Not Watching The Puck.

Hockey has been getting a lot of non-sportscast press the past few days in Canada.  It's a combination of the Vancouver Canucks going to the Stanley Cup and the announcement Winnipeg will be the new home for the Atlanta Thrashers, despite the NHL's disdain for the idea.  Yet it's worth remembering that despite the stereotypes a lot of Canadians don't actually watch hockey, like me.  Like soccer I find it a bunch of pointless going back and forth.  I prefer something where the use of strategy is a bit more obvious, like Canadian football or baseball, and other non-hockey watchers have their own reasons for disinterest with the game .  For example there are probably some immigrants or the kids of immigrants who don't bother with hockey, but stick with the traditional sports obsessions of the "old country," whereever that might be. 

Still, even if you don't follow hockey it's not hard to get interested in some of the business goings-on behind the game.  For example why would anyone want a pro hockey team in Atlanta, especially since the first attempt, the NHL's Atlanta Flames of the early '70s, failed and moved to Calgary, where they remain today.  Los Angeles makes sense if only because of its sheer size and the number of Canadian expats living there, especially those in the entertainment business.  There's also the already mentioned antipathy by the current NHL bosses towards any talk of a new team in Canada.  It's only because they pretty much have no choice, other than let the team fold, that they've finally agreed to the Thrashers move.  But watching the actual game itself is something I just won't be doing.