NHL To Cancel Games Through Dec. 30 Making It a New Year’s Eve Celebration?

With negotiations to try and end the NHL lockout coming to a dramatic halt last week, the league is ready to cancel more regular season games through December 30 according to TSN.ca.   Another two weeks and two days of action will be wiped from the calendar bringing the total amount of lost games to 526, a true mind blowing number if you ask me.  How the league and the players can sit back and watch that many games be lost over what now appears to be mere details is becoming disturbing.

Among the games that have already been axed include the all-star game in Columbus and the Winter Classic that was set to be held in Detroit between the Red Wings and Maple Leafs.

The league had recently cancelled all scheduled games up until December 14, but with the two sides not even meeting to try and resolve their differences, the league has no choice but to further eliminate more games from the schedule.

But the league did refrain from cancelling all games slated for New Year’s Eve, so maybe they have some hope that a deal can get done in the next week or so, making the Opening Night one of the biggest party night’s of the year.  And what a party it would be to have the NHL return and in such a grand fashion I might add on New Year’s Eve.

While the casual hockey fan has likely given up on the game by now and will be more worried about who they’re going to kiss at midnight, for the true fan,  watching hockey prior to the clock striking midnight is the perfect way to not only get the party started, but the best way to kick off the new year.

It is this type of marketing that the league will need to get creative with in order to win back the casual fan and even then it might be too late given this is the third lockout in the last twenty years.

But imagine what it would feel like waking up on the first day of the New Year with a splitting headache to go with the dry mouth and upset stomach.  Only to remind yourself that hockey is back, a thought that would instantly change your mood and your condition.  Sure we’ve become accustomed to laying on the couch after downing a greasy cheeseburger, getting ready for the Classic, but any NHL hockey at this point would warrant a reason to celebrate.  Ahhh, if only we were to get that lucky.

Of course there is the other side of the coin that the NHL is waiting to come up with a drop dead date as to when the regular season  will be in jeopardy, a time that will likely come in early January if a deal is not finalized before then.  Cancelling games in two week stretches may just be prolonging the inevitable, but at least we know there is still a chance of a deal, even if it is an outside one.

At the rate we’re going, a hangover is welcomed just to help numb the pain that hockey fans are experiencing.

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