More NHL hockey

Perhaps inspired by the Olympic hockey, I went to see Vancouver and Chicago once again. If you recall the earlier version, you remember that these were two sad teams. Well, Vancouver is a lot better now and Chicago still stinks.

Many say, and I agree, that the NHL is making the game less Canadian and more "American." I got to see live in person this shootout concept. Hockey traditionally has a number of ties. But the NHL must think its sister is ugly because it wants no ties (a tie is like kissing your sister).

So we had a shootout. Each team got three one-on-one shots against the opponent. After that, there would be a sudden-death shootout. Vancouver scored 1 goal in the 3 shots; Chicago had none. So Vancouver "won" a 5-4 decision.

The "American" in me likes having a winner. But I would rather see them play hockey until we got a winner instead of some fake shootout. Besides, the Blackhawks should have had a loss for blowing a 3-goal lead. This is an Original Six franchise that is going nowhere fast.