NHL Commish Gary Bettman said there is a Goatse.cx-wide gap (don’t Google this) between the League and the Player’s union, and with the Collective Bargaining Agreement expiring on September 15th, it appears likely that the players do no begin hockey activities in time to start the season on, uh, time. Hopefully it is nothing worse than what the NFL went through or even the NBA, but a repeat of the 2004-2005 lockout would be devastating to the sport. Despite complaints and shouts from the die hards about the changes the NHL has gone through since hockey resumed back then, the sport has been growing in popularity and is as exciting as it has ever been. Nevertheless, the NHL still remains the fourth most popular professional sport in the U.S., and sports like soccer can seriously threaten that status if the NHL disappears over some stupid bullshizz financial issues.
Nevertheless, that is all real world stuff and you, me and Aldo Nova have to deal with this fantasy life. If we do not get hockey, what can you do? Well, you can always dabble in basketball and football fantasy sports, but while it may satisfy your hunger for obsessing over daily stats and pondering ridiculous trades no one in your league will ever accept, it doesn’t actually help you with your frozen water puck sport (<- term no one says for hockey).
Well, just because 2012-2013 may not happen doesn’t mean you can’t go to the past like Marty McFly with a hard-on for his hot mom. Without endorsing (or even having tried) this, why not spend your time at something like SimLeague Hockey? The site lets you draft a team with any player from the past 95 years, and it is free to try. You could go one step farther and get your friends together and draft teams from a certain season, say 1985-1986, then just go through each game and compile stats. Sure, you already know which players are going to do well, but you can always structure team size, stat categories or other things to make it more fun. Maybe borrow a table at the local comic book shop, some multi-sided die and nerd it up that way. The world is your oyster, so suck the soft stuff out (<- words to live by?).
If we don’t get hockey this season, we’ll still be here at Razzball to talk hockey in some shape and form, as well as share links to amusing YouTube videos.
