The NHL (No Hockey League)

Last May, while on vacation with my family, I watched the Stanley Cup Finals with my brother and father. They were both Lightning fans, and I cheered along with them. I was a bit torn rooting for a Florida team against a Canadian one, Canada being the heart of hockey and Florida being a place where you can't even play hockey outdoors in the winter. But only a bit. So we watched together, a rare occurrence given our locations across the country, the infrequency with which we're together, and our different sporting interests. And it was entertaining. The announcers talked about the upcoming labor dispute, but it was background. They said there was a good chance for a lockout, but that was in the future -- we were enjoying the present, and there wasn't much we could have done about it anyhow.

Well, the future is now, and this season hockey officially is limited to the minor leagues and colleges (go Big Red!). The Lightning remain defending champions for another year, though who knows if any of the winning players will be defending their title. The owners must be happy -- they've fractured the unity of the players, and, according to their mantra, they're losing less money than if they'd played the season under the existing labor agreement. Never mind that the players agreed to major pay cuts that would have reduced the loss and possibly even given them a gain. Never mind that the owners were the ones that caused the problem in the first place with their profligate spending -- they decided that as a group they couldn't control their spending, and consequently, the players would have to bail them out. Never mind that the casual fan is likely lost for a decade, and some probably won't return.

Interest in hockey had been growing, slowly, but growing nonetheless. Now it will fall back among the lesser sports (it was already a distant 4th among the team sports -- the average sports fan doesn't even care that it's gone). Will it ever rise again?