HOCKEY LAST NIGHT... WHAT ABOUT DUD HOCKEY?

The National Hockey League and Gary Bettman is focussing on the wrong duds.

Instead of the same game in new cutting-edge uniforms, how about improving the game, which as the Newark Star-Ledger's Steve Politi argues, is going back to the same old overcoached overemphasis on defence that puts a blight on the game. (This comes from a guy writing for a paper in Newark, so he knows from blight.)
Maybe it looked different in person, but if last night's game here in Ottawa between the Canucks and Team Mud was entertainment that people paid money to see, then I'm the Simpsons-ized Johnny Carson singing opera while lifting a 1987 Buick Skylark over my head.

There's been a lot of boring hockey of late; does anyone even remember any of the 34 saves Vancouver's Roberto Luongo made in beating Ottawa last night? You better be standing on your head to go 154 minutes 22 seconds without allowing a goal, not simply be merely good.

(UPDATE, 10:35 a.m. How boring was it? A caller to The Team 1200 just said of Vancouver, "Hockey's supposed to be played with three forwards and two defencemen, not so soccer style with one mid-ice player and four defencemen." Of course, everything good that Cole just said was just cancelled out by an idiot Ottawa fan who called it a "good loss" since the team "didn't quit.")

That lack of stimuli should be more important than a slight change to the team sweaters which frankly, seems long overdue. (For those who buy the line the uniform change isn't about merchandising, Damien Cox has a bone to pick with you.)

You want scoring chances, you want excitement, do what was suggested here at the end of last season: Lose about 10 games off the regular season and institute 4-on-4 hockey under the old rules. It's not that radical to go to 4-on-4; hockey in its infancy went from eight skaters to six to five in about 30 years. It's overdue to lose another skater, especially considering according to player-turned-author Mark Moore, players on average move about two-thirds faster than they did in Rocket Richard's day, along with being about 30 lbs. heavier.

If you argue that it would create too wide open a game, well, are you afraid of exciting hockey or something? Or are you just numb to the possibilities since dullsville has ruled since about 1994?

Canucks 2 Team Mud 1: Far be it to suggest that Vancouver making it 3-for-3 during its Eastern Canada swing with a pair of pinball goals -- including Rory Fitzpatrick's first of the year -- was bad karma.

Fitzpatrick's goal was the latest, uh, enigmatic tall that Ray Emery has allowed this month.

By the way, you can add Canucks fans to those who drown out those cheering for the home team at Scotiabank Place. How many visiting teams does that make it now who seem like they're playing at home when they come to Ottawa? Five, six?

Leafs 3 Panthers 2: Hands up, everyone who has John Pohl, Boyd Devereaux and Chad Kilger in their pool. The Leafs get goals from that unlikely troika and improve to 3-1-0 on this stretch where Neil Acharya figures they need to win six out of eight games to have a realistic shot at the playoffs.

Thanks to the reader who sent this in: Apparently Sportsnet's resident dunderhead Nick Kypreos was slamming the St. Louis Blues' new promotion -- apparently you pay $10 for a ticket and get an additional $20 food credit -- by asking if it was targeted at homeless people. This guy gets paid a half-million a year to sit in a studio and recite hockey cliches by rote, and he's making fun of the plight of people who dive in dumpsters looking for a half-eaten apple.

NHL Scoreboard

Today's better games: Canucks-Sabres, 8; Ducks-Flames, 9.

Headlines: Quebec City's mayor wants a new deal for the 2008 Worlds; American Hockey Coaches Association names award after the late Laura Hurd of Kingston (we did our own post too).

HOMETOWN BREAKDOWN

Good on the Ottawa 67's for ending a four-game skid with a 3-2 win over Peterborough in the front end of a home-and-home that concludes tonight (7:30 p.m., Civic Centre). Our Kingston Frontenacs are the odd team out in the OHL Eastern Conference race at 40 points (behind three others tied at 41). They play two of those clubs this weekend -- home vs. Brampton tonight, then Sunday against Ottawa whom they haven't beaten at the Civic Centre yet this season.

The Frontenacs, by the way, have received 3,480 deposits on ticket packages in support of their bid to host the 2008 Memorial Cup.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.