NHL Players Belong in Sochi

Now that The Bachelor is finally over, it’s time that I get back to my roots and talk about pressing sports issues. And not just discuss a topic from the world of sports by giving my admittedly uninformed opinion, but to ridicule and insult someone who has posited a contrarian viewpoint.

With that said, I have to give an assist to long-time reader, Thy Drunken Rookie, for bringing the source material for today’s column to my attention. It’s an article from Yahoo! Sports, by Ross McKeon, entitled ‘Good Show, but the NHL shouldn’t be Involved’.

Read it here before continuing so my forthcoming vitriol makes more sense.

McKeon’s article actually starts out overwhelmingly positive with his praise of Team Canada’s effort in the face of great adversity and knuckle-whitening pressure. He even points out how Sidney Crosby has been pilloried by those who foolishly denounce his greatness. A Stanley Cup and an Olympic Gold Medal at the age of 22 form just the tip of the iceberg of Kid Crosby’s eventual career accolades.

It’s at this point that McKeon opines that NHL players shouldn’t have played in Vancouver in the first place and the wheels completely fall off the coherency of his writing.

What’s fantastic about this article is that McKeon’s points are so stupid and suffer from a case of watching too much Jeopardy. Everything he says comes in the form of the question. Do you know why he does this?

Because it’s much easier to write a column and make a point that way without giving any real thought. For some reason, McKeon has decided to rest on the journalistic laurels the Yahoo! Sports department provides; The New York Times it is not.

Yahoo! Sports is to journalism what William Hung is to singing (Sorry, but I still have the Idol ladies on the brain after last night’s performances).

First, I would hardly call watching two weeks of the best hockey the world has to offer “good stuff.” Is Filet Mignon pretty good meat?

McKeon says that the ‘Miracle on Ice’ would have never happened had NHL players been allowed to play in Lake Placid. Look, the ‘Miracle on Ice’ was such a tremendous moment because of a confluence of factors, not limited to Communism, the Cold War and the fact Mike Eruzione hasn’t had to pay for a dinner in thirty years.

Yes, the American victory in 1980 would have been impossible with NHL participation (mostly because Canada would have run the table). That was one great Olympic hockey moment. Does anyone remember or give a shit about the winner of the gold in hockey in the Olympics before or after that moment?

Of course not, because, until 1998, the best players weren’t playing.

McKeon states that the NHL product has suffered due to the Olympic break because it’s led to rash of injuries and a watered-down product which adversely affects the paying customer.

He provides no statistics for his injury claim (he’s like my kindred writing spirit in that regard) and McKeon’s placing the blame on the lacklustre product on the wrong culprit. The Olympic tournament was great because THE BEST PLAYERS IN THE WORLD WERE PLAYING!

The NHL product sucks during the regular season because there are too many teams and front offices are forced to stuff their rosters with guys who wouldn’t make an AHL team twenty years ago. If the NHL would cut ten teams out of the league, the quality of the product would go up. It has nothing to due with guys having to play a few extra games a month because of the Olympics. They’re professional athletes for Christ’s sakes!

McKeon says, unequivocally, that the “Olympics should be reserved for non-pros. It’s as simple as that.” Yeah, that would be exciting. Have you ever watched the Spengler Cup?

He tries to use the World Juniors as an argument for the exclusion of well-known NHL stars. Sorry, Ross, but that dog won’t hunt. The World Juniors are great to watch because it’s the best under 20 hockey players in the world. That’s why that tourney is so riveting. No one wants to see a bunch of minor leaguers decide Olympic hockey supremacy.

Do you really think 26 million Canadians and 15 million Americans would have watched Sunday’s final if the teams were comprised of guys who couldn’t stick on the NHL’s already bloated rosters?

What would we be able to brag about? Our shitty players are somewhat less shitty than yours?

We should switch jobs, Ross. You’re obviously overpaid.