By Cooper Olive, Staff Writer
If our worst fears are realized and the NHL owners lockout their players on September 15th, here are 10 ways to spend the worst day of the year.
10. Learn Russian: With no more hockey to be played in the USA, many of your favorite NHL superstars will be heading overseas in search of a paycheck. Europe’s most powerful and wealthiest hockey league, the KHL, will attract many NHL players. So its time to invest in Rosetta Stone and get a hang of the native tongue to keep up with your favorite players.
9. Play NHL 13: Unless Gary Bettman walks into your room and breaks your Xbox, there is little the owners can do to keep you from letting your digital hockey team take the ice. NHL 13 looks to be the best installment in what has already been a great tradition of quality hockey simulation. If you want to see Crosby take a stick to the face, or Stamkos score a twisted wrister, this could be the only way for a few months.
8. Play Hockey: Want to remember a time when hockey wasn’t all about the money? Then its time to lace up your skates and head to your local rink. If there aren’t enough people around to get a scrimmage going, just skate around and handle the puck a bit. Let yourself remember why you love the game and how it feels to be out there.
7. Teach a friend about the game: Every hockey fan has at least one person who just doesn’t understand hockey. What’s icing? Why was that a penalty? Why did they stop the game? These questions and more are constantly echoing from the uniformed. It’s time to sit down your friend or significant other and explain to them why exactly hockey is the greatest sport on earth. With many fan’s claiming they will stop caring about hockey if there is another lockout, it’s our job to get even more people interested during this crisis.
6. Go through your old hockey cards: Want to re-live the glory days of Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky and Jaromir Jagr’s mullet? Well there is a pictured history of the NHL possibly lying around your house. Dust off your old card binder and flip through your old hockey card collection. Who knows, you may even find a treasure you thought was lost.
5. Buy tickets to a local team: While the skill and grandeur of watching the big boys play will be missed, you can still catch high levels of hockey in other leagues. Hit the web and see if you have a local AHL, ECHL, WHL, QMJHL or OHL team near you. The drinks will be cheaper and the amount of fun should remain the same.
4. Take to Twitter: While some NHL players will find work elsewhere, many others will be left with no job and lots of free time. Luckily for us many players like to document their escapades via Twitter. Notorious for their hijinks, it will be interesting to see what kind of trouble players get into with this abundance of free time. Here’s a prime example:
3. Get to know your team better: Many average NHL fans can’t name many of their team’s players other than the stars and a few role players. Take this time to learn about the little guys, the 3rd and 4th liners that are the backbone to your team. A better understanding of your team as a whole can help you enjoy the game even more.
2. Throw a Party: While this isn’t a time to celebrate, it is a time to get together. Much like a funeral, we should gather to remember the good times as we lower the NHL into the ground. This gathering will also give you a chance to try out all those Gary Bettman jokes you had been saving for weeks. The more your friends drink, the funnier you will become.
1. Buy NFL Sunday Ticket … Just Kidding
