January 6th, 2013 
PatMan I am not a massive Hockey fan, but being Canadian I am of course overexposed to it, after all it is part of our culture and I appreciate that. The NHL is back, which is a good thing for some people. If it makes you happy, good for you. What has bothered me is not the NHL return, but the incorrect announcement from many people, especially on social media, that “Hockey is finally back”! It amazes me that apparently some people have forgotten what hockey is and that it never went away in the first place. Hockey is many things to many people, really.
Hockey is kids playing pick up on the street outside, yelling “car” when it is time to move the nets and let the neighbor drive by. Hockey is part of the winter Olympics and part of our national pride. Hockey is University teams playing competitively for really nothing more than the name of the school that they play for. It is Moms and Dads getting up at 5 AM on a sub zero Saturday to bring the kids to the local arena for practice. Hockey is The Calgary Hitmen of the WHL, it is the Juniors ( too soon?), hell it is even the fun beer hockey leagues filled with out of shape guys who still think they “almost could have made it big”. All of this , and much more, is part of what “hockey” is. I could go on however you get the point by now so I will stop with the examples.
I am not a huge fan of the sport myself, but it is obvious even to me that hockey was going very strong this year, with or without out the NHL. Now the NHL is back and yes, I fully understand that perhaps it is the most visible and famous aspect of hockey. The NHL is loved by many a hockey fan but perhaps just a few less after recent events. To those that are making the announcement that ” Hockey is Finally back”, stop. The greedy millionaire players and billionaire owners associated with the NHL DO NOT DEFINE HOCKEY. The NHL is only a part of the sport,and as we found out with the lockout, hockey was alive without it this year. So, once again, I am happy for those of you that are excited that the NHL is back. Enjoy it. To those misled fans saying “Hockey is finally back”? The truth is simple. Hockey never went away. Only the greedy part of it did. Only the NHL.
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Well said, Pat. As a fan of the NHL, I reacted to the news that that both sides stopped acting like 5 year old's with a simple shrug of my shoulders. They have made me less interested in the sport than I was a year ago. Part of me hopes this screws them royally to teach the jerks a lesson. The rest of me knows it will never happen.
For those of us who want to watch hockey, it's essentially back. Sure, all those things still exist and never left. A lot of people said go support the WHL, AHL, etc. I would have liked to do so. The problem was that I can't afford to go to games, and there was so very little of these leagues on television. Fortunately I did get to enjoy the World Juniors and the Spengler Cup tournaments.
Other people said things like, go watch other sports. My reaction was simple. I could give a fuck about watching other sports. I just want to watch hockey regularly, regardless if it's the NHL.
But I do agree with you, Pat. The generalization that it is just the NHL being back as being all encompassing the sport as a whole. It's certainly not. There just were no real alternatives available and that pisses me off. So I have found a solution. I WILL watch the NHL for the shortened season. I will NOT purchase EA NHL'13 even on the cheap. I will NOT purchase anything NHL related. I WILL DVR the games and FFW through the commercials so advertising revenue is made moot for this guy. I will not spend any money on anything that helps out the NHL. Not one fucking cent. Drop the puck. 10 years from now we're going through this bullshit again.
I actually noticed that shaw cable had quite a bit of I think WHL I’m not a hockey fan so maybe it was AHL. UofC , SAIT have hockey teams with free admission. Maybe even mount royal university? Not exactly the caliber or talent of the NHL , but free hockey on tv or at arenas. Friends from work were really into the max midget hockey tournament at the Max Bell. I have no idea if that was free admission ,but really I can’t see them charging much.
With that said, The thing is , I dont expect NHL fans to go watch other forms of hockey, but they DO need to adknowledge them. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being an NHL Superfan and considering it as the highest form of hockey while ignoring all other forms of the sport. If someone’s proud enough to be a NHL fan, good for them ,they can declare that NHL hockey is back . However to say “hockey ” in general, is back is just plain silly because as I said in the post, Hockey never left. only the NHL did.
WHL, Max Midget, and AHL stuff was what it was. Little and far between. Sadly I always had to work during the time slots allotted. I tried to explain to my landlord, "But… hockey!" They didn't comply. Now I can always watch a game when I have off time between paying bills. Just sayin'. If one of the sports channels actually carried most games, that would have not been an issue to me. I plan on using the NHL as much as they used the fans, the blue-collar workers that got raped out of a job, and the media. Not a cent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embe…
Dude that landlord sounds like such an ass is probably a baseball fan