Talk About A Low Blow!

The Oklahoma City Blazers have suddenly announced that they have ceased operations and will not play in the 2009-2010 CHL season. This has sent shockwaves throughout the league, and the Blazers organization has proven that they could care less about the success of the Central Hockey League as they have delivered the ultimate low blow not only to the league, but to their fans as well. The New Mexico Scorpions have finally announced that they will not be returning next season, but at least they did not throw a massive bomb at the league by giving such crucial news so suddenly like the Blazers organization did. This has obviously upset many people, but perhaps CHL Commissioner Duane Lewis puts it best when he stated: "This decision did not happen overnight, and to continue to work on the schedule and wait until July to inform us is disappointing." If the Blazers did not want to return to the CHL then that is absolutely fine; but they should not have let the CHL believe that they would be returning only to turn around and stab the league in the back. This now makes three teams that will not return to the CHL next season, with those teams being the Rocky Mountain Rage, New Mexico Scorpions, and Oklahoma City Blazers. The only somewhat good news to come out of this is that their will be plenty of talented free agents available, and hopefully the Jacks can snatch up a few. I would love to see Andy Franck in a Jacks sweater, among several other players, but we will have to wait and see if Gillis, Cressman, and Clark can persuade some of these proven free agents to come to the Odessa Jackalopes. The news of the Oklahoma City Blazers ceasing operations has also delayed any news regarding division realignment and scheduling for the other CHL teams, and you better believe that we will probably see division alignments like we have never seen them before. Just when I thought the league was growing and expanding and had the chance to become the premier league in all of AA hockey, we have now learned that we have lost three teams, and have went from a sixteen team league to a fifteen team league. Hopefully teams that want to be in the league, like the New Mexico Scorpions and Rocky Mountain Rage, will return to the CHL, but to teams like the the Oklahoma City Blazers that turn their back on the league that they called home for the past seventeen years, all I have to say is good riddance! You can read the full article regarding this shocking news at the league website which can be viewed at http://www.centralhockeyleague.com/pressroom/news/index.html?article_id=3527.

Until next time Jack fans all I have to say is GO JACKS GO!!!