Tomorrow morning, bright and early (or, really, dark and early), I'm leaving to drive for eight hours to go watch a hockey game or two. No, this isn't because the Thrashers are gone and these are the lengths I have to go to. I can drive to Nashville to see a game, and I have before. This is about more than hockey. This is about going home.

 

I'm not sure if I'm going to take Valentine's Day advice from Evander Kane, but I will take some of those cookies. The Cabbie and Kane venture to a local Winnipeg bakery, apparently to boos sales/look awkward. As Kane's going through the different types of cookies, see if you can catch the Atlanta reference.

There you have it. Anthony Stewart, Atlanta, Black History Month (kind of), modern race relations in Winnipeg, Valentine's Day, and cookies. Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.

For the love of God and all that is holy, don't look into their eyes. NO.

From the eBay product description (bidding starts at 19.99!):

Here is a St. Louis Blues nesting dolls of the following players Al McGinnis,Chris Pronger and Barrett Jackman.This was a Blues Savis Center giveaway.The Blues baseball item is in Ex. condition and comes with a generic white box which is in Vg. condition with writing in it in two places.This is a Buy It Now so you can get this right away without having to wait till the end of the auction. This piece of sports memorabilia would be a nice addition to a St. Louis Blues Hockey Memorabilia collection. Winner pays postage.Please look at my other collectors items. Good Luck Bidders.Please see About Me TO SEE WHAT I`M LOOKING FOR.

My God, WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR is something that's part Children of the Corn, part Blues hockey. I will say that this is the cutest I've ever seen Barret Jackman look. Look at that little face! And then look away, because here comes giant glazed-over Al Macinnis...

"Quick quick! Someone close the door!"

Too late.

Photo Credit - The Hockey News

I'm a little late with this one, what with the excitement of hockey season starting again and whatnot, but the Gwinnett Gladiators twitter feed scored one for the little guy the other day. The big boy? The Atlanta Journal Constitution.

I have my own opinions about their news coverage (I read it because it's basically my only option for decent-ish metro Atlanta news), but aside from Mark Bradley and Jeff Schultz, I've found their sports coverage borderline useless. Lots of chest puffing and tooting the horns of teams that have accomplished somewhere between jack and squat, really. Their Thrashers coverage was good -- Chris Vivlamore tried with the resources he had -- but it was only good when you referenced it against team coverage in other papers. When you referenced it against sports coverage in the AJC, it was abysmal. The only times that the team got major coverage were when it arrived, when Dan Snyder died, when it made the playoffs, and when it left. That's it.

It's no secret that the NHL has some fans who enjoy fizzy adult beverages. Whether it's the alcohol's warming feeling or just the fact that some of our teams are very much exasperating, hockey fans drink more beer than fans of any other North American league. That's no small feat, considering the fact that the NHL's the smallest of the big four pro leagues. Heck, in 2011 it was figured that we were almost half as likely as the average American adult to have consumed a beer in the last month.

I was very much starting to wonder if these several hundred grown men (two in particular) could play nice with each other. Apparently they can pretend to, at the very least. Sure, the end of the lockout's tentative as of right now, but the league and the NHLPA'd never break our hearts again, right?

Sorry, I just read what I typed -- of course they would. But as long as fans keep coming back -- and we will, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it -- they'll continue to disappoint. As long as people have reasonable expectations of this happening every eight to ten years, it'll be fine. It's great to be a fan of a team or of professional hockey, just remember -- the NHL loves a cynic. Most hockey fans are terribly pessimistic at some level, so if you really think about it, why's the lockout been a problem? We all knew it was going to happen, and most of us expected it to end sometime this summer.

Speaking of the end of the lockout, the official story is that St. Louis Game Time ended it. Tell your friends, tweet it, and see if it gains traction just for poops and giggles. You'll have to have something to do to kill time before training camp starts this weekend, right?

This won't be dishy. This won't involve scoop quotes or anything like that. This is just what I realized after getting back to my hotel room at Union Station yesterday evening -- the Blues are fortunate to have an owner interested in seeing what the team's fans think. Mr. Tom Stillman, the owner of the St. Louis Blues, as well as COO Mr. Bruce Affleck and VP of Marketing and PR Mr. Mike Caruso met with myself, Chris Gift, Brad Lee, and Sean Gallagher of St. Louis Game Time over drinks at Joe Buck's last night. We discussed the lockout (like I said, no dishing other than everyone really hopes that it's over soon -- duh), Game Time, how the fans feel about the team and the whole lockout situation, as well as a few players who we all feel are underrated as both players and people. It was a very pleasant evening, and I won't lie, it was surreal.

Sure, there's no hockey this holiday season, at least not NHL hockey (though I am watching a game between Donbass and Vityaz right now, hense the very KHL greetings seen above). We can still look back on past games, so here's your Christmas gift: Ryan Reaves beating up Dan Carcillo, who presumably was a naughty little elf as usual.

I know most of us are still, at the very least, irritated that the NHL's still locked out. I miss the Blues very much. As I've mentioned before, watching the AHL, KHL, and ECHL just isn't the same as watching a team I've loved for over 20 years, and this lockout can end any damn time it wants to.

Am I upset that the NHL can't seem to find the word "negotiate" in the dictionary? Yes. Will I punish myself after the lockout's over by further depriving myself of the Blues and the NHL? No. For those who don't know me, I tend to be a bit of a fatalist. Some might even push it so far as to say that I'm pragmatic. I hold no illusions about the league and how much they "appreciate" the fans. They appreciate our money, sure, but as individuals? Hahahaha - hell, the league doesn't even appreciate their own players, let alone us. It's a business. They don't care if we're mad at them.

"But hey!" you might say. "I bet they'll be mad at losing money!" Sure they will. But honestly, do a few fan protests that maybe a hundred or so people participate in for a few games make a difference in the scheme of things? No, and that's why Just Drop It isn't going to work.

As Wysh pointed out at Puck Daddy, you're still coming back, and that's exactly what Bettman expects. Hockey fans are different than the other sports fans; we tend to borderline on a secret society here in the US, and in Canada we make up approximately 75% of their national economy. Fans will return. We'll suck it up and deal, be happy the sport's back, and we'll watch regardless of how grumpy-pants we feel. If a few people are permanently turned off thanks to the stupidity and stubbornness of the people in charge of the league, then that's just sad. I'm not happy with how things are going, but I'm not going to let a few billionaires get in the way of my hobby and my enjoyment of the sport. Why in the world would you punish yourself?

In the scheme of things, the voices of a miniscule group of people don't amount to much, and let's face it: the amount of fans lost by the league over this thing can't compare to the people who will just go "oh, thank God it's over," and return to the arenas and sports bars. Don't torture yourself by cutting off something you enjoy. You've already had that happen enough. Just shrug your shoulders, shake your head, and go "that's business, I guess," because it is. Sometimes, the best thing to do once a situation is resolved is to just drop it.