TORONTO (Oct. 23) -- For people who merely choose to be critical, it is always possible to find fault with some aspect of the NHL -- as it is by looking in the mirror each day. By and large, however, this is a league that has taken giant steps in the past two years; a league that may be showcasing itself at the highest level in its history. In my years watching the NHL, only one previous era stands on a par for sheer entertainment value -- the mid-to-late-1980s, when players the caliber of Wayne Gretzky, Paul Coffey, Glenn Anderson, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Mario Lemieux, Peter Stastny, Michel Goulet, Denis Savard and Dale Hawerchuk provided thrills and artistry on a nightly basis. Never before, or since, has so many hall of fame-type skaters graced the NHL in their prime... at the same juncture. What the game lacked back then, however, but has in abundance today, is quality and depth among goaltenders. So, an argument can be made that the NHL we are watching right now contains the most complete package in the post-expansion era, which began in 1967.
There are two areas, however, where the league holds itself back... a) allowing the widespread use of composite sticks, which continue to be the most unreliable single piece of equipment in the history of professional sport, and b) the deployment, for the second year in row, of an unbalanced and unfulfilling schedule. The owners could take a large step in eradicating the stick issue by simply refusing to pay the wildly inflated prices for the composites. Make it known to the players that teams will foot the bill for wooden sticks only, and you might notice a rapid return to the equipment that seemed to work rather well for luminaries named Richard, Howe, Hull, Esposito, Orr, Mikita, Bossy, Gretzky and Lemieux, among thousands of others. As for the schedule, it is even easier to fix. And, it's imperative that the league bring it up to par with other elements of the game that are so appealing.
Let me stress that this is not a criticism of the league for trying the current format, whereby teams play divisional opponents eight times, and play only 10 games outside the Conference. In fact, the NHL absolutely had to examine the issue of going heavy on geographic rivalries coming out of the lockout, when no one was sure whether the game would be embraced by its jilted customers. All along, however, Gary Bettman, Bill Daly, and others of power and influence insisted that fans would return, and would appreciate the rule amendments aimed at making the sport more watchable. And, you know what? Bettman and Co. were dead on. Unlike the 1998 post-work stoppage in baseball, not a single enthusiast, it seemed, turned his or her back on the NHL when it fired up again last season. The good, traditional hockey markets picked up where they left off before the lockout, and while there are still some attendance issues in several newer markets (and in Chicago), the league is stronger than it was prior to the season-long shut-down.
Now is the time for the NHL to take its product to another level; to gamble that it can thrive and entertain without artificial means. There are too many exciting, young players in the league right now -- and on their way to the NHL in the near future -- for there to be any season where these phenoms are not available at least once to fans in all 30 cities. Under no circumstance, should Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Ilya Kovulchuk, Evgeni Malkin, Eric Staal, Maxim Afinogenov, Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley, Marian Gaborik, Dion Phaneuf, or any of the others that can lift fans from their seats, make only one appearance in an NHL city every four years. This is the drawback of the current schedule format, which the league embraced for a span of two seasons after the lockout, and which will be up for review by the Board of Governors after the current campaign. Crosby -- the best player to graduate to the NHL since Lemieux, 22 years ago -- did not appear in Northwest Division markets (Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Colorado, Minnesota) last season, and will not be there again this year. Ovechkin -- the purest natural goalscorer since Mike Bossy -- will finish his second NHL season without being seen in the Central Division cities (Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Columbus, Nashville). This goes against all of the apparent principles the league adopted after the lockout -- those which guarantee an unprecedented level of excitement, and are geared towards improving low TV ratings in the United States.
By limiting exposure to these great, young stars of the sport, the NHL is hampering its own sales potential. There is enough hockey sophistication and knowledge in every one of the league's markets today for a genuine buzz to be created when Crosby, Ovechkin et al roll into town. Even if it's once per season. Take the San Francisco-Bay Area, for example. We all know how saturated it is with sports teams at the professional and college levels (49ers and Raiders of the NFL; Giants and A's in baseball; Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings of the NBA; Stanford University, etc.). But, hockey is big enough in the region that if Crosby made an appearance in San Jose every season, newspapers, TV and radio outlets would undoubtedly take note of it. Hockey articles -- not common on front sports pages of the San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle or the Oakland Tribune -- would clearly be in evidence, providing the league with the sort of advertising that is difficult to put a price on.
Variety is the spice of life in so many ways. As it longs to be among fans and players in the NHL, who have quickly grown weary of viewing the same teams over and over. When the Board of Governors meets next summer to address this issue, it should immediately look to adopt the prime schedule feature of the NBA -- Bettman's old league -- which calls for each team to play every other team at least once, home and away, every season. This could be accomplished by several methods, including the one that I favor:
a) Reduce the number of games against division opponents from eight to six (three home, three away) for a total of 24 games.
b) Reduce the number of non-division games in the Conference from four to two (one home, one away) for a total of 20 games.
c) Play each team in the opposite conference once at home and once on the road, for a total of 30 games.
d) Treat the remaining eight games (four home, four away) as "wild cards" -- allowing fans to see desired teams and/or players twice per season every few years. This would be highly beneficial, for example, to the western-Canadian clubs, which would gladly welcome the Toronto Maple Leafs to their sold-out buildings on seperate occasions. These visits are more than just games in the standings... they are events that envelop an entire city. It's a shame that the Leafs do not play in Calgary, Edmonton or Vancouver this season (and next, if the format is not altered).
Such a format would be more costly from a travel standpoint, which might be a drawback among several teams. But, it should be a natural by-product of the salary cap era, whereby player costs have been reduced, and can generally be budgeted for prior to the season. It would also reduce the number of games available to Eastern and Central-based clubs in their own time zones, but, again, the league has introduced so many exciting, new stars in the past couple of years that it should compensate for the inconvenience of staying up an hour later to watch your favorite team. And, because of the increase in schedule balance, the playoff format would probably have to be altered. Which it has been numerous times in the past.
Whatever the format, it's clear that the current one is too restrictive to players, fans, and (dare I say) media. The NHL should strive to open itself up, and allow fans across both countries to see the best players in the league, every season. It isn't often in the past that the league could make such a genuine boast.
E-mail
[email protected] 
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»