I'm sure that most people who have "friended" me aren't hockey fans, so go ahead and skip this if you like. :-)

But I've been thinking of something this past week, after former Montreal Canadiens goaltender Ken Dryden had his old #29 retired by the team, last Monday. I saw part of the ceremony (indeed, it cut off the beginning of Doctor Who!), and a couple of things really struck home.

When the Flames played the Oilers back in the 80's, when it was the dream of a Calgary team to bring the Edmonton guys down and go to the Stanley Cup, look at the great players who were collected on a single team even then: Gretzky, Coffey, Kurri, Fuhr, Moog, McTavish, Messier, Anderson, and so on and so on. Even back then, just 20 years ago, it was still possible. But never, never today. Today, if a team comes to town, there is ONE player on that team, or maybe two if they're lucky, that everyone looks forward to seeing.

I absolutely  hate it. This, THIS is why, during the lockout two seasons ago, I said ad nauseam that I wouldn't be satisfied with the outcome unless several teams died, and salaries were forced to be intelligent again, and the teams and remaining players would be so much better. Well, even though the lockout lasted an entire year, and salaries sort-of came down for a while (they'll be back up again shortly), no teams died, and the NHL remains a skating corpse, a zombie feeding off the former glory.

Dryden's ceremony, coming a week after the All-Star game, sealed everything in my mind. The real, skilled, entertaining NHL is dead. Damn.