It has been nearly one month since the Los Angles Kings hoisted the Stanley Cup after their Game 5 win over the New York Rangers. For the true hockey fan, there has been lots going on since the end of the hockey season. First we had the NHL Awards on June 24th, the NHL Draft on June 27, which was followed closely by the, well, sheer stupidity of many of the July 1st free agent “frenzy… signings.
Now that Canada Day and Independence Day in the U.S. have passed, we are in the slowdown period of the summer where news comes in drips and drops instead of a steady stream. For a little while, it's good to catch our breath. Then it gets boring very quickly as we count down the days until training camps start.
I want to thank all of my readers for their indulgence over the past couple weeks. They have been very busy for me. One of the highlights for me was taking part in the recent Philadelphia Flyers' Alumni Golf event. I'm not much of a golfer, to be honest, but that part is secondary to catching up with a lot of old friends.
Here is my take on the postseason goings on around the NHL:
NHL Awards Show
I value the awards themselves. Hockey is the ultimate team sport, but it is good to recognize the individuals who are the best of the best in a season. I also understand that the true hockey fan wants to see who wins the awards, and that it should be a televised event.
My question is why do they always have to have such a cheesy awards show? It is almost embarrassing to watch most years. I know award shows are hard to pull off. It can't be too long or too short. It can't be too serious with an endless series of long and boring speeches or too off-topic. Even so, there has to be a better way than what's produced each year. The attempts at being jokey are almost never funny. Who are most of the "celebrities" they bring out? When they've done musical segments, they're usually pretty bad.
Also, can someone please explain to me why in the world the NHL chose Las Vegas as the home of the even? The league has strict policies against gambling, so why go to the capital city of gambling? Anything the NHL does moving forward should be all about growing the game's markets, once again why Vegas? It isn’t even a hockey market! Yes, they have a professional team there. The Las Vegas Wranglers play in the ECHL. Well, actually they DID play in the ECHL but they have suspended operations for the 2014-15 hockey season.
Suggestion: At the very least, move the NHL Awards around each year, just like they do with the NHL Draft. Most NHL cities would gladly roll out the red carpet to host the NHL Awards night. Whatever money gets raised goes to charities and/or education in the host city.
2014 NHL Draft
I went to the 2014 NHL Draft in Philadelphia. It was fun. It was also worlds different from when I was a first-round pick of the Flames (11th overall) in 1978. Going to the Draft was just a bonus. I went to Philadelphia mainly for the aforementioned Flyers Alumni golf tournament, which was even more fun!
I attended the Draft with my daughter Madeline and her friend Katie. We were there early, so we spent time walking around the concourses. What was neat about this activity was seeing the draft picks. Many of them were walking aimlessly around the concourse, they were so easy to pick out because they were all business.
The vast majority of the 12,000 people in attendance were your typical Flyer hockey fans. Most had on some sort of Flyer gear. It was a big party to them, and they made sure everyone knew it was in the Flyers' house. Then there were the prospective draft picks. As I said, these guys were so easy to pick out; teenagers walking around in designer suits (better than any suit that I ever owned!), many with cell phones close at hand.
Some draft prospects walked around by themselves. However, most had an entourage with them; agents, parents, siblings and girlfriends all dressed to the hilt! Some looked nervous, some looked confident but all had the look of “let’s get this thing started… on their faces. They soon got tired of posing for pictures.
I remember that feeling of being antsy, of being anxious for the big moment to start. Regardless of when your name was going to be called, you just wanted it to get going! My big moment came 36 years ago at the 1978 Draft in Montreal. I didn’t have an entourage with me; just my mom and my dad. My girlfriend was not with me. I didn't even wear a suit. There was no media frenzy; no television commentators, no international media, etc.
The atmosphere in the building and the anticipation for the first pick was kind of neat: Who was Florida going to take, where they going to trade it (maybe even to the Flyers?) or keep it?
