I recently referred to WNBA as the NHL of women’s sports, thus declaring my disdain for both NHL and WNBA in one fell swoop. Well, perhaps not so much disdain as pity. Both leagues have TV ratings that suck (and ought to suck the life out of both organizations), albeit at different levels (yes, WNBA’s ratings are that bad. But the NHL at least used to be fun, with free-flowing breakaway play and lots of scoring. Over the last several years the NHL has become a major snooze fest, a carnival of holding, hooking, high sticking and zone trapping. I didn’t miss the NHL one bit when it went on its year-long labor-conflict hiatus. Heck, I hadn’t even missed NHL when it was around. Like most people, I couldn’t care less about the league.

But the NHL is back and its return has provided a publicity opportunity for feminist activist Martha Burk, whom you probably don’t remember from her bizarre crusade against Augusta National (a crusade that was whole-heartedly and over-the-top supported by New York Times, the newspaper that used to employ Jayson Blair). Burk has been upset by a new ad for the league, a commercial that shows an NHL player in a locker room with a vague but unmistakable Eastern feel to it. The ad features an ice hockey player who is dressed by a lightly dressed babe, a set up that made me think of warriors in ancient Greece and I figure that was the effect the league was looking for).

Unsurprisingly, Burk finds the ad “offensive on several levels,” which is pretty much how I feel about her.

She goes on, according to Toronto Star:

“The woman is dressed provocatively and when she asks the player if he’s ready, it’s a double-entendre in my view,” Burk said in an interview.

Yes, it probably is, but so what? A double-entendre is not the same thing as “let’s have non-stop sex ’til we die from dehydration!”

For all I know, the NHL may have hired Burk to create a stir. The league needs publicity in a real bad way, and with Burka, I’m sorry, Burk, running her mouth, offering quote-jobs in return for publicity, the league gets it, plus its fans get a cause to rally around. Realistically, though, Burk’s taken on this task all on her own, solicited by nobody but her ego.

You can watch the commercial at NHL’s website. WARNING:It’s only slightly more entertaining than an NHL game.