Cold Hard Rants

Fresh off my dip in the swimming pool, while enjoying a bright, warm, sunshiny day in Winnipeg, what best to do other than talk about the Stanley Cup Finals? The finals, which begin Saturday, live from HockeyTown, in front of a capacity crowd of people masquerading as row upon row upon row of empty seats in the Joe Louis Arena, the youthful exuberance of the Pittsburgh Penguins will face off against the veteran smarts and ingénue of the Tre Kroner of the Swedish National Team Detroit Red Wings?

Many commentators, in their previews, are speculating that this series will spark a potential renaissance of the NHL; the series that will force the NHL back into the forefront of the consciousness of the American viewer. One of the marquee franchises, pitted against the future of the game in a battle for NHL supremacy. The finals that will re-create the famed SI cover that said the NHL was hot and the NBA was not.

While I think that the NHL lucked out in getting as good of a match up as it could have possible wished for, I also think they are (typically) unlucky in that at the same time as their marquee match up is “dropping puck”, the NBA conference finals and Championship Finals will be hitting their stride. Unfortunately, the NHL will only take to the forefront of American sports consciousness when the viewing public have no better options to occupy their sport-watching time (heavens forbid they exercise). With their being a very good chance that the Los Angeles Lakers will be meeting the Boston Celtics in the NBA championship, the NHL will not get their place in the forefront; they will be lucky to get 5 minutes in the 2 AM SportsCentre on ESPN Desportes.

Despite this, the tall foreheads in New York and Toronto couldn’t be more excited. The network executive/janitor in charge of Versus couldn’t be more excited. NBC couldn’t be more excited (unless the game runs long, in which case it will be pre-empted for the finals of the 2008 senior women’s amateur heads up poker championship). CBC couldn’t be happier that they don’t have to broadcast an abomination of a final involving two teams from cities more likely to get hit by a hurricane than actually have ice form. And I couldn’t really care less, but because, ostensibly, you have come to this site because you like hockey, I will keep my apathy to myself for now. So, let the puck drop. Let the skates glide, let the sticks slash, and let the home team fall behind. Lord knows this year has to end soon, as training camp begins in 2 months.

For Illegal Curve, I am Andrew (Drew) M.

About the author: Writing sporadically since the inception of illegal curve, (An)Drew has been alienating people since that time. He has the unique skill-set to alienate readers hailing from the Westchester area of New York. Those people seem to be especially touchy about people criticizing their newspapers. Who needs them? Just like the Jews and the Blacks. (It’s from a Seinfeld Episode, you Anti-Dentite bastard.)

Cold Hard Rants

Sitting here in my shirtsleeves on October 25^th with the sun shining through the windows, a cold thirst quenching slurpee in my hand, a bike ride on my mind, and a day by my pool in my dreams, my thoughts naturally turned to hockey and the NHL. As is my wont, those thoughts were along the lines of how dumb the NHL and its schedule makers are.

This week, I read with bemusement about how the Detroit Red Wings’ proposal to extend the season to 84 games had been rejected by the fellow NHL governors. Only in the NHL would owners be delusional enough to think that more games are the solution to one of the myriad of problems currently plaguing the NHL. Currently the NHL season stretches from September to June. That’s ten months for our readers who are mathematically challenged. Arguably, the coldest city that has an NHL team is Edmonton, Alberta. When the coldest city to house an NHL team only has cold weather for probably 6 months a year, does it not make sense to shorten the season rather than lengthen it? In my humble opinion, a game that is played on a cold surface (i.e. ice) works best when it is cold outside! Fans are in the mood for hockey on a cold winter’s night. No one has ever said, “it’s 95 degrees outside, I don’t want to play golf, or go swimming, or go sit on a patio with a cerveza, I want to watch people skate!”

