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NHL Fans Buffaloed by All-Star Results |
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Every time I travel to Buffalo for a game, it amazes me just how dreary and quiet that city is.
I know that sounds derogatory, especially since I know several people who live in the suburban communities surrounding the city, and have even visited their homes, which are, in fact, in very nice housing complexes and are quite comfortable.
But, the city itself, the downtown area, and the direct vicinity of HSBC Arena, is awful.
There is simply nothing to do there. Between Tim Panaccio and myself, there is hardly an NHL city that we travel to that we don’t find at least one (if not more) happening, post-game hot spot to throw down a few cold ones (well, I do, he goes for the vino) and discuss just how awful the Flyers are playing.
But not Buffalo.
No, in Buffalo, the most attractive locale is the bar at our hotel some 20 minutes drive away in Amherst.
Which has always got me thinking - what exactly do Sabres fans do in Buffalo when they’re not watching the game?
And until last night, I didn’t have an answer.
But, I do now.
It’s obvious that all they do is sit on their computers for hours on end and vote for their players to play in the All-Star game.
And while I concur that Daniel Briere, Brian Campbell and Ryan Miller are all deserving of a spot on the team, I’m not sure that any one of them deserved to be starters.
But, this is what the NHL gets for letting the fans vote repeatedly and without restriction on the Internet.
Geez, they implemented a salary cap to get cost certainty, you’d think they’d have enough foresight to implement a voting cap to get deserving-player certainty.
And, sorry Buffalonians (is that even a word?), nobody outside of your hamlet of Brigadoon (you know, the mystical city that comes to life once every 20 years - kind of like the Sabres) cares to see your three players in the starting lineup.
How is Briere more deserving of the starting spot than Marian Hossa? Again, Briere is having a tremendous season - and deserves to be in the game, but Hossa is third in the entire NHL in scoring. Wouldn’t that make more sense?
I know the Thrashers fan base leaves a little to be desired, but come on, not even Jaromir Jagr, who plays in the largest market in the entire league, could garner enough votes to unseat Briere.
Campbell is even more perplexing. Again - nice season. Deserves to be on the Eastern Conference team, but come on now, he ranks 17th in scoring among defensemen.
I know I pick on guys like Tomas Kaberle and Bryan McCabe, but they’re both ahead of him in scoring (even though they are both minus players), and so are Dan Boyle, Sergei Gonchar, Andrei Markov and Filip Kuba.
As for Miller, there’s no way in h-e-double-hockey-sticks he deserves to be the starter ahead of Martin Brodeur, let alone Cristobal Huet.
I mean, even 15-year boy Rick DiPietro and Ray Emery have slightly better numbers than Miller and they play on weaker squads.
I know, the Sabre faithful are going to crawl out of their trenches waving their gaudy blue and gold flags - with their ensign Garth, dressed in his Sabres bunting, carrying the largest pennant and say things like: “it’s a game for the fans! Let the fans vote! Let the fans decide!”
And I agree. But, with that said, I challenge the NHL to do some market research and see how many of Briere, Campbell and Miller’s votes came from outside the Buffalo region.
I’d wager to bet that it’s a very, very small percentage.
Now, I know the starters most likely will play all of one shift together before being reassigned to other lines, which really makes this argument seem moot.
But the reason it’s not and the reason it’s sticking in my craw is this - again the NHL marketing boobs don’t get it.
The starting lineups are what the league will market over the next three weeks to try to induce people to scramble through the channels on their digital cable boxes in search of the ever-elusive Versus network to watch the game.
And do they really think three Buffalo Sabres will sell that broadcast?
Hah!
What the league needs in this instance, is their biggest names and brightest faces to try to lure viewers away from the latest episode of “Lost” on a Wednesday night.
Sure, Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin will go a long way toward helping that. As will Joe Sakic and Joe Thornton out West.
But wouldn’t it be nice to throw names like Jagr, Brodeur or even rookie of the year candidate Evgeni Malkin out there instead of the three amigos?
(Come to think of it, Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Chevy Chase would sell the All-Star Game better than the Buffalo trio.)
I mean really, how many casual hockey fans even know who the heck Brian Campbell is?
The solution to this dilemma is simple. Keep the voting in the hands of the fans, but limit the number of votes allowed from each IP address. It’s not that hard to do.
This way, you prevent the ballot box stuffing by the likes of the Sabres crazies like you got this year and get a more deserving, and more recognizable lineup of stars to attract a larger audience.
And, in the process, maybe you help revitalize a boring city like Buffalo, because, now that they can’t just sit in front of their computers all day voting for their favorite Sabres (or ex-Sabres - how else do you think Rory Fitzpatrick came so dang close to making it to the All-Star game), maybe the hockey fans in town can find something else to do to bring some life to the downtown area.
One traveler can only hope.
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