Ok, so admittedly, I am old. 52 years old..But I wanted to get your opinion today about the NHL, during this time of social distancing, bringing back a part of my childhood...and any hockey fan who is over 45...the NHL Showdown of the late '70s and '80s.
What was the NHL Showdown? Well as the NHL Showdown was a CBC production of Hockey Night in Canada and there was a version on NBC in the states I believe called the NHL Challenge (correct me if I'm wrong).
The Showdown was a player versus player competition that pitted the best of the best against each other in a skill competition tournament that showcased the players' skills. This was particularly cool because we are talking more than 20 years before the NHL Skills Competition which has become part of the NHL All-Star Weekend.
Kids, this was a time long before the shootout as well when penalty shots were almost NEVER awarded unless you killed a guy on a breakaway. Therefore, seeing these stars show off their skills was incredible for the fans and I remember looking forward to these between periods events as much as the games themselves.
It is a great rabbit hole to go down on youtube....
Here is the 1980 Gretzky vs Bossy.
Pretty awesome, eh?
Many of the older players who did this have become scouts and/or coaches and whenever I have sat down in the media room with one for dinner prior to a game I love to ask them about it. The event was like a bracketed competition and filmed all in one day...then split into a dozen or so segments. The event was filmed in an empty stadium.
All this makes me wonder if the NHL could do something like this in say a month or so...just to give the fans something fun to watch prior to the hopeful return in July.
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