Everybody cares about hockey in Canada, including PokerRoom.com. From the Canadian Newswire:

In an effort to find a solution to salvage the 2004/2005 NHL hockey season PokerRoom.com, one of the world's largest online poker gaming sites, has today delivered registered letters to NHL commissioner, Gary Bettman's New York office and NHL Players' Association (NHLPA) executive director Bob Goodenow's Toronto office, inviting them to settle the longstanding labour dispute like men - in a game of winner-take-all poker on PokerRoom.com.

In the spirit of their respective bargaining positions, the two-stage online tournament will feature a game of limit Texas Hold'em poker with a cap of four raises, followed by a heads-up, one-on-one game of no-limit Texas Hold'em. The first player to capture all his opponent's chips wins the challenge and the season is saved. Game on!

Interesting solution, but I think it would be better if it were a live game broadcast on TV. Imagine how many viewers would tune in. I am sure a deal could be worked out that would bring in enough money to cover the financial disagreements between the league and the players association.

Unfortuantly though, its more likely that the tournament won't happen and we hockey fans will be forced to continue going without. But wait ... there is another alternative from PokerRoom.

If no solution is reached and the lockout continues, we can fill the void in our Saturday nights with the next best thing: "PokerRoom Night in Canada online tournaments". I'm not from Canada, nor have I been there, but from what I hear, it very well may be the next best thing to do (especially after the Raptors traded VC). At any rate, the winner of each tournament, played every Saturday from now until Feb. 19th, will recieve a seat in the "PokerRoom Night in Canada Play-off Final on the 26th of Feb". According to the article, the "final tournament will be hosted as a single table, winner-takes-all-tournament, where the lucky player wins an all-expense paid trip to Sweden to see popular NHL stars actually play a game of hockey."

I must admit, I am amazed at what the marketing teams of the online poker rooms can come up with sometimes ...