Game On!

Well, now the game is really on. For the first time in 24 months, hockey lovers everywhere will get to experience the intensity that is NHL hockey during playoff time. This is the real deal.

Before the playoffs, (and the serious predictions and analysis) begin, I think it is important for me to tip my hat to Gary Bettman. I know, I know, he's pretty much a hated figure in hockey, but his gamble paid off. Big time.

I was very skeptical about the survival of the NHL after a full year off and most of the fans not even caring (or pretending not to care) that the game was gone. Given the fact that, before the lockout, the game was about as popular in the US as lawn bowling, I thought it would take years before the fans came back. I, as well as many professional sports writers, was wrong.

The fans came back on throngs and they were rewarded with a much improved product on the ice. The addition of new rules and the way in which the old rules were called gave fans a game in which skill is rewarded. The flow of the game is much better and the fans have given it their stamp of approval.

At this point, I sincerely hope that the officials will keep calling the game as they did in the regular season and not go back to idiocy that is the "let the players decide the outcome" attitude. In the last few games of the season, I saw some pretty awful displays of officiating, mostly from veteran referees. The main culprits were Don Koharski and Dan Marouelli. How Koharski avoided any discipline after his antics in Ottawa is beyond me.

In any case, I am an optimist and I think we're in for some great hockey this spring.

Welcome to Puck This!