i heart stanley (an open letter to the nhl)

dear national hockey league-

they're still probably passing lord stanley's stein the locker room at the rbc center in raleigh, but already i miss you. it's only been 14 hours since the final horn sounded (not that you could hear it, thanks to the deafening roar of the cane-iacs), but i'm already itching for rookie orientation/camp. do i really have to wait until september? is it possible to extend the draft to something like a 4 weekend bonanza?

thanks for such a fantastic regular season and the best post season in recent memory. thanks for a fantastic game 7 that went down to the wire and had me on the edge of my seat, even during intermissions. i was really pissed that i lost a season because of the lock out, but the hockey (especially during the post season) was worth it. you've still got a little work to do (like that delay of game rule. let's fix that, okay?), but the pieces are there for hockey to move ahead of basketball and baseball in popularity. keep it up.

thanks for bringing hockey to the southeast. thanks for bringing it to nashville. thanks for fighting for us during the lockout so we can believe that, like carolina and edmonton, we too can compete for a chance to kiss the chalise and raise it high above our heads. i know that some will say that hockey doesn't matter in middle tennessee. well, it matters to me and the wife. we love it. it's what we do for entertainment. it's something we share a passion for. it's become part of our identity. we tell people, "we're predators fans," or, "we're season ticket holders." we (okay, i) talk about the day that our kids (that we don't have yet) can play hockey. i dream of the day that i can skate backwards...but that's not the point. the point is that i wouldn't have any of these things if it weren't for hockey. sure, i could tell people i'm a titans fan, or a vanderbilt fan, but i don't think i'd take pride in that like i do when i tell people i'm a predators fan. for that, thanks.

now, about my draft bonanza idea...