I know I'm fighting an uphill battle.
I know that spelling bees, Scrabble, poker and ESPN Classic's replaying of the 1999 world paint drying championships all get better ratings than the NHL does.
But this should not be the case. The seemingly endless mass of students sitting in line for days on end for hockey tickets leads me to believe a fair amount of people on campus enjoy hockey. Perhaps they either a) never got into professional hockey, b) got bored by it before the lockout or c) forgot all about it during the lockout.
So I guess this is my plea for groups ""a"" through ""c"" to give the NHL a chance. Shootouts, advantageous rule changes and some fantastic young players have made professional hockey great again.
The new NHL is faster, more exciting and doesn't have five-minute battles for the pucks in the corners anymore. College hockey is certainly fun to watch, but its got nothing on the pros.
The usual stars are still there, people like Peter Forsberg, Dany Heatley and Jaromir Jagr, but all the buzz surrounding the NHL has focused on second-year studs Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin of the Penguins and Capitals, respectively.
Both players had more than 100 points last season and Ovechkin had one of the best goals ever seen in a hockey rink (look it up on Youtube, it's amazing). Ovechkin is such a great athlete that he golfed for the first time in his life at a charity event Monday and got a hole in one on the fourth hole. Crosby and Ovechkin should be perennial all-stars for the next 15 years and any hockey fans that don't take notice are cheating themselves.
Although the only channel televising hockey on a regular basis is the obscure Outdoor Life Network, most cable carriers do have it (channel 28 in Madison), so that is no excuse either. Just keep the TV on when the bass fishing extravaganza finishes.
It's unfortunate that Wisconsin does not have an NHL team, but there is a team right across the state border that's worth cheering for. Just lay aside the hate for all things Minnesota and take a look at the Wild.
A small-market team before the salary cap was installed, the Wild only have a few ""stars"" in Brian Rolston, Manny Fernandez and newly acquired Pavol Demitra, but they have plenty of hustle players that can get things done. When they made a run at the Stanley Cup a couple seasons back, the whole state of Minnesota was captivated for an entire month.
So instead of moping over the failures of the Brewers, Packers or Vikings, turn on some OLN and be amazed.
Zach can be reached at zlkukkonen@dailycardinal.com.
