The power of the puck

For Canadians weary of the reruns of Coronation Street, Antiques Roadshow and other imported epics from England, the return of the NHL hailed the end of the CBC lock out. With money on the line and a population getting nervous about missing out on the sage meanderings of one Donald S. Cherry, the management of the CBC and the Media Guild have cobbled together an agreement to end the labour dispute.

With days counting down to the debut of a new year of Hockey Night in Canada, the Liberal government brought the two sides together and instructed as to the wisdom of settling their differences, preferably before the puck would drop at 7pm EST on Saturday.

And thus with the power of a puck, Hockey and the rest of regular programming will return to the CBC. No CFL like silent movies for the Hockey fan, it's full programming ahead this Saturday night. CBC management put about a million dollars in the pot to ensure that technicians report to work early to make sure the show goes on as scheduled. Peter Mansbridge and friends can now get back on the payroll, because hockey is back, the risk of losing the single biggest money maker the network has evidently secured a deal.

Seven weeks went by, and while a few folks probably missed their diet of Canadiana, the nation seemed to get by just fine with other options, that is until hockey season started, then we noticed, and with that so did the politicians. Suddenly an agreement was within reach, a settlement arrived and Ron, Don and the rest of the gang are back to work this Saturday.

The power of the puck, it may be mightier than both the sword and the pen!

The above posting first appeared in my HockeyNation blog, for more posts about hockey check it out.