The NHL has a heart after all...

And it will announce the cancellation of the entire 2004-2005 season on Wednesday, February 16th. The original plan called for the league to announce the cancellation today, Monday, February 14th - St. Valentine's Day.

News reports earlier today then suggested that the St. Valentine's Day massacre would not take place, but instead the league would cancel the remainder of the season on Tuesday, February 15th (my son's birthday!). Hours later, Tuesday became Wednesday. Who thinks it'll get moved to Thursday?

[Sorry, I should have mentioned earlier in this post that to follow along you might want to break out your Eternity-at-a-Glance calendars.]

While I'm glad that neither Valentine's Day nor my son's date of birth will forever be associated with such a sad day in hockey history, the NHL's inability to definitively pull the plug on the season - and put its fans out of their collective misery - speaks volumes about this troubled sport.

At this rate, they'll still be negotiating well into the summer, with the Stanley Cup finals eventually being held on the surface of a frosted beer mug.