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July 28, 2005 | The NHL has a new shield!

We've been talking about what the league ought to do to bring fans back and win new ones following the disastrous lockout that wiped out last season, and yessirree, Bob, this is bound to be a smash.

The old shield logo was black with the orange letters "NHL" slanting down toward the lower right between parallel lines. The new one -- get this -- has silver instead of orange, and the letters slant up toward the upper right!

Lost in this new design is the clever element of the "L," with its obtuse angle, looking like a hockey stick. But we must make sacrifices in the name of progress. The upward-slanting letters "project a vibrant, optimistic image," according to the league.

Optimism is generally an admirable trait, but it's also kind of the default when you've got no place to go but up.

The NHL has done some of the things we talked about, even going so far as to apologize, in the most offhand way, to the customers. Toward the end of the second paragraph of an open letter to fans, mostly expressing gratitude for their patience and talking about how exciting things are going to be "as we move forward," commissioner Gary Bettman actually slipped in the A-word.

"While it may be said that the greatness of hockey, and the NHL, is best measured by the character and tenaciousness of its players," he wrote, "I would add that the greatness of our game is also reflected by the character and tenaciousness of you, our devoted fans. I thank you all for that passionate support and I apologize to all of you, on behalf of everyone involved, for testing that support as severely as we did."

Not exactly the self-flagellation I was looking for, but maybe I'm not as easy as most.

Also the ticket-price "slashes" haven't been what I was hoping to see. I thought half-price for the whole year had a nice ring to it, but teams that have cut prices have tended to knock off about 10 percent. So that $45 ticket will now cost $40.50. That should really help out.

There are a lot of people who can't afford the $200-plus it takes to bring the spouse and two kids to the game on $45 tickets, after you count parking and "convenience charges" but before you lay out for overpriced food or souvenirs. But knock 18 bucks off of that and they'll be there.

Next page: How the NHL is like "The Simpsons," sort of. Plus: A free look at a good membership baseball site