Jeremy Roenick is not my ex-boyfriend

While some J.B. Sports Chat bloggers were watching international sporting events, others were back home in the U.S. of A. coping with life in the off-season. I don't know what other hockey fans, NBA fans, or NFL fans watch on television, but I always catch myself flipping to the NHL Network like it's an ex-boyfriend's facebook page. I know it's over, but sometimes it's nice to check in and see if there's anything going on.

Much like my exes, the NHL Network programming has gone downhill since it ended. The Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup on June 9th and effectively played the last NHL game until the pre-season starts up in September. In between seasons, the network often replays recent playoff games, or shows classic finals games from any time during the last 40 years or so. These are hard to watch when you already know the outcome. Over the weekend, I watched something I hadn't seen before. They aired several episodes of the Pokerstars.net NHL Charity Poker Tournament. This is exactly what it sounds like - NHL stars playing poker for charity. Surprisingly, it wasn't that boring. I saw Jeremy Roenick, Mats Sundin, Eddie Olczyk, Alex Ovechkin, and many other NHL stars alongside some professional poker players. And Kevin Connelly (E from Entourage.) ?? It was like watching a competitive poker tournament, but with celebrities you recognize.

I watched the poker games pretty passively as I was multitasking at home, but I knew they were not recent because at one point Scott Hartnell (Flyers) was playing against Kris Versteeg (Blackhawks) and there was no mention of the series they just finished weeks ago. I went online to find out just how long ago the games were played, and it turns out I had been watching poker games from one year ago.

My question is this: Which is sadder, watching NHL players (and E from Entourage!) playing a year old game of poker, or stalking an ex's facebook page? Because right now, they are both feeling equally pathetic. It's time to move on, but baseball just doesn't satisfy me the way that hockey does.

Man, this relates on so many levels. I'm just going to go on with my life and thank ESPN for making poker an official sport. Maybe later this summer I can watch Chris Pronger and Chris Chelios compete in a spelling bee from 2008. Thank God for sports television networks.