You'll be back

Maybe not today... maybe not tomorrow... but soon... definitely for the playoffs.

So the NHL and the NHLPA, on the heels of their "select players and select owners meeting" have reportedly made notable progress in negotiations. A continuation of these meetings will be taking place in the very near future and perhaps... maybe just maybe... the season will be saved. If it is, I'll be mostly indifferent. I will not turn my back on the game's highest level... I will watch games when they're available and will continue to make sojourns to NHL rinks when time permits. What I am saying however, is that between following the Cats, covering the Commandos and life in general, I haven't really missed the NHL.

What I will also not miss once the lockout inevitably ends are the scads of people I know from all walks of life who are adamant that they will never follow the NHL again... partly because those proclamations sounds so incredibly self-serving... but also because I'm willing to bet the vast majority who are claiming their falling out with the big boys is a permanent thing will be back in due time.

Now I will concede that talk from people claiming they will never watch again is far more prevalent during this lockout as opposed to 2004-05. I will also be the first to admit that some people I know who are diehard fans will stay away. There are too many people turned off for everyone to come back as fans again... and to those people, you have my respect for your justifiable convictions. However, you are in the minority.

The bulk of the people I hear making statements like this are of two mindsets; some are too casual a fan to remember making those comments during the work stoppage and will therefore get sucked back in if, say, something like last spring's Penguins/Flyers playoff series crops up again. Still others are too addicted to the highest level of the game to stay away too long. All it will take is the hype surrounding the opening weekend slate of games and there they will be, glued to the tube on Saturday night, beer in one hand, salty snacks in the other, yelling about how those Habs are a bunch of whiny divers or claiming they forgot how much they hated those pansy-ass Sedins.

Simply put, it's the game at it's highest level. The play is fast, certain players and teams have the ability to completely mesmerize all walks of viewers and the saturation of media coverage makes it simply impossible to ignore. Sooner or later, something or somebody will come along to peak their interest once again and their fandom will be resurrected. If a person can go decades with a passion for the NHL and be able to drop it over what happens off ice... sacrificing the far more important on-ice product they've loved for years... that tells me something about that individual that I probably didn't want to hear in the first place. Or they're full of crap... pick your poison.

What I foresee happening - particularly among Canadian fans - is a subdued happiness when an agreement is reached, followed by a slow and steady easing in period. Within a season, the majority of fans who "will never come back" will in fact be back. If Gary Bettman happens to lose his position over this, they'll be back even sooner. This entire scenario reminds me of the baseball strike in 1994, only the fans did stay away for an extended period of time in that instance. Those fans were also very angry... not just upset or disappointed but full fledged, tried and true PO'ed at the entire situation. I'm not seeing that anger from NHL fans. What I am seeing are the emotions usually reserved for 14 year old girls who get dumped by their boyfriend because the boy just met some other girl who's family has an indoor swimming pool.

Whenever this dispute gets settled, those who really enjoy the NHL - and can learn to overlook a dispute that I strongly believe almost everyone affiliated with wants to see end - will be back, slowly but surely. I'll watch again simply because it's there... it's hard not to watch because it's just there seemingly all the time and I know that these disputes are just another element of the game that - though I feel could've been avoided - I have no control over and just have to wait out... kind of like the two line pass or the Columbus Blue Jackets. I will be disappointed in the cutting off of the trickle down effect that we've seen bring a bigger spotlight on the minor league and junior ranks, but perhaps that higher level of attention will allow those levels of the game to retain these new found fans long term. One should never forget that there are positives to be had in this depressing time for fans of the game.

All I wish is that they don't paint "Thank You Fans" on the ice once things get started again. That just insults everyone's intelligence.

In other news, the Cats travel to Val d'Or tonight for a tilt against the Foreurs at the venerable Centre Air Creebec. My questions on how the team would respond during the final 20 minutes were answered in spades as Moncton walked away with a 5-1 victory in Rouyn-Noranda on the strength of a four goal third. Is it just me, or is this season starting to feel errily similar to 2009-10? Contending year on paper, slow start out of the gate, questions in net followed by gradual improvement punctuated by a big win over a strong rival (2012's 3-0 win over the Moose was 2009's 7-3 win over Saint John that December that halted the Sea Dogs' 22 game winning streak) and now a bit of a winning streak.

I remember covering a game on News 91.9 just before Christmas in 2009 after the team had just racked up their seventh win in a row and saying to Les Stoodley that this was the quietest seven game win streak in team history. Well... this one might be the quietest six gamer... and if they win tonight, it'll be just as quiet as that seven gamer three years ago. The similarities between that championship team and this one in terms of the events as they've unfolded up to this point are impossible to ignore. If Nicola Riopel was to walk through the door on Christmas Eve with his pads and a forged birth certificate, I'll be clearing my schedule this April and May.