One of my best friends tried to convince me tonight that the summer isn’t that bad. I guess it’s not if you have good friends, family, and a BBQ chuck full of meat on a Saturday night. Not to mention a stupid amount of beer. No matter how good the night was it always ends though, so I sit down and watch TSN, only to realize that nothing happened that I give two shits about in the last 48 hours. Needless to say I’m pretty bored. I suppose that when I think about it a few things might be worth talking about.

Was the NHL right in shutting down the Kovalchuk contract? Damn right. I hate these contracts. Hossa, Pronger, Loungo, if I had my way I would have said NO GO in every case. The NHLPA will argue that the Kovalchuk deal is the same old, same old. Precedent has been set! It’s not true. The difference is simple. When you look at the maximum paid to the other players mentioned in their given contracts VS the actual cap hit, it might be 3 million bucks. The swing in Kovalchuk’s cap hit, 6.5, VS the maximum dollars he was to make in that contract, it’s 5 million bucks.  All of these contracts go against the theory and spirit of the cap, but the Kovalchuk one steps WAY across a line that the NHL thankfully has drawn in the sand. I was happy, since we as fans lost a season of hockey, that the NHL got a cap in place for our troubles, but if they don’t nip this garbage in the bud, where will it all end? It will be interesting to see the NHLPA’s official reaction.

Can the Oilers trade Sheldon Souary? I don’t know. To be honest my gut says they don’t, unless they toss in a prospect/player to sweeten the pot. The most interesting question is what does the franchise do if they can’t trade him? Does he play on the NHL team in an effort to prove he is healthy and that he can contribute? Or do they ship him off to Oklahoma? Personally, since he doesn’t want to be here, I really hope the club tells him to flag off and assigns him to the worst possible place available.

The Coyotes conversation has been dead silent for weeks now. This week suddenly has a “source” that says that Ice Edge Holdings” isn’t doing so well in it’s efforts to acquire the team. Imagine that! Is it really a surprise, that unless the conditions are prefect, even a brain dead monkey can figure out you aren’t making money in that market? These groups that are willing to keep the team in Phoenix, or so they think, are slowly realizing the economic reality of the situation in my opinion. It’s not that pretty!!! If the market was viable a deal would have been done months ago. Without the Glendale councillors eating massive losses for any new NHL owner, I don’t know why anyone would be interested. It would seem the tire kicking groups are starting to see the same fate.

I guess the summer isn’t totally story ridden, but I still can’t wait for training camp.

Then again, this is just another damned opinion.

Summer sucks, period.

Yes, it has it’s perks, BBQ’s, warm weather, girls wearing next to nothing at the beach. Summer also allows some of us to get our children, and/or animals, out of the house to burn off 6 months of pent up energy. It’s a time for camping, fishing, boating trips, and swimming. Family’s are brought together over the summer, because the kids are out of school and people can travel. The world in general comes alive, as the trees, grass, and flowers awaken from their winter sleep. Even I have to admit it, summer looks and feels nice in it’s simplest form.

So why am I so moody and bored?

I’m a hockey fan, that’s why. You can throw as many summer perks at me as you want, but there is only one thing I can’t wait for, October. The worst part about the summer is the part where we all try to trick our minds into thinking the summer won’t be that bad. It’s really not that long, we tell ourselves. We have the draft, then the Free Agent market will open in July, and of course the ever eternal hope our team will make a trade so we can talk about that for a week, rings over and over in our hockey starved minds. The kicker is, now that we are through the draft, and a bunch of trades have been made, do you really feel any better? I know I sure don’t. The fix only lasted 4 hours, and now I’m worse off then I was before. The event was nothing more then fuel on the fire. I want to know if Stamkos can live up to the hype. Was there another player drafted on Friday night that can make the step to the NHL this year? Are the Flames better today then they where yesterday? Will Olli Jokinen be enough to get the Coyotes back into a playoff spot? I have more questions now, then I did before the draft and July 1st will only add to that list. Not to mention August has no dates to even mark on the calender as far as hockey goes, so the worst grind of the summer is still to come.

I’m never going to wish that I could fast forward my life, it’s to short as it is. I can, however, wish that there was another sport as great as hockey a guy could watch during the summer. It would make things much more interesting.

Then again, this is just a damned opinion.