[Credit: National Post] But here, two decades later, we have labour peace and the sport is perhaps at the peak of its international visibility and popularity. So how should Bettman and his owners spend the summer? Perhaps they should learn from the successes of this postseason, and tweak the game accordingly. The NHL playoffs were fast skating, hard hitting hockey highlighted by skill and spectacular goaltending. And there was but one fight, and not even the most ardent supporter of fighting in hockey could argue fisticuffs were missed. I understand the regular season is a long slog through winter, but do we want a sport where unnecessary violence breaks up the monotony? Especially when weve been witness to the majesty of the sport in its absence? Im not saying take fighting out of the game, but Colton Orr and George Parros are unnecessary elements of the sport.[Credit: ESPN] The hockey entity most in need of this summer break is the expansive community of punditry, from the media (both mainstream and not, though the line between the two becomes more and more blurred with each passing season) to the social media inclined fan. On Monday I witnessed an obsessive and rhetorically flawed argument on Twitter over the rumoured re-signing of Montreal Canadiens forward Dale Weise. Was he signed? Should he be signed? Was the term good for the cap? Who did and did not celebrate his acquisition from the Canucks for Raphael Diaz. French media versus English media versus fan versus blogger, all desperately lacking humility in their arguments. When the Habs officially announced a deal on a two-year contract extension with Weise Tuesday morning (for the exact term and dollar amount reported and endlessly disseminated Monday) the futile and superfluous argument began anew. I mean, over a fourth line winger? Paul DiPietro never received this kind of attention. Neither did Weises concussion, but thats a story the media will ignore another day.[Credit: NY Times] While social media and universal web access has taken the discourse to an inclusive realm, it has created an obsessive and pathologically invested fanbase and a media that stretches itself thin to fulfill the 24-hour new cycle. Take a breath folks. Go outside. Do something extraordinary. Expand your horizons. Go love up on a Bruins fan. Take a day at the beach. Spend a week without checking hockeydb.com or capgeek.com. Leave the sport alone for a few minutes. Itll still be there when you get back.The seasons not quite over yet. This week the NHLs 30 teams will consider buyouts to prepare their caps for next season. On June 22nd the 2014-15 schedule will be released so that we can all plan our November Saturdays accordingly. On the 24th, the NHL Awards ceremony takes place, where scarred players freshly relieved of their playoff beards wonder quietly who George Stroumboulopoulos is. The draft takes place on the weekend of the 27th in Philadelphia, which will ignite the hotstove and fuel dreams of parades and revelry. July 1st, Canada Day, a day we should all be out drinking Labatt 50 in the sun and launching bottle rockets recklessly into the night, finds much of the hockey world inside watching TV and waiting to see which albatross of a contract will be bought out in the summer of 2018. And then nothing until September, beautiful autumn, summer fading into the promise a new season, when all teams in first place, except the Oilers, who will be tied with the Flames for 30th. 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Raonic, the No. 8 seed from Thornhill, Ont., had 18 aces in the match. He needed one hour 39 minutes to complete the victory. Larry Nance Jr. Cavaliers Jersey . This weeks topics include his take on the Kevin Pillar incident, All-Star snubs, the firing of Padres general manager Josh Byrnes and more.Norman, OK (SportsNetwork.com) - Isaiah Cousins had 20 points and seven rebounds in the 18th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners 90-68 rout of the Northwestern State Demons. Buddy Hield added 16 points, seven boards and two steals for the Sooners (2-1), who bounced back from a 65-63 loss at Creighton on Wednesday. Ryan Spangler, Jordan Woodard and Dinjiyl Walker each scored 13 points. Zeek Woodley ended with 26 points, eight rebounds and three steals for the Demons (2-2), who had a two-game winning streak snapped. Marvin Frazier had 11 points and seven boards. Northwestern State got within 16-15 after Woodley went 1-of-2 from the foul line with 10:50 left in the first half. But the Sooners responded with an 8-2 spurt that Hield capped with a layup for a 24-17 lead.dddddddddddd Holding a 28-24 edge, Oklahoma went on a 22-6 run to end the half. Woodard tallied seven points during the surge to help the Sooners take a 50-30 lead into the locker room. The Demons used a 10-0 run to get within 73-61 with 9:07 to play, but Walker and Frank Booker answered with 3-pointers to spark a 9-0 Oklahoma spurt. Game Notes Oklahoma leads the all-time series, 5-0 ... Northwestern State will visit Texas Tech on Tuesday ... Oklahoma will face UCLA on Wednesday in the first round of the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. ' ' '