The Stanley Cup is OURS (cackle cackle cackle)

Well, now that we are into the second month of BASEBALL it's safe to say, in the manner that we say things down here in the south...

"There ain't going to be no NHL this season."

A sterile 2004 has morphed into barren 2005. And while the Tampa Bay Satan Rays shovel coal in the cellar of the AL East, at least we 'Tampons' have as consolation that the Stanley Cup is Ours for another year.

Considering the payroll of the Lightning, we can thank the lack of a season for this continuation as champions. But be that as it may, this second year of our "reign" is obviously no consolation at all. There was no blood, sweat or tears on the ice this year. No body checks, no fights, no high sticking, all the things we love every hockey season. Oh, and no skating either.

Since the baseball season is yet young, it's not to late to ask, "what do we need to do to insure that there is a hockey season next year?"

Well, we could all move to Europe. But ofcourse that would be giving up. If we turn to Eurohockey, the terrorists win. And we don't want that do we?

I propose a few simple steps which, if followed, will insure that there is hockey in the NHL next year.

First off, Gary Bettman must die. Doesn't matter how when or where, just so long as it happens soon, as an example to the next NHL Big Cheese. What the Director of the CIA said about Osama goes for Gary too, at least in the opinion of some of us NHL fans: "I want his head on a platter, packed in dry ice". But Gary Bettman's head on a pike will do as well...

As to the NHL, if we don't want to abandon it then let's reorganize it. Isn't it about time for players to own their own league? This would be a first on the planet, at least in the free world.

John DeFord commented on NPR aboot the sad status of NHL finances, "Unlike other major sports franchises which have lower payroll to total expense ratios, the NHL spends over 75% of their revenue on player salaries."

Well, what's so bad about that? How is it that a bunch of owners who never tied on a pair of skates in their lives rate a dime? Oh I know, they are the investors, they take the risks. If the franchise fails they lose their arses. Yeah, well when a franchise fails the players lose their jobs.

Green Bay has somehow managed to make their socialistic experiment of a football team work for the good of the fans, the shareholders and the NFL. If a team in the most fascist sport on the planet can shun the dark force and embrace the light, is there any reason to think that the sport sacred to the nobel Canadian can't do as well? Look, Canada has a relatively progressive government, just tax system, socialized medicine and satellite TV for the masses. Canada can be a light unto the world if they will only rescue their league from the owners. And if they can do that, that'll strike fear in the hearts of MLB ownership, who are even more deserving of revolution and swift revolutionary justice than the dim bulbs currently running the NHL.

For too long sports have been betrayed by those who say sports are a business. The owners are ultimately responsible by setting player against player in the salary cap environment, and impoverishing each other in their struggle for franchise players. The players share some responsibility through their expectation that salaries can exceed team and league income. The fans who pay their $40 a game, we are blameless. But frankly, we could stand to keep a little more of our money for gruel and gas. Yet all these wrongs can be set right.

It's time for Fidel to come down from the mountains and open fire on the business model. C'mon Marx and Engels, time for more blood from your red pen. "A spector is haunting the sports world, the spector of Sports for sport.