Still the best name you can name

I keep reading about the NHL schedule, and frankly I’m bored. When all this schedule talk first started earlier this season, someone (I think Damien Cox, if not, I’m sorry) wrote a column at ESPN.com to the effect that if all we can complain about is the schedule, maybe the league’s doing something right.

I tend to agree with that sentiment. Nobody seems to talk lately about the fact officiating has become much more consistent. Big hits are a big part of the game again, and the play is much more physical. All while maintaining a pretty good amount of open ice for playmakers.

And in case you missed it, the playmakers are doing their thing. The fact remains there is more top-end talent in the NHL today than at any other point in league history. For every guy that played in Dallas this past Wednesday, at least two other guys had legitimate claims to spots on the All-Star rosters.

Beyond that, coaches are opening the game up and letting their offensive guys play. Nearly every team in the league is forechecking aggressively, so while scoring is down a little, scoring chances are still abundant.

So while some writers think their media credentials give them free reign to criticize the game in whatever way they see fit, this one is more interested in enjoying the game.

While talking heads from sports networks are eliminating the Florida Panthers from playoff contention in the middle of January (since everyone knows six points in the standings is insurmountable), the Panthers are actually preparing for the return of one of the game’s premier players (Todd Bertuzzi), and are poised to make a good run at the playoffs. In fact, all but four teams are within 10 points of a playoff spot coming out of the break.

While writers mourn the loss of Hockey Day In Canada, I say a four-game day featuring Montreal-Boston at 1 p.m., Vancouver-Minnesota at 4 p.m., Toronto-Ottawa at 7 p.m. and Calgary-Edmonton at 10 p.m. would probably be even more fun than the regular slate of three games.

While purists are worried about Reebok’s aesthetic vision of the NHL, players are excited to be faster, cooler and safer in their new equipment.

While injuries knock big names out of line ups, guys you’ve heard of (Ray Whitney, Yanic Perrault, Sean Burke), guys you haven’t (Maxime Lapierre, Jan Hejda, Travis Zajac), and even more hot-shot rookies (Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, Anze Kopitar) are coming up with big performances every night.

And while the Pittsburgh Penguins face a very uncertain future, they’re the most exciting team in the league. No matter where this group of young men plays, they are on the verge of becoming the kind of team my friends and I will tell our kids about the way dads have told their kids about the Maple Leafs of the 60’s, the Canadiens of the 70’s, and the Islanders and Oilers of the 80’s.

Hockey is the best game you can name, and fans know that.

If the league wants to grow and expand its fan base, the writers and so-called fans and defenders of the game need to stop criticizing everything about it. It’s hard to make new fans when nobody is talking about the great games, great people and great stories offered up in every rink, every night.

Where's the justice anymore?

Isn’t California a “three strikes” state? Who the hell does Barry Bonds think he is?

First, his trainer is implicated in the steroid/BALCO mess, and Barry plays dumb. He thought is was flax seed oil. Oh. Our bad, Bar.

Then he tells us he got products from Gary Sheffield, and had no idea they might be steroids. Our bad, Bar.

Now, word comes out he failed a drug test during the 2006 season. Barry’s using amphetamines. Now, I’ve read Ball Four, and I understand “greenies” are a part of the culture. But, they’re now an illegal part of the culture, and Barry’s allegedly been caught using them. First official offense under the new MLB rules, so he gets a free pass. I can live with that.

And when word came down that Barry’d been nailed, magically the drugs came from a teammate’s locker. Has Bonds ever been responsible for anything he's ever done? Would this guy even take credit for drawing a breath?

Honestly. This is the soon-to-be home run king?

Roger Maris was ducking chairs in the outfield, and his family was threatened in 1961 when he broke Babe Ruth’s single-season record (and died before his own record was ever properly recognized), while Hank Aaron had the pleasure of being a black man in 1974 trying to break the most coveted record in American sport.

I, for one, do not look forward to telling my kids about watching the home run king Barry Bonds play ball. While Bar could play, he is in no way a hero the way his predecessors are.

Meanwhile, another chapter was written in the book of baseball double-standards this week when Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. were elected to the Hall of Fame.

Gwynn and Ripken are two fine ball players, and two fine human beings. Gwynn is soft-spoken and jovial, and a member of the 3,000 hits club, while Ripken is baseball’s iron man. The 19-time all star played in 2,632 consecutive games, a record that probably only other players can truly appreciate. They were two of baseball’s finest, on and off the field, and they will take their rightful places among Cooperstown’s legends.

Not joining them is Mark McGwire.

Not to take anything away from Gwynn’s 3,000 hits, or Ripken’s games-played streak, neither streak captivated fans the way McGwire’s pursuit of Maris’ record did in 1998. It’s not often fans or writers credit Gwynn or Ripken with saving baseball, the way they often have with McGwire and Sammy Sosa’s home run chase in ’98.

After the strike in 1994, so many fans turned their backs on baseball, the way baseball had turned its back on the fans. Attendance, TV ratings and revenues were all plummeting before McGwire and Sosa turned home plates all over America into launching pads. As they hit more and more home runs, more and more fans returned, and after three seasons in exile, baseball returned to the forefront of fans’ consciousness’.

Steroids, or no steroids. Blind eyes turned, or not. Cheating, or taking advantage of non-existent rules. No matter the circumstances, McGwire and Sosa are the reason this week’s Hall of Fame announcement ever made front pages. They’re principally responsible for current baseball revenues to allow for $126 million contracts.

The fact Hall of Fame voters turned their backs on McGwire this week is a slap in the face, considering he’s the biggest reason anyone cares what these old bats think.