13 July - and the strike is over...

You all know of course what Canada's national sport is dont you? Well, according to the text books, its lacrosse.. Not that it gets much coverage in the UK. Not entirely sure whether it gets any coverage here either. You see, i've been here 15 days, and the sports stories have been

1) Federer dominating wimbledon again
2) Armstrong dominating France again
3) Kenny Rogers dominating (=hitting) 2 cameramen, he's a Texas Rangers pitcher by the way, and getting a 20 game ban and $50,000 ban. I wonder what Becks would get for hitting a journalist?!

But undeneath all this 'news' there has been one story bubbling away. The NHL 'shut out'. You see, every few years a contract is negotiated between club owners and the players association to define the shape of the game. Players want to get paid more, owners (unless you are Roman Abramovich) want to pay less... that kind of thing.

Anyway, in 2004, they couldnt agree. The owners didnt want to pay players (who to all intents and purposes were under contract) and the players wanted more. Apparently $1m+ a season just doesnt pay for that new cottage/pool/car/plane or whatever.

The result? Some guy, on behalf of the owners as far as i can see, decides not to run the season! The statistics? Well the shut out lasted 301 days. A whole season. 1230 games were cancelled, at a total revenue loss of $2bn.

Now lets put this into perspective. These are the biggest sports teams in ice hockey. But are they any bigger than Man United, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Milan, Barca and Juve? Oh yeah, not forgetting the European champions Liverpool!! Come on. What are the chances of these teams not playing? If they had an argument with UEFA, or the football league for that matter, they would just play and give the profits to someone else, or better still, keep more of them for themselves. These things are cash cows. Glazer knows it, and thats why he was willing to risk $1.5bn (albeit of some one elses money mainly) to buy the Reds.

But anyway, thats just to provide a bit of context. This thing has cost $2bn. And today they have announced that it should be back by the beginning of October.

The stats: no team can have a total payroll of more that $39m, and no player can individually earn more than $7.4m. Should keep the wolves from the door. (By the way, ice hockey has 6 players on the ice at a time, with a max squad of 20 per game, so work out what size squad you want, and work out whether you think $39m will pay for them for the year!)

Hockey isnt just important here. Its serious stuff. It is like football is at home when England are in the world cup. Its the major headline not just in the sport, but even on cbc.ca headlines. This has taken London off the front page tonight.

I cant wait to see it. They talk it up in Toronto, and Toronto hasnt won the Stanley cup (the trophy for the North American ice hockey champions) since 1967. They apparently buy success here. Their 8 most expensive contracted players will set them back $25m+ and the question now is how they fill the rest of the squad for $14m. So hopes dont appear to be all that high for Maple Leaf success.

But forget that for a minute. Imagine how you'd feel if your biggest pastime had been needlessly removed from you, with players suggesting that the stand off might even be years... and imagine how you'd feel, once resigned to the belief that it could be gone for a very long time, to get it back again. The pleasure in some people round here is truly tangible. And personally, given that it has goals rather than touchdowns or baskets, and the matches are low scoring but fast moving, i think its a 'money no object' spectacle for anyone visiting here.. i feel lucky that i may just get the chance. And there are a lot of people in Canada tonight feeling likewise...