No club hockey anymore...

So I was all excited to watch some NHL action this fall…then that went down the tube over this past month. My backup plan? I was really looking forward to it too; I was hoping to attend a majority of Central Michigan’s club hockey home games, at the ICE Arena in Mount Pleasant. They had always played weekend games, free to get in with your student I.D., so this season I was going to follow them religiously. I planned to recap every game I attended in a blog post. (Good way to find something to write about!)

CM Life article from Friday, September 21.

Then a week ago this article showed up in the paper. Right before I saw it I ran into a player on the team, who coincidentally is in one of my classes. I asked him if he was excited for the team’s first two games of the season, on the road that weekend against U of M Dearborn. He told me that the team was “going through some stuff” and they weren’t playing those two games. I thought, well okay, I’m still looking forward to the home openers against Northern Michigan. Of course, I could only assume what was going on with an investigation by the Office of Student Life.

Then I saw the article on the CM Life website on Friday. “Club hockey team dealt five-year ban for violating alcohol policy, hazing.” I literally started yelling at my computer. Nothing could pierce my heart better than realizing CMU no longer had a men’s club hockey team. All the games I looked forward to seeing, all the games I had wrote down in my planner, they no longer exist…

I’m heartbroken. Honestly, I can’t believe I would get left in the dark like this as a fan. No local team, no NHL. What is the hockey world coming to? A five-year ban for CMU club hockey? Not on probation for a couple years? I doubt the club hockey team did something Penn State/Jerry Sandusky related, why such a harsh punishment? Oh well, I guess I’ll visit CMU someday as an alumnus and go see a hockey game…in 2017…

To read the full CM Life article, click herehttp://www.cm-life.com/2012/09/28/club-hockey-team-dealt-five-year-ban-for-violating-alcohol-policy-hazing/

Yep, it's a lockout

I mean these look more like baseball stadium seats, but you get the idea...

So it’s happened.

Work stoppage No. 4 for the NHL, I’m ultimately disappointed that there’s no guarantee of hockey this season in the major leagues…guess I’ll be watching a lot of football…While there’s still time to get a new CBA completed before regular season games are lost, the NHL just lost all the credibility it worked to regain over the last seven seasons. All the passive hockey fans will soon forget that they even watched the games on NBC and VERSUS, and continue watching other sports. I hope the owners realize what they’ve done soon enough.

I didn’t even realize there was a 10-day lockout back in 1992 until recently doing some research. It was right as the regular season was coming to a close. Wonder what the fans were thinking then, I can hear their voices call out from 20 years ago: “Oh no! What if the playoffs get cancelled?” They had no idea what would happen in this new millennium…an entire season cancelled, and another on the verge of the same misfortune. Fans used to not worry about this kind of problem, they focused on whether your team would make the playoffs or not, rather than worrying if the season would start on time.

So for now, rest in peace NHL…Looking forward to the 2013-14 season!

NHL Lockout Looms

A lockout would leave hockey arenas across the continent dimly lit, like Perani Arena in Flint, Michigan.

As the summer draws to a close and fall is almost upon us, we still have no guarantee of an NHL season at all.

In fact, we’re only about 100 hours away from that frightening deadline NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has set for a deal to be reached between the owners and the Player’s Association. The worries we have carried all summer are about to be realized on Saturday, September 15. Unless we witness a miracle, the National Hockey League will have its third lockout in a mere 18 years.

All the storylines, all the goals, all the fights, and all the Saturday nights with Ron Maclean and Don Cherry on CBC, are only a distant memory right now…Will the Los Angeles Kings continue their unexpected dominance of the Western Conference? How will Rick Nash do this year with his new team, the New York Rangers? Is Nail Yakupov – Edmonton’s third straight No. 1 overall draft pick – the missing piece for the Oilers?

All these questions are on hold. As a die-hard hockey fan for the past seven years, I can’t believe we’re about to witness another lockout. No matter how long it is, unless a deal is reached, a lockout is a lockout. The bottom line is no professional hockey on our continent until both sides of the debate can agree. You would think that after the travesty that was the 2004-05 NHL season – Hint, it didn’t exist! – nobody would ever let something equivalent occur. And after all of this heartbreak, Gary Bettman says the NHL has the “greatest fans.”

