Will the long wait affect the Ottawa Senators?

The Senators ended their Eastern conference final last sunday and the start of the Stanley cup final is scheduled to start only on next monday because the Anaheim arena is already leased for another event.

So the Senators will gave to wait for more than a full week to be in action. A long period of inactivity can easily tweak a team's coordination. I cannot remember such a long period of inactivity between conference finals and a Stanley cup final. And yet, another time I blame it on the NHL and commish Gary Betteman.

Maybe I am wrong and the fault should be directed to the Anaheim arena owners. But arena owners have a business to run and they probably didn't expect their team to be still alive this late into the season. This is where the NHL should've forced the arena owners to keep their building available for hockey until early June. After all, an arena is built for sporting events such as hockey and basketball.

I didn't even mention about the fans located in Anaheim. As we all know, hockey isn't very popular in the U.S. from the get go. A full week of inaction will be more than enough for the people in Anaheim to forget all about hockey. This sure cannot be good for the sport popularity. And once again, isn't that the NHl's job to increase the sport popularity and exposure?

Any way I turn this situation around I end up pointing my finger at the league and Gary Betteman for their lack of vision. Let's hope the players and the fans will not lose their focus because of the long wait.