A 31 year old man has pleaded with the NHL and its players to get the hockey season started. He has done so through a YouTube video that you can watch below.

John Dick titled the video “NHL Lockout Kills Dreams” and he did it in honor of his 58 year old father Bruce who was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer in August. Back then he was given 4-6 weeks to live. Bruce is shown lying in the hospital bed.

FOR DAD

John pleads with the NHL on behalf of his dad and closes the video with “Remember what we play this game for.”

As sad as this makes me I find the video and posting of it in bad taste. It should be noted that John is a budding filmmaker. That may or may not mean something. Perhaps, and it's only a guess, what he and his dad had in common was their love of watching NHL hockey together, and a last opportunity has been taken away by a labor dispute that also affects literally thousands of people surrounding the professional hockey industry.

The closing message is confusing. What DO we play this game for? I don't mean that as a film critique, I mean that perhaps the passing of his father, while he lay weak in a hospital bed, should not be a YouTube video for the world to see. Perhaps it should be a private moment. Perhaps his father would not choose to be remembered as sick and hospitalized. And then, to use the video in some misguided attempt to guilt the NHL and NHLPA into getting the season started just seems a bit disingenuous.

I'm sad for the family, but this could have been handled another way. LEAVE COMMENTS.

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