Now while I am a strong advocate for a shorter NHL season, I am also not naive enough to think that there is a snowball’s chance in hell of this ever happening (pardon the pun). The reason why, comes down to the usual issue when discussing problems with the NHL, namely, dollars and cents. Currently and for the foreseeable future, and despite the Tiny Perfect Commissioner’s best spin efforts, the NHL is referred to as a gate driven league. In short, and taking away all the b.s. around that euphemism, it means that an NHL team receives the majority of their revenue by getting people to pay their way into the arena to see a game. The TV contract with NBC pays each team a percentage of the zero dollars NBC pays the NHL to televise their games. Believe it or not, any percentage of zero dollars equals zero dollars per team. (Again, the help is for our mathematically deficient readers—although if someone would copy and paste that fact to NHL head offices in either Toronto or New York, it might aid in their understanding of the mathematical equation.) To contrast, the NFL pays all of their players’ salaries via the revenue from their TV contract long before they have had one person pay for a ticket to see a game. So, when the Detroit Red Wings want to extend the season by two games, it is a blatant attempt at a cash grab, to help offset the loss of revenue they have experienced by no longer being able to refer to themselves as Hockeytown, a title that was stripped from them when they were unable to sell out playoff games, and this year’s home opener.

Now, as I know from my political days, it is easy to be a critic, but I can hear my readers yelling, what is your solution, Andrew M? The answer is easy (at least to me it is.) Fewer games played in a season would result in those games being viewed as more valuable. More valuable to the team’s season and potential playoff future, and as an intended consequence, the fans would put more value on each individual game. Thus, the team would be able to charge a higher amount for tickets to the games. It’s simple supply and demand, yet this basic economic concept seems lost on the NHL and the owners. When there is only 35 home games per year, they are played during an environmental season that actually befits hockey, and the Tuesday night in February against Atlanta seems a lot more important to the paying public than the Sunday afternoon in April versus Nashville does. Although why there are NHL teams in Atlanta and Nashville in the first place is another issue for another time and day.

For Illegal Curve, I am Andrew M.

About the writer: Formerly a speech writer for a Canadian Federal Politician, Andrew will be bringing his unique take on the hockey world to the illegal curve blog once a week, or more often if the rage needs to be released in a manner other than clobbering a referee over the head with a whiskey bottle. Mainly because he doesn’t have enough empty whiskey bottles at his disposal.

Morning Musings: Public criticism of Hockeytown

Earlier this week I wrote my preamble on the myth of Detroit being "Hockeytown USA" and interestingly enough, Drew Sharp took the opportunity to call out Red Wings fans for their lack of passion in this morning's Detroit Free Press. Red Wings' star defenseman, Nicklas Lidstrom wasn't impressed at all, calling the lack of fans at Wednesday's home opener, "more than a little disappointing." There are lots of great hockey towns in the U.S., and Detroit is still one of them, but the title of Hockeytown USA just can't go to a team that has trouble selling out home openers and playoff games. I bet fans in Colorado, New York and San Jose have just as good, if not a better claim to that title.

Update: Apparently Colorado couldn't sell out its home opener either. WOW. Can Gary Bettman please stop calling the game as healthy as it has even been?

In any event, it was great to have regular season hockey back last night, and the action didn't disappoint with three games going into overtime. Looks like we have a great season of hockey ahead of us.

On to the morning papers:

• It is not so much what's on top of the jersey, but rather what's under it says Ilya Kovalchuk in this morning's Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
• The Ducks were outshot a staggering 42-15 last night in their 3-2 shootout loss to the Red Wings. Jiri Hudler explains his thought process during his shootout winning goal on Iyla Bryzgalov on Wednesday night. While, Mike Babcock says that is exactly what Hudler has to do to contribute to the team.
• Damien Cox of the Toronto Star says the Leafs need more saves. Period. While they were defeated by the Sens 4-3, Mats Sundin doesn't believe there was any aspect of the game that they were outmatched.
• Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe previews the 2007/08 season in this morning's paper.
• Craig Julien believes P.J. Axelsson can be a calming force on his young linemates writes Rich Thompson of the Boston Herald.
• The Flames are beginning the season at the Saddledome for the first time in five years and hope the friendly confines gives them a jump start to the season. According to Steve Macfarlane of the Calgary Sun, Flames' players shouldn't become too comfortable with their linemates. Here are the Flames' lines heading into the season opener versus Philadelphia.
• With the loss of both Chris Drury and Daniel Briere, Dan Vogl of the Buffalo News says that Tim Connolly and Drew Stafford have pressure on them to fill the void. Meanwhile, the Buffalo News provides readers with five reasons to be optimistic about the Sabres and five reasons to be pessimistic.
• The Canes got a great performance from Cam Ward and had more than enough chances but were defeated by the Habs 3-2 in overtime last night. Cory Stillman was a late scratch for last night's contest because he injured his torso in a car accident Tuesday afternoon.
• Tom Reed of the Columbus Dispatch has a terrific piece on the road Scott Howson took to become an NHL general manager. On the ice, it appears Mike Peca will be held out of game action through this weekend because of an ailing back.
• Denis Savard is not worried about throwing Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews into the fire writes Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune.
• The Stastny-Brunette-Hlinka line demonstrated terrific chemistry in leading the Avs to a 4-3 victory over the Stars Wednesday night. Coach Joel Quenville was happy with Peter Budaj's play when it counted writes Terry Frei of the Denver Post.
• According to Stephan Robidas, the Stars have to have hunger the entire game.
• With all the young faces in the Oilers' lineup, nerves will be abound tonight versus the Sharks. Everyone and their brother is predicting the Oilers will miss the playoffs this season but the players themselves remain confident that the team can surprise some people writes Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Sun.
• The Panthers have come to the realization that talk is cheap writes Steve Gorten of the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
• As Lonnie White of the L.A. Times explains, after the team's trip overseas, Saturday's home opener feels like the real start to the season.
• Michael Russo has a great piece about Wild youngster Mikko Koivu in this morning's Star Tribune.
• Meanwhile, Mikko's brother Saku was terrific in leading the Habs to their 3-2 victory over the Canes last night. Perhaps the Habs would have an easier time of it if they stayed out of the box writes Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette.
• As Rich Chere writes in the Newark Star-Ledger, Patrik Elias is handling the loss of his captaincy like a man. With Brent Sutter leading the ship, the days of the trap in New Jersey are in the rear-view mirror.
• Alexander Radulov will start the season on the Predators' number three scoring line. (Writer's note: It is only a matter of time before he is moved up to one of the top two lines. The article points to the fact that he didn't have great chemistry with either of the top two line combinations but once the Preds realize Jed Ortmeyer can't score, the logical switch will be made.)
• Larry Brooks previews the Rangers in detail in this morning's NY Post. Rangers' leader Jaromir Jagr realizes that games aren't played on paper.
• Dany Heatley loves Ottawa and with a new $45 million contract in hand, the back-to-back 50 goal scorer had 2 goals and 1 assist in his team's 4-3 victory over the Maple Leafs on Wednesday. (Writer's note: For $45 million, I think I'd love Ottawa too.)
• Chris Stevenson of the Ottawa Sun speculates that the Heatley signing will be followed by a Jason Spezza signing which will be followed by Wade Redden's departure.
• Due to the fact that Bryan Berard was running the powerplay in practice yesterday, Greg Logan of Newsday believes he will be signed sooner rather than later.
• Mike Knuble hopes last year's struggles are motivation for the Flyers to not play that way again.
• Mikael Tellqvist has earned the start in between the pipes for the Coyotes' season opener against the Blues tonight. Unfortunately for the Coyotes, Zbynek Michalek broke his left hand at practice on Wednesday and will be out of the lineup 4-6 weeks.
• Sidney Crosby's Penguin counterparts are holding off on making statistical predictions for the reigning MVP. (Writer's note: I won't hold off. He'll get 140+ this season)
• Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Dispatch wonders whether the Blues are playoff bound. Here are the Blues' lines heading into the season.
• Patrick Marleau and coach Ron Wilson appear to be doing their best to improve their rocky relationship writes David Pollak of the San Jose Mercury News.
• Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune gives his full preview of the Bolts heading into 2007/08.
• With a higher skill level on the roster than last season, Capitals' coach Glen Hanlon believes his team won't take as many penalties in 2007/08.
• Barry Macdonald of the Vancouver Sun believes the Canucks have a boatload of potential heading into the season.

For Illegal Curve, I'm Richard Pollock.