KeyesToSports B1S1

Initial

I would imagine my first blog would be relatively to myself. I mean who knows I am even writing this. Off the top this is my disclosure to all who may follow. I am not an athlete, I have played sports but so does everyone I would imagine. Well maybe not everyone. I have never coached, managed or wrote about sports before. I have no journalism experience. I am just a fan, an observer a person who has ideas and opinions. Don’t we all have ideas and opinions?

This blog is an avenue for me to vent and share ideas with the world that I feel need to be out there. By no means am I an expert yet… I can’t stress this enough, but this is why I am starting the blog. I mean come on, if I can figure this stuff out why can’t the pros.

So let’s do background… (Get used to the … just the way I write). Grew up on Long Island, yea I know… But hey we don’t get to choose where we grow up; sometimes you don’t even get to choose where you live. Imagine this. An Edmonton Oiler fan on Long Island in the 80’s… Oh that first sweep was brutal. I am not a shy person when it comes to rooting for teams, so back then when my team was winning the President’s Trophy and putting teams out 8-2 on a regular basis I was living it up. Overflowing with confidence for when the playoffs came around. I was talking sweep, blow outs, humiliation, and the end of an era. I hated the Islanders… I am a guy that if everyone is for it, I want to see the opposite outcome. I mean it makes for good storyline.

True Story… I picked the Edmonton Oilers as my team after playing hockey. My friend showed me a book at the library in Patchogue (Thanks John Casasdo, see I remember names…) I saw the mask of Grant Fuhr and that was it. I had no idea I was picking a juggernaut. So no I wasn’t a band Wagoner. Just a person who knows what he likes when he sees it.

Well as we know that Stanley Cup didn’t quite turn out that way and that was the longest summer of my life. What I didn’t realize is that it actually made them a better team. It made their players better; it made the organization better minus Peter Pocklington the embezzler and trader of the greatest player in the world to ever put on skates. Now I say this about Wayne Gretzky even know he wasn’t my favorite player. My favorite player on the Oilers all time. Mark Messier, the man can will a team to victory on one leg.

That’s when Hockey was Hockey. This leads me to my first subject. Some Intro huh, I mean we had to take 3 detours to get to the place we were going. Hockey as it is now sucks! Let me say this. I am a black male, yea black who loved hockey when he was a kid. So what I wasn’t “supposed “to play it or even like it. I just did. How could you not, fast paced, hitting, drama, story line, fights and most of all… Play to you drop overtimes. It was the stuff I would stay up to 3 in the morning to see the game talking on the phone with my friends discussing the drama as it unfolds. That’s when we had rivalries like Calgary / Edmonton, Philly / Rangers, Canadians/ Boston. Things would get ugly but still there was a game.

Fast forward to now. Bettman… Even I got this one wrong. Poster child for commissioners, David Sterns right hand man. How could we go wrong right? Ummm Fox, CBA, allowing Fox to do Fox Tracks, trying to treat Hockey like baseball and basketball. The list goes on and on. Moving valid teams to places where people were just curious instead of fans. It kills me.

So here comes my First KeyesToSports Fix. How to fix the NHL.

1. Get teams back in the following cities, Quebec and Winnipeg and add a team to Hamilton.
2. Go back to the original names for divisions Smythe, Norris, Patrick… how can you just throw that away?
3. Get in touch with the games history. Everything they got rid of is what made hockey.
4. No more crazy jerseys and whacky logos.
5. Go back to icing, go back to two line passes
6. Instead of changing the game to avoid the trap, get smarter coaches to break it, entice players of talent to exploit it.
7. Change format of all star game to division vs. division. Week long tournament. The break will give the teams a chance to take care of housekeeping and let the players really enjoy what an all star game can be. Winner gets home ice.
8. Make Wayne Gretzky Commissioner of the NHL and me Deputy Commissioner
9. Eliminate the shoot out.
10. No All Star Game during Olympic years.

There you have it. My 10 ways to fix the NHL. This is the first of my many ideas and opinions. Get used to it folks, I have a ton on my mind. To quote my best friend Chris “It’s on like Donkey Kong”. … Till next time…