 |
NHL players finally back on ice... |
NHL players finally back on ice...
After being on ice for several more months than planned, National Hockey League players are back where they belong.
And that is, of course,
on the ice -- as players dashed, dipped and scored around pro rinks
around North America on Saturday, the first day of the league's now
abbreviated regular season.
The return was long
awaited, but hardly guaranteed. NHL owners locked out players September
15, and in the subsequent months the two sides engaged in a sometimes
acrimonious process to reach a new labor deal.
In that stretch, league
officials canceled the All-Star Game, the annual outdoor Winter Class
game and hundreds of regular season games. And they threatened to scrap
the entire campaign -- like they did for the 2004-2005 season, which was
also due to labor strife -- if a deal couldn't be reached in January.
But one was reached, on
January 12, when the NHL Players' Association ratified a new collective
bargaining agreement. The schedule came out that night, giving teams one
week to get together, get in shape and get ready for the new season.
On Saturday, they were back.
Those back on the ice
included the Los Angeles Kings, nine months removed from winning the
franchise's first Stanley Cup championship despite being one of the two
lowest-seeded squads in the playoffs.
A raucous Staples Center crowd reveled in their return, as the championship banner was raised aloft.
The team's captain,
Dustin Brown, said the response was great. But, mostly, he and other
players were just itching to get back on the ice.
"It's a pretty proud moment for the team," he told NBC. "But as players we just wanted to get it up there and start playing."
The game did not quite work out the Kings' way. They fell to the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-2.
