5 Reasons Bass Is Excited for The Season
By Alan Bass
Here we are. The 2009-10 season is upon us. And before you say, “Hey, Alan, this season is just like any other one. Why should I get any more excited than I normally am?”
Well, for one, there are always reasons to get more excited. The NHL off-season is the shortest among the four major sports, which may console the average hockey fan. But, as anyone who knows me knows, I am far from average.
(Insert insulting comment here.)
Nonetheless, here are five reasons why I am more pumped up than ever for the 2009-10 National Hockey League season.
1. Great Finish = Better Start
The 2008-09 Stanley Cup final was arguably the best in the last decade. It was close with the 07-08 final, but I believe the Pens’ incredible run tops the Red Wings of two years ago. It even ended unbelievably, with Marc-Andre Fleury making that diving chest save, as time ran out.
So why not believe that the 2010 season will begin just as fantastically as last year’s ended?
2. End to a Terrible Off-season
I’m not talking about the draft or free agency. I’m talking about the fact that the 2009 off-season got completely sucked up by the Patrick Kane antics, the flamboyant taxi driver, the Phoenix Coyotes, the Phoenix Coyotes, and the Phoenix Coyotes. You know it’s a terrible off-season when some young Blackhawk, who doesn't get his change gets so much attention - more attention than hockey’s most storied franchise getting a complete coaching and player makeover.
3. New Faces in New Places
Chris Pronger, Marian Hossa, Marian Gaborik, Mike Cammalleri, Jay Bouwmeester to name a few. These guys are some of the stars of the League. To watch them with new teammates and new colors should be an interesting site. There are many questions surrounding teams, their new players and the many unknowns are exactly that.
Will Pronger live up to the expectations of being that “typical Flyer”? Will Bouwmeester continue to play well on a much stronger Calgary squad? Will Gabby’s groin hold up? (Great name for a band, by the way – Gabby’s Groin.) Will Hossa recover from his injury with enough time to make a difference in the Windy City?
All this and more to be answered soon!
4. A Sport on the Rise
First off, let me say this: Despite all my mitching and boaning about Gary Bettman and the League, it really has done a fairly good job. The NHL is slowly putting itself back on the map. Fans should know this, because in the last year, there have been numerous rumours that ESPN considered broadcasting some NHL games again for the upcoming season. And as we all know, there is always some truth to every rumour. Unless it is started by Eklund.
Second, remember the Cincinnati Bengals? How they had about 79-and-a-half players arrested a couple years ago? Michael Vick killing those dogs? Plaxico Burress doing whatever the heck he was doing? How about Ron Artest going into the stands and beating up on some fans? (This is starting to sound like a Dr. Seuss story.) Or MLB and all those steroids?
In hockey’s years of testing players for steroids, only one has tested positive. One. Uno. Un. Один. However else you want to say "one." How many NHLers have been arrested for serious crimes? Not many. How many have murdered? None (at least while they were playing). When the biggest “bad” story of a sport is a player who hits a cab driver, you know the sport does not have many legal problems.
5. Why Else? It’s Hockey!
The coolest game on Earth. “The greatest spectator sport ever,” says Flyers chairman Ed Snider. On October 1, we have: Joe Sakic's number retired in Colorado, NHL games in Finland and Sweden, and the start to the most grueling season, en route to the toughest trophy to win in pro sports. That is not opinion. It is fact.
With our great game just around the corner, what’s not to be excited about?
All I have to say is, I sure hope Terrell Owens has his popcorn ready.
