Occupy the NHL

I know, it's back and we're all excited. The NHL season has been salvaged, and in nine days we'll get to follow our beloved teams. The passion will return. All the people that said they won't be watching hockey this year, will. Whoever ends up raising the cup with an * beside it in the record books will be celebrated. Especially if it's a Canadian team. No one in this country is willing to pass on being cup champ based on technicality.

This trial separation has been hard on all of us. Our parents have been having public disagreements, completely disregarding our feelings. We've just been sitting in the basement covering our ears, hoping that it would all work out. And it did.

One commissioner gets to look gracious, 30 owners get their business' back running, and hundreds of players get back on the ice. But what about the thousands that rely on the NHL running to make a living? What about the vendors, restaurants, cabbies, strippers, bus drivers, employees of the arenas, hotel workers, hooter girls,  and various hair salons creating mullets. Those people didn't get a press conference to discuss who's side they were on. They didn't get face-time on TSN. They had to find another job,  take less shifts, or (god forbid) not buy NHL 13 and other luxurious items.

But what can we do?

We can't fight the owners. We can't scream at the players on the street. We can bitch-slap Gary Bettman(if we can find him)

But I propose we do something together. Something that will only hurt two groups of people. The owners and the players. Of course we're going to go to the games, and of course we're going to watch them on TV. We're going to go to the playoffs, we're going to buy the "new" jerseys, we're going to argue about the goals, and blame the refs...

What I propose is we, the people, choose a Saturday night in which every team in the NHL is playing and we boycott watching the televised games. Of course, those that can go to the games will, and I don't blame them.

If we all turned off our TV's for one Saturday night, the NHL would have its worst numbers ever. The advertisers would be pissed, the owners would feel the pinch, and the players agreement in revenue sharing would take a hit. I know it's small. I know it's petty, hell it may even be stupid. But our vote should count!

We're too passionate to give up the 50 games we get. We are a small fan-base in comparison to the other sports, and I think that we need to let these two groups know who we are. I've heard people say that this was an argument between Billionaires and Millionaires. By my calculations that less than 500 people. Lets show them what millions of thousand-aires think about our time being wasted for 4 months. Lets let the NHL and NHLPA know that there is another player in the game, and we have the most votes.

Trust me, I don't have the answers... this is just an idea. Twice before I allowed these lockouts to happen, and then fell back in front of my team thanking them.

Maybe it's time they thank us.