State of the NHL

I'm no Gary Bettman, so I'm not going to make this some 1-hour long press conference.

I think the NHL's in good shape right now, it's a league in transition. Of the four main professional sports leagues in North America, it's the league that is most dependent on it's young talent right now. And I think that bodes well for the future.

As a fan, I got worried as the lockout approached. As the stars of the 90's began to hit the twilight of their careers, I was wondering who was going to carry the torch for this league in the future. There really were no young superstars in the league under the age of 24, and with a disastrous lockout imminent, I thought the future of NHL hockey was in serious danger.

But hey, I think the league's made a huge leap forward since the "new NHL" was introduced. As guys like Sakic, Modano, and Sundin (I've heard his name too much not to mention it) get set to retire, the NHL has it's own set of young stars. Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin, and Kane have emerged as the league's new superstars, and I think this youth movement sets the tone for a high quality on-ice product in the future. And it's nice to see that all this hub-bub about dealing with overseas players is virtually gone now. It's now possible to bring over legit talents like Malkin and Ovechkin without worrying about the litigation involved. The KHL has come and gone, in my opinion, as a threat to the talent pool of the NHL, and now the NHL is undoubtedly the best league for professional hockey in this world. It's the "underdog" of professional sports in North America, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it claw back to it's early-90's status as the "model league" for sports on the continent.

That being said, let's get to the hockey part of all this.

As much as it was promised, there is no way you're going to have parity in on-ice product in this league. And we're seeing it in the standings. At the very top, you have your Stanley Cup Contenders. San Jose, Detroit, and Boston are all playing a dominating style of hockey that is absolutely stunning the hell out of their opponents. You have the succesful turnarounds in cities like Washington and Chicago, where each team is being led by their young superstars to great records. Teams like Montreal, Calgary, Anaheim, and Philadelphia continue to be perennial playoff teams, while there's a dogfight in both conferences for the final few playoff spots.

What's got to be worrying is the perennial disappointments developing with the Islanders, Lightning, Panthers, Blue Jackets, Kings, Blues and Coyotes. These teams have tried re-building repeatedly in the past few years, and still struggle to be competitive in this league. With sensitive fan bases and dwindling revenue, Bettman's gottabe losing hair over the future of these franchises in their respective cities. Then there are the teams that have fallen from their thrones, teams that until this season had been considered some of the elite organizations of the league: Dallas, Pittsburgh, and Ottawa. With the plethora of star talent on these teams, it's going to be disappointing to see some familiar names missing from playoff contention this season.

I've been rambling, and I'm going to stop. God Bless the United States of America.