What struck me and everyone else in and around our seats was the reaction that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman received. It was incredible. I mean, Bettman gets booed in every NHL city but usually it stops after a little while. But this is Philly; a city that feeds off a bottomless well of emotion. Gary engaged in a bit of a test of wills with the crowd and the crowd never let up for a second in letting him have it.
Seriously, we could not hear a single word the commissioner said because his entire address to the crowd was drowned out the by boos. When he came back to announce the Panthers 1st selection, again the booing was so loud you could not hear what he was saying.
This kept up for every draft pick, all 30 of them (or least 29 of the 30, because there was mostly excitement when the Flyers' turn came up at 17th and some people almost temporarily forgot Bettman was on the stage). This was funny: Around the 25th or 26th pick, the boos got quite a bit stronger again. I think the crowd realized that they only had a few chances left in which to boo Bettman so they were as loud in booing him before the final few picks as they were for the first time Gary stepped on stage!
As someone who lived and played in Philly for many years during my career, I had to chuckle. Some things change and some things never do. The passions of Flyers fans are something that never changes.
They love their Flyers (even when they angrily turn some of those emotions against the team) and every other crest is contemptible. That was also made obvious during the pre-Draft roll call, in which every team name announced on the PA was followed by a holler of "sucks!" from the crow. Well, most teams. The Rangers and Penguins simply got booed with the same fervor that Bettman received.
I will also say this: There was no booing of the kids being drafted as their names got called. The boos were reserved for the commissioner and the "enemy" teams as they approached the stage. The players themselves were allowed to have their moment in the sun. Of course, when they someday come to Philly as visiting players, it will be a different story.
July 1st – Free Agent Frenzy
This a great day if you are a free agent or an agent; not so much if you are a hockey fan trying to pay for your season tickets. The major rule of thumb in all pro sports franchises is that as television and advertising revenues grow and salaries balloon so, too, does the price gouging for the tickets, parking, concessions, etc. Having been the owner of an arena-based bar-and-grille after my playing days, I can tell you that the rents for the on-site vendors are no picnic, either.
Collectively, the 30 NHL General Managers spent a record half-billion dollars on July 1st. Where is that money ultimately going to come from? You tell me. The best line I heard about Free Agent Season is that July 1 is the date in which NHL teams replace the horrible long-term contracts they just rid of with even worse contracts they'll be scrambling to get rid of in another year or two.
So the pressure is on, not on the players to perform but on the sales staff of the various clubs. Long before the players take to the ice for their first shift of the new season, the sales staff has to sell the tickets, the rink boards, programs, TV ads, etc., to pay for the July 1st frenzy.
The sales team is by far the most underrated team member of any sports team. I wonder how many of them have gotten a raise over the past number of years?! I know firsthand how challenging their jobs are from having done that work right after my playing career ended.
In the last 10 years, we have had two major work stoppages in recent years to “fix… the game's economics. Come every July 1, the pocket books are opened to accommodate the missing piece to everyone team’s march to the Promised Land.
Nowadays, these missing pieces are usually somebody else’s leftovers, because of all the contract extensions that get signed ahead of free agency. That's especially true with the defencemen on the unrestricted free agent market. Everyone hordes their veterans on the blueline these days. I don't begrudge these guys the money they make, but I have to chuckle when role-playing defencemen -- which was what I was during my career -- and third-line forwards get handed these $3.5 million to $4.5 million per season contract for four or five years.
Yes, I know there are exceptions and different circumstances for some players. However, I think in most cases, megabuck free agent signings are ultimately a flop.
Gary Bettman keeps telling us how healthy the League is. Revenues are up, attendance is up, we have new TV contracts on both sides of the border, and the League in general couldn’t be better.
Truth be told, its healthy because the burdens are carried on the backs of the average hockey fan and I think everyone knows this. Maybe that is why they were booing Bettman in Philadelphia with such fervor. They don’t like what the NHL has done to their game!