Today I was supposed to be starting the first real Committed Indian of the year, wrapping up work just in time to take in Flyers-Bruins before watching the Kings raise a banner instead of watching Joe Saunders try and wheeze and stumble his way through the Yankees lineup. Or the Steelers and Titans, which I don’t think anyone outside of Pennsyltucky really cares about, and that includes Tennessee.
But I’m not, obviously.
We’ve been waiting for this announcement for a while – The NHL announced the first set of games to be cancelled for the year this afternoon. The news doesn’t, or at least shouldn’t, come to a shock for anyone as anyone following this even remotely (and that’s about as close as I’ve gone with these charades) saw the writing on the wall long ago.
All games from October 11th to the 24th are now cancelled but not quite lost to history just yet. The NHL left the door open for a condensed schedule to be made if the league and the PA can reach a deal in the next few weeks. When asked if the league and the union planned to meet in the coming weeks and what steps would be taken to help resolve the many issues between the two groups, Gary Bettman only responded thusly. 
With word today coming out that ESPN3 will broadcast KHL games, if fans didn’t feel manipulated and used as leverage in this idiotic lockout, they should now. I know I do. Something about this just feels more unseemly than the usual press conference posturing of Donald Fehr and Gary Bettman.
A lot of people, mostly outside our strange little world, were trying to draw connections between the NHL lockout and that of the NFL referees. However, the issues were very different. The refs were locked out over disputes over pensions and job security. In that sense, the NFL referee lockout was much closer to the teachers’ strike than it was the NHL Lockout.
But the furor over it this week and the resolution last night was an excellent demonstration of why it sometimes hurts to be a cult/niche sport, even though that’s part of the attraction for a lot of us.
Not that it’s unexpected, but the NHL has cancelled all preseason games through the end of September, as noted by everyone on Twitter.
#Blackhawks had four preseason games scheduled in September. They have all been cancelled.
— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) September 19, 2012
While it’s no great loss to cancel games that don’t matter which season ticket holders are required to pay for, it’s yet another harbinger of doom as both sides engage in the world’s stupidest staring contest.
