What happened to Hockey?

Remember the good ol days of hockey? Red Wings Avalanche, always a guaranteed fight. What happened to those days? Gary Bettman happened. Who in their right mind would want to take fighting and hitting out of hockey? My favorite players as a kid were Joey Kocur and Vladimir Konstantinov, two players who wouldn't exist or be totally different in today's NHL. I think it's a damn shame. There are no rivalries. Oh sure the media loves Crosby verse Ovechkin, but until there are bench clearing brawls, it's not a true hockey rivalry. They NHL was at its prime when it was on ESPN done by Bill Clement and Gary Thorne. They were the voices of hockey. And now you ask? It's done by Doc Emrick and Eddie Olcyzk on Versus. Who even gets Verses Mr. Bettman? Not many do. He botched the ESPN deal and the new NHL is a far cry from what it was when it was popular. The media looks down upon the Sean Avery's, Darren McCarty's, and other tough guys of the NHL, but those are the guys that can bring it back to glory, more than these pretty boys that do all the dangles and score all the goals. People love fights, that's the bottom line.

I leave you with a nice youtube clip of one of my favorite fights of all time... Enjoy