O O Ø O O O O
Sudden Death
Does either side know the game’s over?
The World Cup of Hockey started today with the opening hype-builder being the USA-Canada tilt. The jerseys for our boys were yellow in honour of the 1920 Winnipeg Falcons, and there was an all-star cast of players and officials on hand to get everything off to a good start. On the ice there were plenty of penalties, a number of hits, and some fisticuffs from the goal crease to the blue line. Pretty standard fare.
I was out enjoying a pint after some disc golf, and was paying some attention to the game. All the hype in the sports programs and national papers had indicated the games were going to be like playoff hockey. They forgot to mention it would be like novice playoffs, just with fighting. It was pretty boring stuff. Then again, perhaps I was spoiled by last year’s amazing run by those wiley Flames.
The same shows and papers have been bemoaning the fact that the season will be delayed or cancelled. I thought about this on the way home, and I can’t say I’m with them. I won’t miss the NHL this year at all, for many of the same reasons I’ve squawked about before. I’m not alone, and despite what the author of a piece from Chicago - one of the Original Six teams - writes, I’m not sure how many Canadians will, either.
I went to one game last year, and that was only because someone paid for my ticket. The game was between what were supposed to be two of the elite teams in the league, and it was a total yawner. My buddy and I spent more time talking about his kids, because they were a hell of a lot more exciting than what was happening down on the ice. To think that other people actually paid a couple hundred bucks to see it was a little scary.
The players and owners do deserve each other. They put out an exceptionally high-priced and exceptionally mediocre product every year. They get away with this because there’s always playoffs, where more than half the league gets in to the battle for the cup. The season stretches from October through until June, and it only gets interesting around May.
The little ice surfaces are crowded as hell, the equipment has turned the game into a speed and impact show, and the fear of getting fired has turned all the coaches into conservative ninnies. The “stars” of the game are showing their age, and while I loved watching Mario play in the eighties and early nineties, hearing about comeback number four just isn’t news. There’s only a couple new stars on the horizon, and there’s no telling if they’ll ever make it through their first season before becoming complacent with the fat cash. Gosh, how can people new to the game not watch?
It’s just not worth the effort any more. Seeing people like Jaromir Jagr get huge contracts and then do nothing just shows how it’s not about the game, it’s all about the money. Owners piss and moan about how the financial model doesn’t work, and then go and sign players for ridiculous yearly salaries because of the market value they created. They then go hat in hand to the various governments for tax breaks, sweet stadium deals, and other special dispensations because their keen business acumen has them operating deep in the red.
Enough.
I love hockey. I play it every chance I get in the winter, and I like watching a wide-open, exciting game. If I want to see such a game, I’ll go see Killer Kilrea’s boys with 10,000 other people who love hockey and (can afford to) bring their kids to a venue that supports the whole idea of family entertainment. I don’t need to see a bunch of folks play dump and chase in 80-degree arenas for three hours, and then make excuses for why they didn’t win. I also don’t really want to spend a tonne of cash for the privilege of doing so.
The owners don’t get that. The players don’t get that. It’s just like Major League Baseball a decade ago, only the NHL has nowhere near the popularity to pull it through hard times. Here’s hoping the fans and corporations that sponsor the teams through the ransoms demanded year after year do (or will) after this “labour issue” starts. Let the league die, something else will take its place. Hopefully it’ll be hockey, but there’s some pretty good places where all that money can be spent if it isn’t.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
PD DCLXVII