The NHL is Back

I grew up in Minnesota, so I grew up with hockey. I miss the NHL. The only good thing about the lost season is that I live in an AHL city and the lack of the NHL raised the level of play in the AHL this year because the best players didn’t get called up (and some lower-tier NHL players slummed it). Of course, I think I made it to a total of two games, so I might not be the best judge.

If the NHL wants to succeed in the U.S. they really need to figure out how to get it right on TV. Hockey is so much better live than on TV it’s amazing. I’ve taken a fair number of people to their first-ever hockey games (IHL back in Atlanta and AHL here) and the response “wow, I never liked hockey before” is very common. It intrinsically doesn’t go to TV as well as other sports, but still, American broadcasts are nowhere near as good as Canadian ones. I love it when I’m somewhere where I can get “Hockey Night in Canada.” It’s not as good as live hockey, but it’s one heck of a lot better than even the ESPN A-crew. (And I’m still trying to forget the whole Fox debacle.)

Some of the rule changes should help a little. I know shootouts offend the purists, but fans LOVE them because they are, in fact, really exciting to watch. There were teams the last couple seasons with something like 30 ties, that’s just got to stop, American sports fans hate ties. and I hate seeing records with four spots in them–I can never remember which of the last two is which.

No red line is a good idea, but I’m not sure it’ll help much right away–the players are still too used to it not being that way. They did that in the AHL this year, and early in the season, it didn’t make much difference.

Smaller goalie equipment can only be a good thing, but again, i’m not sure it’ll make a huge difference.

Going to international ice would be fantastic. Olympic and world cup hockey are so much more exciting and watchable on TV. They really need to do this, but I don’t think it’s likely because a lot of U.S. arenas aren’t set up for it. It’s a shame, though, I think that would really help.

Any rule changes which encourages actually bringing the puck up the ice rather than dump-and-chase would be most welcomed. People who don’t know the game well find the scrums in the corner stultifying–and they’re right!

I’m also in favor of no-touch icing. Most of the time it just wastes game time watching the one guy trudge back to touch up the puck. This is not worth it for the few times when it becomes a race and is exciting. College hockey has no-touch icing and I like it much better.

I don’t mind the NHL season running later into the summer (nothing but baseball on now anyway, and I’ve lost interest in baseball), but expanding the playoffs seems kind of stupid. The NHL regular season is already pretty meaningless, and allowing teams with losing records to routinely make the playoffs will just render it even more irrelevant. Playoff hockey is indeed a lot better than regular-season hockey, so maybe if the playoff expansion was paired with a reduction in the regular season I might not be so opposed.

As for the people involved, Goodenow is an idiot, and he’s the one who should get most of the blame. I know the players think they’re terribly ticked at Bettman, but he was only doing what he had to to try to save the league from eating itself. Goodenow’s the guy they should be after. Bettman had much better offers on the table early in the process, which Goodenow should have taken. Too many owners losing money were perfectly able to wait it out, but what else are the players supposed to do? Not a lot of market for being able to skate backwards…

And yes, don’t anger the hockey gods. They’re pretty peeved right now, as well they should be.

Still, though, bring on the new season!