no honor among thieves

Strategy plays a huge role in the development of professional hockey teams, as roster and personnel do. The trade deadline looms and the eyes of the hockey world watch. They wait to witness, critic, debate and ultimately judge.Some moves will speak for themselves as they carry their team forward to a decidedly respectable finish. Others will not. All the while the game will be played, the fans will be entertained, or will they? Powers to be make calls based on bang for their buck, or do they?

In this new age of sport, money and entertainment make for strange bedfellows.

Apparently a phenomenon unfamiliar to the hockey purist has arrived at the rink holding hands with the salary cap; I’ve even heard remarks boasting how attractive it is. This strategy hinges on getting something for free, you know, a reward for performing poorly. These people suggest that manipulating the leagues current draft format by fixing it so a team finish as close to last as it can is fair play. They would support this maneuver by dumping salaries and choosing marginal players in the interim. Jargon must exist to describe this twisted philosophy but I prefer to stay within my analogy.

Only a 'hockeywhore' would consider this acceptable!

Don’t get me wrong, a realist will accept the season is done for his/her current team and strategies to improve the chances to win.

TO WIN!

Not two years or more down the road, but next game. These conniving spoilsports would have the game rob its fans of the entertainment value they deserve. The game has got to be above board and fair just as it has to be more then dollars and cents.

WHY?

Because the game belongs to the fan and we won’t have it any other way. A fan will buy into higher prices, even accept changes to the game but we won’t tolerate cheating. We expect to be entertained in exchange for our dollar, our support, our passion. Owners and managers bear the responsibility to field the best team they know how, procure the venue best able to accommodate its fans. Only then can the league as a whole be strong and honestly achieve its highest level of play.

I’m not suggesting that there is a team contemplating cheating or that any team practices it, only that we fans should rise above this train of thought because there is no honor among thieves.