Hockey is Back, Damn Us.

Hockey is back.

I’m not that old, and yet this is the third time I’ve been able to say that at the wrong time of year. And like many hockey fans, I’m rip-snorting mad at pinhead billionaire owners and whiny, spoiled millionaire players, and, yes, I feel there is a very real need to throw Gary Bettman in front of the Zamboni.

I am an angry hockey fan, yes. But I’m angriest at myself because I don’t know if I can fully turn my back on the players and owners who do not deserve my support, interest, or money.

I’d like to make the same statement many groups are trying to make. Boycott. But they’re not going far enough. Some say don’t go to the first game, some say go to the first game but don’t cheer for the first period. Like this will make any difference?

Let’s be clear. Hockey owners are suits. They are businessmen whose sole reason to exist is to accumulate wealth. They don’t care about you.

Hockey players are spoiled athletes with barely a high school education who have been told for years that they deserve to make more than firefighters and surgeons because they play for a living. They don’t care about you.

The only way anything will change in the NHL is if we all walk away. Not for a period, not for a day. For good. Make ‘em beg to have us back until they lower prices, make it about the little guy again, and close down the ten teams located the furthest south geographically (and the Leafs, for good measure).

But this won’t happen.

Because we’re Canadian, and we’re sad.

Because most of us have been hard-wired for hockey since we were babies.

I want to boycott. I want to start getting my sport fix from soccer. I want to turn away forever. I just don’t think I can.

Give me two weeks to cool off and start thinking about Saturday nights watching the game with my kids, and, well, I know I’m weak. Why can’t I quit you, Ron MacLean?