lundy, lundy, lundy...

So why aren't you watching hockey?

A professional football team plays one game per NFL week, no matter what ESPN will have you think. College basketball is just getting started even Dickie V isn't all that excited yet. The NBA has let its product turn into a Michael Jordan look-a-like contest with the contestants nothing more than William Hungs. The refereeing is as bad as I have ever seen and if that wasn't enough, ESPN has had its hands on it for a few years now so it is only a matter of time until they ruin it further.

So why aren't you watching hockey?

I don't get Versus either--if that's still the place where you see a "national" game. I get my hockey from MSG Network home of the Rangers and now, apparently, all three Tri-State hockey clubs. JB lives a mile or so from the mausoleum, he's a lifelong Islander fan. He's lucky if a game is televised on his dish. Spag is in Brooklyn and relies on MSG 2, and that's no guarantee. Fitz, (cause he's the only guy I knew who was actually a Devil's fan), is probably having his own issues wherever the hell he is now.

Point is, where did all the hockey go? It wasn't to long ago that you could catch anywhere up to four games on a given night here in NYC if all three home teams were playing and there was a game on ESPN or ESPN 2. Now, pay the extra $20 for the channels over 100 if you want to catch, at best, two games on Versus.

A game of high-speed and virtually non-stop action is out there from October until May for you to enjoy and your watching the fucking World Series of Poker instead, re-runs no less.

Before I go any further, a word about the WSOP. This is a broadcast/tournament that has no stars because the best players always get beat by some smuck who doesn't know how to fold because there's no reason to fold when you're on-line playing for free. There are legendary cash-money players who deserve better than what they get then when some asshole 22 year old prick of a math student, calculating what the chances are of pulling his 2 and 3 of diamonds into sucking out a straight flush. Poker is not about counting. Counting is for the abacus. Poker is about balls. The WSOP broadcast is like watching the lottery drawing now. Its all about what number comes up.

Alas, the WSOP is exactly the reason hockey is no longer on ESPN. There is an episode on for a good four months straight every night on one of the two main ESPN networks. That's air-time that could be better used for hockey and lots of it. ESPN used to have a hockey contract, but after the strike they walked away. Maybe they were sore with the NHL because they had all that air-time to fill the time or they just thought the sport had no future. So they treated it as such and paid it no mind. Meanwhile they push football on a daily basis with a cavalcade of football programming. NFL Match-up, NFL Tonight, NFL Gameday, NFL Up Your Ass...

I like football, I like it a lot. I'm a big Jets fan as you can witness two posts below, but there is only so much I can give a shit about. It's almost like they created these shows so these washed up hacks can pretend they are still playing. Prancing around in their $1,000 suits demonstrating the art of running the fullback dive against the 3-4 when its raining on field turf. Fellas, save it. You should have saved your money instead of spending it on all the painkillers and honey's you did on the road.

I used to look forward to Sunday Night Hockey with Gary Thorn and Bill Clement. I used to love when Steve Levy and Darren Pang did playoff games because you could almost bet it would be some 5 OT affair that would last into the night, goalies standing one their heads and water bottles getting blasted off the top of the net. Dudes losing teeth after getting crushed into the glass. Those days are over. ESPN is eating itself, its becoming a network about itself and eschewing the sports it shows in the process. It's like MTV--video killed the radio star and then itself. The network retired total request live this past week. No great loss on the surface, I know, but it was the last program on that network that actually showed videos. MTV released a statement saying that with the popularity of its "reality" programming like "the Hills" and "Made" and whatever garbage they call entertainment these days, they want to focus on developing more programming in this vein. Reality killed the video star.

ESPN is doomed to the same fate. It's newest trick is creating stories like Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis is on the hot seat, he actually isn't, he's in the early part of a 10 year deal, and we all know the only thing the Catholic church spend money on is the Pope's hat. Notre Dame isn't going to buy out the six remaining years, that's nonsense. They just need something to talk about. They have created more falsehoods because they are the self-proclaimed "Worldwide Leader in Sports" and failing print media, desperate for a story to keep their papers afloat will latch onto anything that ESPN reports. Hacks, all of them.

And they've left hockey to die...

So why aren't you watching hockey? Is it because your provider doesn't offer it?--well, get on their case and tell them to offer it. Is it because ESPN tells you it isn't important?--fuck 'em. Is it because Gary Bettman is weaselly fuck who tried to run the sport into the ground?--well, you have a beef there.

Its fast, its furious and hot chicks dig it. Its old time hockey...get off your ass and get some while the getting is good.

Last night I watched Henrik Lundqvist stand on his head for 50 minutes until Freddie Sjostrom rifled a rebound past a ripe for the challenge Alex Auld. After a similar display of head-standing in OT by both goalies, Nikolas Zherdev zipped a wrister through Auld's five-hole while Lundy did three straight head spins to lead the Rangers over the Ottawa Senators. 2-1.

Lundy is killing it right now and you're watching someone flop top pair. Reggie Dunlop would kick your ass!