Ain’t no cure for the summertime blues

By Josh Burnett
for 2ManAdvantage.com

Published: August 1, 2007

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Man I hate summer.

I mean really…100+ degree days with humidity, bugs the size of baseballs, sunburn, and no hockey.Â Why should anyone no longer in high school love summer?

Of course, no hockey means little hockey news.Â So rather than make a big deal of small dealings (OMG NOAH CLARKE!), I’ve decided to make small deals of small dealings, by pointing way to some (moderately) interesting articles and hockey-related…well…stuff.

-According toÂ this article from sportsbusinessjournal.comÂ (link opens in a new window), the NHL and ESPN are in preliminary talks on getting NHL games onto ESPN2 as early as the ‘08-’09 season.Â Definately not something to get worked up about just yet, as quite a few things need to fall into place for such a scenario to occurÂ Well, it would be better than lazer slapshots and glowing pucks... (NBC declining the option they hold for the ‘08-’09 season, Versus accepting compensation to waive cable exclusivity, ESPN talking heads learning the pronunciation of so many eastern European names).Â ShouldÂ the NHL wind up back on ESPN – or in this case, ESPN2 -Â it can only do good things for the NHL in my eyes.Â ESPN is the Microsoft of sports television – it’s pretty much the only thing the general public knows.Â And the general public does not know hockey because currently, ESPN does not care about hockey.Â Getting hockey games onto television channels that typical Americans know is going to be critical to trying to get back toÂ hockey’s popularityÂ in the mid-90s.

-I recieved a phone call the other day from Marty Brodeur.Â Okay, so it was obviously a recorded statement, but we’re going to ignore that for the moment:Â Marty Brodeur is calling Devils fans to tell them that season tickets are on sale now.Â The Devils mainÂ pageÂ (new window) is also touting season tickets, so it looks like the push is on for getting new season ticket holders.Â Still no word on partial plans, but hopefully we’ll be getting phone calls from Johnny Oduya or Kevin Weekes telling us about theÂ weekday six-game set in the near future.

-And last but certainly not least,Â New Jersey’s own Jimmy Dowd hosted a charity hockey game last weekÂ to benefit the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Ocean County.Â You can check out the results right hereÂ (both links, new window) and the game ended in a very Devils-ish way, with the game-winning goal coming in the last minute of play.Â Bravo to Mr. Dowd, games such as this are what’s right about hockey and pro sports in general.