Greatest fans? I can’t think of how many people I’ve been around recently who didn’t even realize a lockout was in the mix. Why? The American media, particularly ESPN, has done a god awful job at covering the 2012 off-season, and the so-far failed CBA negotiations. When I say god-awful I mean nearly non-existent. Hardly any headline news at all, leaving millions of hockey fans in the United States out of the loop. Yes, the NHL has some great fans, but plenty of people who wouldn’t even notice when it was gone. If only the fans could legitimately give up on the league and show Mr. Bettman what happens without the most important piece of the puzzle.

Sadly, hockey is the most exhilarating sport in the world to watch, and we fans just couldn’t go through with something so sacrilegious. Just imagine what we’re missing this coming year! No open-ice hits from Niklas Kronwall, no follow up to a great playoff campaign by goaltender Braden Holtby, no chance for Martin Brodeur to finish his career in style! And I have to mention it, no games with 346 penalty minutes (I’m talking to you New York and Pittsburgh!).

Will the Leafs make the 2013 playoffs? They don't stand a chance if the playoffs don't exist!

It’s been a long time since Hockey Night in Canada hasn’t been a staple of my Saturday night, things are going to be different this fall…I can honestly think of no better cliffhanger to be left with. I’m a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, becoming a big follower of hockey immediately after the previous lockout. In all that time, Toronto’s the only team that hasn’t put together a playoff squad, how’s that for a disappointment? As much as I love stars Phil Kessel, Joffrey Lupul, Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin, they haven’t gotten it done. Seven years of broken promises, and now a lockout looms. I’ve learned how to accept defeat when my #1 team is down and out; I have yet to learn how to accept no game whatsoever. I guess I’ll need to wait even longer for that Stanley Cup parade down Yonge Street…

Division-II ACHA game between Central Michigan and Ferris State in 2010, at the "ICE Arena" in Mount Pleasant, Michigan.

The only good news is that there are still minor league teams to cheer for. Going to college at Central Michigan University means there’s no NCAA team to watch, but the club hockey team will certainly do. The games are played in a local barn in 40 degree conditions, in front of a few dozen fans, if that. Nonetheless I find the action quick and exciting to follow, especially when you can get in for free as a student! The OHL, AHL, CHL and ECHL aren’t going anywhere either, but where will the aspiring talents of those leagues go? Not a very promising future for NHL hopefuls…

All I hope is that the players and owners can hash a deal together quickly and muster up some sort of excuse for the 2012-13 season. Even if we saw a 10-game season (hypothetically), it’s still a season. I just need the assurance that something good will happen, because right now I give Gary Bettman and the other owners a vote of no confidence.

CMU vs. MSU is almost here...

Michigan State and Central Michigan battle it out in last year's meeting at Spartan Stadium.

So now that I haven’t exactly put up a blog post in about 500 years, I think I’m ready to put them up as much as possible, now that I’m back at college at have…more free time? Something like that, but I think this whole college thing is what got me an urge for another blog post.

The big storyline in Mount Pleasant, Mich. in 2012 has been one and only thing: CMU vs. MSU at Kelly/Shorts Stadium on September 8. We’re more or less 60 hours away from what could possibly be the largest crowd that has ever come to a Central Michigan home game. Students have lined sidewalks for hours just for a ticket, extra seats have been brought in, there’s even a new suite on the back sideline! I’ve been looking forward to this event ever since I realized it was happening. The Chippewa Marching Band and the Spartan Marching Band are both performing at halftime, and then will play a tune together on the field and blow everybody out of their seats!!! And I certainly can’t wait for pregame coming on the field…did I tell you I’m a Marching Chip?

