I boo hockey. I boo the NHL. Anyone involved with it, gets a boo from me. That includes Scott Walker, Gary Bettman, Wayne Gretzky, Canada, and anyone who has ever visited Toronto (which includes me).

So, now that hockey's done for, let's talk about the English Premier League! Arsenal is number one! But watch out for Chelsea, they're close behind!