But...I WANT HOCKEY!!!! C'mon Union! C'mon Buttman! Get your acts together and DO NOT let our sport go down in flames.
Since about mid-May, I've been very apathetic about the NHL and the looming labor armaggedon. It was summer, time to look at other pursuits (loved the men's swimming and gymnastics at the Olympics, anyone up for Torino, Italy 2006? 
). I really thought I wouldn't care. There will be hockey next year, if not this year, right? I've been very disillusioned with the whole workings of the NHL and the way the Caps have imploded since their run in 1998, so why bother?
Well...I have found that I do care...a lot, and now that the time is drawing closer, I really do fear for the NHL, and the future of the Capitals if they shut down for even a day. This has been talked about ad nauseum for the last couple of years here and elsewhere, but it really hit tonight for some reason.
It hit twice: right about the time the flame was extinguished in Athens, and before that during the traditional speech for the IOC Chairman to "call upon the youth of the world to assemble... in four years for the next Summer Olympic Games". For some reason I instantly thought about the hockey season that is in danger, and when it might happen again, and in what form.
Strange, but it is late on a Sunday night, and there are much greater concerns in the world than whether or not a bunch of whiny businessmen and overpaid babies play hockey this year, but we'll all miss it if it the NHL is extinguished for awhile.
On second thought, it is probably because the idea of what the Olympics represents, and that it is supposed to be sports in its purest form, compared to that of professional athletes in the major leagues across North America and Europe. Part of me really wishes that could transcend the almost purely business-based approach to the NHL, but it is just that, a business.
