Hockey season never ends
Conventional wisdom suggests that early summer is far too late for Canada’s game. Surely June 24 is meant for sunny strolls, not sitting indoors to watch the Stanley Cup finals. Conventional wisdom has it all wrong, of course. The NHL season that came to a thrilling conclusion in Boston Monday night, with a Cup-clinching 3-2 comeback by the Chicago Blackhawks, closed down a highly tumultuous year that many thought would leave the game sorely diminished. Didn’t happen. Another labour dispute between players and owners triggered the third NHL lockout in the last two decades — a fight between millionaires and billionaires, as many dubbed it — and underscored the vast amount of money involved in professional hockey. Fans were frustrated and angry but it was their vast emotional investment that once again rescued the game when the NHL finally returned to action in January.
The 48 games of the shortened 2012-13 season and the long playoff run just ended delivered the boffo ratings and jolts of excitement that only come in pursuit of one of the toughest trophies to win in pro sports. Just ask Gordie Howe, who celebrated his 85th birthday in March. Mr. Hockey only managed the trick on four occasions.
If it seems odd to be still talking hockey a few days removed from the summer solstice, well, it’s always best to remember that hockey night in Canada never really ends for many of the faithful. For a lot of fans, it’s a matter of just four more sleeps until the NHL entry draft in Newark, New Jersey — the unofficial launch of the league’s 2013-14 season.
For the first time in four years, the Oilers will not have the luxury of selecting first overall. But the uncertainty of that stilltantalizing seventh pick has only heightened anticipation leading into Sunday’s draft. (Might a massive Russian winger fall into the home team’s hands? How about a massive stay-at-home defenceman?) Although they failed to make the playoffs for the seventh straight year, the Oilers still seize this city’s imagination — fall, winter, spring and, yes, summer. And the change of pace promised by a new general manager in Craig MacTavish and young coach Dallas Eakins is guaranteed to keep them in the daily conversation here, no matter how high the temperatures soar. (Should such a thing every actually occur.)
An old season ends, a new season dawns. At the risk of repeating ourselves, go Oilers go.