Post by TBird41 on Feb 11, 2005 1:52:06 GMT -5
sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=1988656
I definately am going to miss playoff hockey. As someone from MN, hockey's pretty much been a constant in my winters since the beginning of high school (I didn't play and neither did my parents, but I went to a hockey high school-kinda like GTown is a bball school-and put as much effort in there as I do w/ Gtown Hoops). It's weird knowing that the only hockey I'll get to see this year is the Frozen Four (which I don't really get into unless the Gophers are playing).
That being said, I know that the NHL has managed to screw itself up beyond its own ability to repair. I think, in the long run, this apocolypse is the only way for the NHL to survive. It overexpanded b/c it thought Gretzky's popularity was the same as hockey's popularity (it was a lot more) and b/c it was an easy way to raise cash. Then when you factored in the rise of clutch and grab hockey and the overpaying of players, the apocolypse was almost inevitable. The owners knew they couldn't make piecemeal changes if they were going to survive the problems they created.
My hope is that the NHL that emerges from this lockout next year (hopefully) is one that is sustainable and based on common sense instead of short term greed. Contraction and a salary cap are key. Teams that have proven themselves viable-the Wild, Avalanche, Red Wings, Rangers, etc... need to be kept, while the cap needs to be such that with revenue sharing, the Canadian teams are viable financially beyond the big two of Toronto and Montreal. Accept the fact that hockey will never be that popular in the south where there's no winter. While exceptions can be made (as much as I hate to admit it, Dallas has shown itself to be viable) the NHL needs to be a northern league. It's the one true winter sport and it needs to understand that expanding to places without winter just isn't a very smart move.
Finally, they need to fix the style of play. It's deteriorated into clutch and grab all defense no offense hockey. This can be solved by ENFORCING THE RULES AS THEY ARE WRITTEN. It might lead to some problems early on, but again, the league needs to think long term. Now, I'm not advocating all-star game style hockey with no defense. Ideally, each team should be scoring around 3-5 goals per game. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the NHL can figure out the best way to get their back to that style by tweaking the rules.
Now, hopefully, the owners and players suck it up, realize they need to compromise and fix hockey. The only way this could get worse is if they pass up this opportunity to fix their league. If they come back with a fixed league, they'll be able to survive and eventually thrive as the memory of the lost season fades, but if they try and come back with a system that's still broken, then the NHL would be doomed.
I definately am going to miss playoff hockey. As someone from MN, hockey's pretty much been a constant in my winters since the beginning of high school (I didn't play and neither did my parents, but I went to a hockey high school-kinda like GTown is a bball school-and put as much effort in there as I do w/ Gtown Hoops). It's weird knowing that the only hockey I'll get to see this year is the Frozen Four (which I don't really get into unless the Gophers are playing).
That being said, I know that the NHL has managed to screw itself up beyond its own ability to repair. I think, in the long run, this apocolypse is the only way for the NHL to survive. It overexpanded b/c it thought Gretzky's popularity was the same as hockey's popularity (it was a lot more) and b/c it was an easy way to raise cash. Then when you factored in the rise of clutch and grab hockey and the overpaying of players, the apocolypse was almost inevitable. The owners knew they couldn't make piecemeal changes if they were going to survive the problems they created.
My hope is that the NHL that emerges from this lockout next year (hopefully) is one that is sustainable and based on common sense instead of short term greed. Contraction and a salary cap are key. Teams that have proven themselves viable-the Wild, Avalanche, Red Wings, Rangers, etc... need to be kept, while the cap needs to be such that with revenue sharing, the Canadian teams are viable financially beyond the big two of Toronto and Montreal. Accept the fact that hockey will never be that popular in the south where there's no winter. While exceptions can be made (as much as I hate to admit it, Dallas has shown itself to be viable) the NHL needs to be a northern league. It's the one true winter sport and it needs to understand that expanding to places without winter just isn't a very smart move.
Finally, they need to fix the style of play. It's deteriorated into clutch and grab all defense no offense hockey. This can be solved by ENFORCING THE RULES AS THEY ARE WRITTEN. It might lead to some problems early on, but again, the league needs to think long term. Now, I'm not advocating all-star game style hockey with no defense. Ideally, each team should be scoring around 3-5 goals per game. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the NHL can figure out the best way to get their back to that style by tweaking the rules.
Now, hopefully, the owners and players suck it up, realize they need to compromise and fix hockey. The only way this could get worse is if they pass up this opportunity to fix their league. If they come back with a fixed league, they'll be able to survive and eventually thrive as the memory of the lost season fades, but if they try and come back with a system that's still broken, then the NHL would be doomed.