At the same time, I’m not excited for a lot of things about the weekend. Thank goodness nobody is coming to visit me for this game, I think it’s going to be the worst day of traffic I’ve ever seen, and yes I have been in Toronto. At least I won’t be on the road…Apparently there’s four bars in Mount Pleasant that will only allow MSU fans inside on Saturday, and if I’m right, I guess that means no Chippewa fans can go to their favorite bars like The Bird or Marty’s on a day when it would mean the most…So a Big Ten town bought a MAC town for a day? That’s somewhat insulting…

But what I think got everyone all up in arms today – except for me – was a CM Life article, talking about Central students planning to attend the game in MSU gear, and cheer for the Spartans. Facebook lit up, people on campus lit up about it, people in class lit up about it, all absolutely stunned that their own student body wouldn’t have the pride to cheer for their own team.

What do I think? Let them do what they want, and don’t rat them out for it.

For anybody that has a lot of Chippewa pride at CMU, why be upset if the rest of the student body doesn’t? To start, it means YOU have a lot of school spirit, and YOU are in the top tier of “fired up” people for Central Michigan University. You stick with your team even when they’re 3-9 in back-to-back seasons. You stand behind Ryan Radcliff and Dan Enos, even when infinite interceptions and 30+ point losses tell you not to. You know how to sing the Alma Mater, the Fight Song, Hail to the Chippewa, and maybe even On To Victory! (If you’ve ever heard of that one) Maybe you even know how to play every one of them as well…

Whatever the case, that means YOU’RE AWESOME!!! Why criticize everyone else when you could simply be proud of your unwavering devotion?

Second, don’t forget what Central is, a mid-sized college, surrounded by miles and miles of farmland in the middle of Michigan, and with teams in the Mid-American Conference. The point here, is to not forget where most of CMU’s student body comes from in the first place, and what they grew up with.

The first college football game I ever attended – and probably ever watched – was in November 2004 at Spartan Stadium; my dad’s friends invited him and I to come watch the final home game of the season. We tailgated all afternoon (no I was no drinking, I was 12), and witnessed the Spartans win in style, blowing out the undefeated Wisconsin Badgers 49-14. Watching all that action out on the field – especially when it was still a close game – was about the coolest thing I had ever seen in person. I hadn’t become a passionate hockey fan yet, a big golf fan yet, or anything. But I thought Michigan State was cool, really cool.

With that, I’m sure a lot of fellow Chips grew up in the mitten the same way, picking the U of M or State side. Long before I envisioned myself in college, I was a fan of Michigan State. In fact, I don’t think I had ever heard of CMU until grade eight when I saw a graduation plaque on the wall of my math teacher’s classroom. Actually learning about CMU happened when people I knew in high school started going there for college.

Again, I think many students here would feel the same, they knew about Michigan State – whether they love or hate them – light years before they knew anything about Central, Western, Eastern, Northern, Grand Valley, Wayne State, the list goes on and on. So likewise, why be upset with CMU students when they cheer for the team that they’ve either 1) loved for years, or 2) been a bandwagon fan of for years? They might not have had the GPA to go to Michigan State, or the money (Not that CMU’s cheap). And speaking of money, most businesses in Mount P. are undoubtedly only looking at this with a financial perspective, dare I say it, I’d be stunned if the university wasn’t. Sadly, I have been told over and over that everything is “all about the money.”

Can't wait to spend another football game as a member of the Marching Chips...

But believe me, I promise, I am PROUD TO BE A CHIPPEWA!!!! OO-WAH!!! Even if that student section is going to be the greenest it’s ever been, the section I’m sitting in will be 100% Maroon. Win or lose, I will be proud of Chippewa football. I respect the decision of any student that goes into Kelly/Shorts wearing a Spartans jersey, I think it’s an honor to be able to see Michigan State in action IN MOUNT PLEASANT, Something that has never happened before. It’s a historic day for the city, the community, and 20 years from now, I will be thrilled to have been in attendance. So if you bleed maroon and gold, know that when all your classmates won’t be pumping up the Chips on saturday, YOU WILL BE! Be proud!

Of course, all this talk about leaving your fellow CMU students alone could be easily dismissed by you. If you know me, you probably know that I’m Canadian and completely biased towards Team Canada, or any Canadian NHL team, even living right here in the lower peninsula of Michigan. If you think the Spartan fans at Central Michigan should transfer to MSU and get off our campus; well gee-wizz, you might as well tell me to “go back to Canada.” As you can tell by the quotation marks, I’ve already been told that about 60 million times…