The NHL has endured "bush league" accusations for years, and often I've felt they were either undeserved or referred to incidents long past.

But I'm really starting to believe that I don't like this league.  I'm not even sure I want to follow the sport any more.  The Chara hit is, for all intents and purposes, a minor incident over the life of the league.  The league's reaction to it is another disappointment.

Like, really, how does a multi-billion dollar professional league NOT have a spec for something like stanchion pads?  Why do we have dangerous kinds of glass on the end boards?  Why did it take the death of a girl for netting to be put up so people don't get hit by wayward 100mph slapshots?  Because every ticket has a disclaimer claiming that the league/owner/operator/players aren't responsible for people not dodging 100mph slapshots.

And that's just the safety issues.

The league jumps in to bail out a franchise in a market that has lost money for FIFTEEN YEARS STRAIGHT - win or lose.  They can't sell out games with extremely cheap tickets.  They can't make money with a salary cap and revenue sharing.  They have a sweetheart deal for a brand new arena in one of the biggest markets in the US.

The NHL does absolutely everything it can to keep that franchise alive, even taking it over despite the fact that there are other buyers available.  Then it brokers a deal with the city that owns the arena, and tells the city to go millions into debt (and this city is already facing financial struggles.)  The deal is so bad, it stinks so hard, that even there - in sports-crazed America - people take offense to it and threaten a lawsuit.  The mere THREAT of this lawsuit destroys the deal, because apparently there's so much BS in it, a lawsuit would expose it all.  Bettman refuses to publicly meet with the group threatening the lawsuit.

And yet, the moment the city of Edmonton - a thriving market - tries to negotiate to get a better deal for an arena - Bettman throws the word "relocation" around.

How about this?  Remember the Heritage Classic?  The league doesn't!  No, the first meaningful outdoor NHL game - the ONLY game as far as they're concerned - is the Winter Classic.

Six Canadian teams - a mere 20% of the league in numbers - provided 31% of league revenues.  And that was in 2008, before the Americans flushed the world economy down the toilet.  What would the results be now?  35%?  40%?  Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver all have economies that are at least stable if not outright thriving.  Compare this to double-digit unemployment (severely under-reported since American unemployment figures discount those who've lost benefits, and American benefits don't last long), a second housing dip, and oil prices (combined with a pathetic dollar) punishing the car-dependent American worker and economy.

I'm sick and tired of following this anti-Canadian, incompetent, greedy, pathetic league.

Screw it, I'm done.  The loss of Gagner on top of Hall, Whitney, Hemsky, etc. isn't helping, but it's not the reason why I'm done with this crappy league.