Blues F Brett Hull, who "used to be a walking
advertisement for hockey," last night "turned into the NHL's
worst nightmare, slagging the league and the people who run
it," according to Dave Fuller of the TORONTO SUN. Hull, who
has missed 13 games with a hand injury and is scheduled to
rejoin the Blues tonight, said that he "avoided watching"
his team's games during his absence. Hull: "The games suck.
I wouldn't pay to watch them. It's boring. The whole style
of the game is terrible. There's no flow to the game at
all." Hull claimed that the "smaller, skilled players" are
getting "squeezed out of the league," adding that expansion
has "diluted the product, and now we're going to expand
again." Hull: "It's up to the fans to do something about
it. The players should stand up and be heard, too. But the
players don't say crap" (Dave Fuller, TORONTO SUN, 1/29).
WHAT ABOUT FOX? In an examination of the "tenuous"
future of the Oilers, team GM Glen Sather tells Ed Willes of
the N.Y. TIMES that he sees "the wave of the future" for the
league as TV and "mass-marketing." Sather: "We need a
national TV contract so we can compete for players with
Philadelphia and New York. That's why Nagano is so
important. ... There's going to be a lot of attention on the
game. NBC just got out of the football business. Maybe
they'll get into hockey" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/29).
