In baseball they call this the dog days of summer. I think that is even more appropriate for hockey. Its as if the whole NHL world shuts down for the month of August, except of course all of the crazy people who spread false rumors and come up with lame takes on stale stories from the season past or season to come.
This is all such a let down from the excitement of the spring that builds to such a nice peak...even after the playoffs. You have the draft to look forward to - which coincidentally is all about looking forward as your team is picking players that most likely wont even get a sniff on the NHL for at least three years - if ever. Just a few weeks later every fan (well most fans, people following teams like CBJ and Atlanta excluded) prepare to have their minds blown on July 1st when (most likely) their team doesn't sign the big name free agent that nearly every season ticket holder was convinced their team was going to land. It is fun though to speculate who is going where and to see where they all land.
Then...well...then there is August. Man it sucks. NOTHING is going on. We all sit and wait. Here in LA we are waiting for the "debut" of hockey fest. This thing, still not sure exactly what it is and if it will get my hockey buzz going. This thing is just weeks away. They say (don't you just love it when people use "they say" as their basis for sharing information) this thing will become an annual event. That's interesting. If I believe Chris McG, who rarely steers us wrong, this thing will be tons of fun and something we look forward to each year. If he is right, and I have no reason to not trust him, I will...heck, we all will...finally have something to look forward to next August.
OK, I'm done with my rant. Its time to go stare at my jerseys and pick which one to wear to the first preseason game. That's right people, its only about 30 days away. Man I cant wait.
Come back in a few days and I'll have some insider tidbits, lots of juicy gossip and plenty of made up stories. Isn't that what all the other hockey bloggers do?
The Mayor
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