Not long ago, Ethan Moreau made a huge assumption. After the Hawks missed the playoffs last spring, he said he “almost felt embarrassed to walk around the city.”
If Moreau meant this city, he needn’t fret. He and his teammates could drive down Michigan Avenue hanging from a Zamboni and spitting out souvenir pucks without creating much of a stir, let alone being recognized.
That doesn’t make Moreau a bad guy, or even a bad player. It’s just another unfortunate commentary on a terrific sport that can’t quite keep up with great expectations, largely because of the people mismanaging it.
Recall that the NHL suspended operations in February to ship its players to the Winter Olympics halfway around the world for the expressed purpose of promoting the league and exposing its stars to a global audience.
In fact, while much of North America slept, our heroes posted miniscule TV numbers via tape delay. Only later did we discover that U.S. pros were so taken by the experience that they attempted to regain their amateur standing by engaging in the fire-extinguisher toss.
The cultural-exchange program bombed, so NHL moguls tried another trick: rewriting rules to enliven a game that has survived quite well, thank you, without artificial stimuli for much of this century. Alas, scoring in 1998 is down anyway, below even last season’s anemic figures.
Now here’s the next crisis. Despite the NBA lockout, pro hockey has failed to seize the opportunity. There is no evidence whatsoever that Bulls fans have converted to Blackhawks fans; nor are there any discernible crossover patterns being detected in any other market, minor or major.
Perhaps the NHL should let it all hang out in the name of Yankee ingenuity. Have three referees for every game to ensure more whistles, move the nets up to each blue line to provide even more skating room, and expand to 50 franchises by the year 2000, but only 46 qualify for the playoffs.
It’s either that for the knee-jerk NHL, or the frightening alternative. Which would be: Forget about luring fans you don’t have into rinks and worry about entertaining the fans you do have. Instead of selling tickets in Tokyo, sell them on Long Island. Don’t disguise the game, improve it.
Pretty drastic stuff, but it might work.
Mario Lemieux couldn’t wait to retire, and when he did, he blasted the NHL as “football on skates.” Brett Hull, still playing, still calls it “rodeo on ice.” Wayne Gretzky, after two decades, still stands out like a sore thumb because so many players around him have alabaster hands.
The game, you see, requires two skills. There’s skating and then there’s hockey. Too many players now simply are incapable of doing both, yet to camouflage the problem, the NHL seeks to manufacture a scenario whereby scoring will increase. Caution: About 60 years ago, there was a goal shortage, and so the offside rule was abandoned. But not for long. The new legislation didn’t make it through the season.
Putting the puck in the net is an art not easily taught or learned. Revising history, or the rule book, isn’t the solution for a 3-hour, penalty-strewn 1-0 taffy pull.
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If the league wants to make the game better, it shouldn’t think about eliminating the red line. Eliminate Nashville. Then Columbus and Atlanta. Halt expansion until the supply of quality athletes equals the demand. The more expensive the product, the more it is cheapened. Enough, already.
Hockey, the fastest and best spectator sport of all, is being slowed to a crawl by too many players who lack talent and too many administrators who lack vision. Dilution is evident throughout professional sports, but it is particularly obvious in hockey, which used to be the most fun of all to watch.
Can we honestly say that anymore? Even in Chicago, where hockey fans, unlike many basketball fans, go to games to see, not be seen?
The NHL doesn’t need more gimmicks, more rules, or more teams. The NHL needs more care.