PHILADELPHIA -- We'd like to welcome NASCAR to the big boys table of major professional sports in America. You earned one of the four seats a couple years ago, but every time we tried to kick out the NHL, it wouldn't let go of the tablecloth.
Actually, it was so busy slapping itself in the face with both hands, the NHL relinquished its grip on the average American sports fan without realizing what it was doing.
We all know the missteps taken by the other sports at the head table - the NFL, the NBA and Major League Baseball. Work stoppages. Rising ticket prices. Players who don't relate. Baseball even killed a World Series.
But a sport that matters has never given fans a whole year of inaction, a whole year for them to realize how to go on without it. Hockey will be a better sport when it comes back, financially viable, and - with some assumed rule tweaks - faster, more chaotic and more goal-friendly on the ice. That doesn't mean its seat will still be available.
When it comes back, the NHL will be at the kiddies' table. Enjoy the mac and cheese, don't sneak a sip of the wine and say hello to soccer, lacrosse and indoor football.
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