Hockey Has Reappeared

Watch, for his sake.

After months and months of really not caring at all, everyone's prayers have finally been answered.  That's right, hockey has started up once again!  Whether you're a fan of NHL 12 or simply are aware of what hockey is, your 5th or 6th favorite sport is back.  There's no reason to worry about anything anymore; just sit back, relax, and wonder why the shootout still exists.

Of course, there's more to this NHL season than just vague entertainment for the masses in Minnesota.  Indeed, there are tens nay, elevens of interesting stories!  For instance, there's the ongoing Sidney Crosby concussion story.  After getting laid out twice last season, Crosby's been out for an awful long time trying to regain the ability to stand up without wanting to vomit.  It really is somewhat horrific how badly concussed Crosby was, made all the worse by the fact that he's far from the first to have such problems in the NHL.  Hopefully this, coupled with Manny Malhotra's unfortunate eye incident, will help the NHL begin to protect their players' heads better.  Because if Sidney Crosby is out, then the NHL will most certainly respond to help their Golden Boy.

Keeping this article totally depressing, we move on to the issues with depression that seem to be running rampant through enforcers.  After the offseason deaths of Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien, and Wade Belak, there have been serious questions raised as to what continued fighting in hockey does for one's mental health. Now, I've always been a proponent of fighting, and I don't think there is necessarily an epidemic of depression or mental issues among enforcers.  However, there is certainly a disturbing trend beginning to form here, and the NHL needs to keep an eye on their players' mental health in order to avoid such tragedies occurring every again.

Well this is depressing.  Let's move to something less sad and more filled with hatred: the Boston Bruins.  Yes, after winning the Stanley Cup on the strength of Tim Thomas and almost nothing else, the Bruins have truly become a team to despise.  Whether it be Johnny Boychuk literally breaking Mason Raymond's back or Zdeno Chara attempting to behead Max Pacioretty, the Bruins aren't exactly the cleanest of teams.  Of course, after Aaron Rome's barely illegal hit on Nathan Horton (Rome is suspended for concussing Horton, but Boychuk doesn't even draw a penalty for breaking Raymond's back!?), the entire Bruins team was up in arms that Rome apologized by text message.  While I understand this uproar to some extent, it seems quite hypocritical to be angry at this but accept Boychuk's text message apology to Raymond.  Combine this with the Bruins thinking Maxim Lapierre's finger-taunting in the Finals was classless, which they immediately followed by taunting Alex Burrows in the exact same way, and one sees that the Bruins truly are the most hypocritical team around.  Now if only they could add Daniel Carcillo, I wouldn't have to hate on any other teams.

Phew.  The NHL has a lot of negative going on doesn't it?  Man, I'm sorry.  There's good things too, I promise.  For instance, Steven Stamkos scores like 50 goals a second (96 in the last 2 years), and he's still only 21.  That's right my parents, Steven Stamkos is my age and he's already one of the five best players in the NHL.  Sorry guys.  Otherwise, the NHL has the Sedin twins racking up points left and right (198 last season between them) while playing on the best team in hockey, the hilarity that is the Calgary Flames, Nicklas Lidstrom defying age (62 points last year, or 12 more than anyone on the Nashville Predators), Winnipeg finally getting a team (even if Phoenix still has one for some reason), and, of course, Sports Illustrated ignoring all hockey knowledge when picking their Stanley Cup Finals.  Chicago versus Pittsburgh, eh?  The same Chicago who lost half their team last season, barely made the playoffs, and improve by adding... Andrew Brunette?

Regardless of any negatives, hockey season is a great time.  I implore you, dear readers, to watch a couple games.  Choose a team you like, whether it be for their pretty blue and green color scheme, relative geographic proximity to Seattle, or number of red-haired Swedish men on their team.  Watch this team, religiously if you like.  I would recommend casually though.  Hockey has just about everything you could want in a sport, just try and learn some of the nuances and you'll find that its actually a whole hell of a lot of fun.  Come on guys, it's great, I promise.  Guys?  No guys, that's just a regular season game.  Come on guys, you don't even like the Bengals!  Come back!