from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

The pandemic made them do it.

Advertising on helmets? The pandemic made the NHL do it.

Besmirching the sweater and cheapening the logo while enriching the bottom line by selling advertising patches on jerseys? The pandemic made the NHL do it.

I know, you don’t have to tell me because Deputy Bill Daly, in myriad interviews, has already told everyone that, “It is not the end of the world.”

Of course, nothing is the end of the world except for, literally, the end of the world. But had my 13-year-old self told my mom that the 67 I got in my first chemistry exam at Bronx Science was not “the end of the world,” I’m not so sure she’d have played along the way we are supposed to with Daly and the Merchants of Manhattan.

(Fact is, she didn’t’!)

Yes, I know, the ad money (Don’t you love how teams attempt to spin these sponsors as “patch partners,” or whatever other equally foolish euphemism they can find) will boost the salary cap, but there is that whole pesky means-to-an-end thing to consider.

Does every swatch of space in out lives have to be sold off to the highest corporate bidder just because it can be? Is it possible that the uniform, even if it is only laundry, could remain sacrosanct?

The pandemic made them do it.

continued plus more topics like this...

Finally, with Mike Keenan on Friday named head coach of Italy’s national team in advance of the 2026 Winter Olympics, which will be held in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, I wonder how long it will take him to reach out to, say, Denmark, to see if he can get a better deal.