NHL Hockey Finally Ends on June 24th – the Seasons Are Too Long

I watched Monday night's game six of the Stanley Cup Finals and saw a very dramatic finish as the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Boston Bruins 3 to 2 to capture the National Hockey League's highest honor. The Black Hawks scored 2 goals 17 seconds apart with less than a minute and a half to play to win the game and the series 4 games to 2 in Boston.

The weather in the Boston area was near 90 degrees yesterday and that, coupled with a capacity crowd in the arena, made the ice surface somewhat "soupy".  That leads me to ask the question, why are we playing a winter sport in the summer?

Don't get me wrong, I love hockey and I also understand that this year's season was shortened by a player strike at the beginning but even without a strike shortened season the playoffs go way too long. The same holds true with the National Basketball Association playoffs as well.  Those games just ended this week as well.  Even baseball runs into late October or even early November at times before a World Series champion is decided.

It is obvious what is making this happen and it is called money. Specifically, the money being made by television in broadcasting these games. Quite often the games themselves are not the lure for TV but the fact that the networks can promote their programming is exactly what is driving these games to go on and on.

Unless the ice totally turns into water and the puck stops in a puddle, the air goes out of the basketball, and snow totally covers a baseball field these contests will continue thanks to the money being made by the TV networks.

So I hope you enjoyed watching the Black Hawks hoist the Stanley Cup Monday night as you watched in your shorts and tank top.