1995-Present Aka 'What The Hell Happened?'
There have been three work stoppages in the last 2 decades of NHL hockey after the appointment of a man named Gary Bettman as commissioner, a dubious record in itself that works to weed out those with only a passing interest, those with a vested interest, and those who just basically stop giving a shit about millionaires trying to get more money from billionaires. Bettman has worked diligently to try to grow the hockey market into the United States, create parity among the strong and weaker teams and take all semblance of violence out of the game; which is pretty hard when the your league's star player recently
gets a puck to the teeth. What is left after all this are the die-hards, the fanatical, and/or the old and cranky who just like to remind everybody that it was way better back in the old days and they should just
watch Slapshot. Hockey has evolved into a blink and you will miss it
reel of highlights, video reviews and dubious
sports blog commentators. As much talk is spent on contracts and salary caps as actual goals and assists and any potential controversial decision is analysed from a plethora of television experts. Yet, despite all this, there are moments of
true hockey passion, a mixture of grit and talent that remind Canadians of why we love it so much; it is a sport that is integral to our culture, where the idea of policing comes from a player's code of conduct and not from an outside source that has never felt the
thrill of a good tic-tac-goal or the feel of waking up to drive to a 5am hockey practice in the middle of winter. Hockey is a game that reminds us of the coldness our ancestors faced settling Canada and the joy that they found in the middle of the cold, hard winters, where as long as they had a patch of ice and a couple of sticks, they had fun. It is a sport where you could spend hours skating circles and shooting pucks into a net in freezing temperatures then want to go do it again the next day. It is a game that for the players that love the sport, don't care if there are 2 people in the stands or 20,000. It is what it is. Hockey. Here to stay.