Summer may have been late arriving hereabouts, but it sure is hanging around in decidedly unfall-like fashion.
Maybe that's why it is hard to get invested in who is right or wrong in the NHL lockout. After all, who is thinking about a game played on ice when it's still warm enough to hang out at the beach.
The delayed start to the hockey season is, as always, about money. The owners want more. About 50 per cent of them have operated with a deficit at some point between 2009 and 2011 and the weakest sisters in this bunch wrote their books in red for all three years.
The same hard-up owners are paying US$20 million a year to prop up a team that has a buyer waiting in Canada. It's the same short-sighted owners who don't like the collective agreement they negotiated in 2004 and have locked their players out for the third time in 18 years in order to extract concessions to fund their limited business sense.
We could go on, but it's just too aggravating when there are other less expensive things to do than NHL hockey.
If pro sports is your thing, there's lots to get excited about: the Lions are on the cusp of a great season; the Whitecaps should make the playoffs in their second season of MLS. If you have to get a hockey fix, the Vancouver Giants haven't looked very good in preseason, but are always competitive when it counts - and this season the NHL drafts will all still be playing in junior.
Locally, check out the talent on the ice with the Richmond Sockeyes. These kids are all about trying, not the money and it won't cost you a small fortune.
