Monday, January 31, 2005

Head Them Off At The Legal Impasse!

Replacement players for the NHL? An idea whose time has come? Kara Yorio at the Sporting News thinks maybe. Desperately seeking skating subs

Let's pretend the league is putting itself on a track to have a lawful impasse declared that would, in turn, allow the NHL to implement its economic system. So here we are — impasse declared, cap implemented, players on strike and owners bringing in replacement players.

And that brings us to the fans. You remember the fans. What would the fans do? What would you do?

As I've stated before, I sure support replacement players. A comedian (Jerry Seinfeld?) once remarked that fans really seem to be cheering for the uniforms rather than the players, and, in this era of free agency, I think that is just about right.

It also seems that I'm not alone in supporting replacements. Yorio even claims that some NHL fans see this as an opprotunity to get rid of some dead wood.

One of the best e-mails came from a 13-year old looking for clarification on replacement players, asking if only the old players would be replaced. Now that's an idea. How about replacing the old players and those whose only skills are dumping the puck and hitting from behind? No such luck. All union skates would be emptied, no matter the age or ability.

Of course, for way too many people, the issue of replacement players is irrelevant. Plenty of Blackhawks fans wrote to say they wouldn't know the difference.

Who could argue against that?

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