Time to Kill the Hockey

You know, it wasn't over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor. But apparently, it's over now...

With its do-or-die deadline come and gone and no deal in sight, the NHL circled Wednesday as the day it would call off what little was left of a decimated season, The Associated Press learned Monday.

Despite a last-gasp meeting Monday between the league and the players' union, commissioner Gary Bettman still planned to cancel the remaining games, a source close to the negotiations said on condition of anonymity.

The NHL announced that Bettman would speak at a news conference Wednesday in New York, but declined to give details.

It would become the first major professional league in North America to lose an entire season because of a labor dispute. The Stanley Cup has been awarded every year since 1919, when a flu epidemic canceled the finals.

I expect Canada to erupt into a full-scale riot any moment now, complete with the burning of Bryan Adams CDs.

Dammit, I love ice hockey, almost as much as football. And this is depressing beyond belief. I personally think Bettman, a former NBA official, is trying to force me to watch the NBA playoffs. At least baseball in 1994 managed to wait until August to cancel games, which left us with the NFL to keep us sane. An April and May spent with early season baseball and the NBA playoffs may force us to watch reality TV, for crying out loud. And then, we would all lose.