NHL

NHL and other hockey related posts.

Big market success is bringing back the NHL

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This originally appeared on Buffalo Wins.com.

Slowly but surely, the NHL is making a serious comeback on the national sports landscape. Even though ESPN continues their ignorant stance of pandering to sports in which they hold the rights to, the NHL is indeed becoming more relevant by the day.

After winning the 2011 Sports League of the Year award from Sports Business Journal, the NHL has enjoyed a calendar year of exciting games and some must-see events. Wise marketing put big ticket teams in the Winter Classic in consecutive seasons and the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals saw a winner from one of the largest cities in the US.

Things could get even better this summer as the Los Angeles Kings prepare for their first Stanley Cup Finals appearance since 1993. The Kings will never own the city of Los Angeles. That would be a foolish assumption to make. However, they’re one of two teams left playing (Dodgers) and have the opportunity to bring a championship to the city.

This is one of those things that you want to root for as a hockey fan. Not as a Sabres fan, but a hockey fan. It is the same concept as understanding that Sidney Crosby’s health and success is good for the league, no matter how much you hate him. Right now the NHL is becoming a sexy ticket in Los Angeles, celebrities are taking notice and the team has a real chance at winning a title. A great majority of the people buying seats for the Finals are likely to ditch the bandwagon pretty quick, but there is going to be some serious interest drubbed up in LA for this team and the sport. Continue reading →

How to improve the NHL Combine

Chris Ostrander1 Comment

Slowly but surely, a number of off-ice events in the NHL have become increasingly popular with fans and the media. New events like the All-Star Fantasy Draft have brought relevance to the All-Star weekend and the Draft Lottery has suddenly become a half-hour TV event.

One thing the NHL has done a terrific job with is making their product TV-ready. Whether it be revamping the awards, instituting an All-Star Fantasy Draft; the NHL has realized their product is marketable and they have taken full advantage.

One event that could use a little updating is the NHL Combine. The Draft’s scope and popularity is continuing to grow and the Combine is following suit. However, the Combine is not growing in terms of entertainment value in the way that the Draft has.

With top-10 prospects growing more NHL-ready on a yearly basis, the draft is becoming more of an important event. No longer is it like playing darts with a drunk girl – hit the board and hope that your team scores points. Now players are more talented and capable of jumping to the professional ranks immediately. This obviously gives a greater vested interest in the Draft itself. However, the NHL combine continues to be more of a fitness test versus a skills test.

Considering the NFL Combine is a week-long television festival, why not have the NHL follow suit? I’m not proposing that these guys get suited up and scrimmage, that is what the Top Prospects Game is for. What I’m saying is create a few hockey specific events that will televise well. It could be fun.

Here is a list of some serious and not so serious (emphasis on the latter) ideas I came up with: Continue reading →

2ITB Stanley Cup Finals prediction

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With the Stanley Cup Final poised to begin this weekend, I’ll take one final stab at prognosticating who may win the final series of the 2011-12 NHL season. I suffered through an up-and-down run of picking this year’s series and stand at 5-8 entering the Finals.

This year pits a pair of unexpected opponents as neither entered the playoffs as a sexy pick to be playing for the Cup. While the Kings have been an annual choice for pre-season success, they had an underwhelming regular season and nosed their way into the playoffs. The Devils were quiet for most of the year and are just now getting fully healthy. While their aging goaltender was average in the regular season, he has been stellar in the playoffs.

Somewhat ironically, the Devils enter this series as the more potent scoring team as the Kings were the team whose blanketing defense helped them through the regular season. However, Los Angeles has played David to the NHL’s Goliath this spring, knocking off the top three seeds out west thanks to terrific goaltending and a recent injection of offense.

This may serve to be a very entertaining Cup Final, and has the potential to make a major impact on the national sports scene with LA as part of the series. While the NHL and NBC didn’t get their silver platter matchup of the Rangers and Kings, the Devils seem to be slowly reminding people in the tri-state area that hockey is indeed a serious sport. Continue reading →

The time has come to overhaul the World Hockey Championship

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Russia, Slovakia a pre-tournament qualifier and the United States will make up one group at the 2014 Winter Olympics is Sochi.

The US has drawn a tough group that could be made tougher based on the teams that qualify for the final spots in each of the three pools. The other pools consist of Canada, Finland, Norway and a qualifier; and Sweden, Czech Republic, Switzerland and another qualifier.

An average showing at the World Championships put the US and Canada at the mercy of the selection committee after another showing without a medal for the two powerhouses. Russia captured another World Championship title with the Slovaks and Finland each enjoying a deep run. Many reports point to the Norwegians as the biggest winners from this year’s World Championship.

Now teams like Belarus, Latvia, Germany, France, Denmark, Kazakhstan and Italy will battle for one of the final three spots in the Olympic tournament. These participants will be affected by their play in international tournaments (both at the elite and Division I level) before those final spots are determined.

What is unfortunate is that so much weight regarding Olympic seeding is based on a tournament that few care about. While the World Championship is a big deal for European players and fans, tournament barely registers on an annual basis in North America. Perhaps if the tournament wasn’t played right after the regular season, or during the playoffs, or exclusively in Europe it would carry more weight with fans over here.

Ken Holland was quoted, on NHL Home Ice, saying that upwards of 80% of the players approached by Hockey Canada refused to play this tournament. I can only imagine that USA Hockey has the same hurdles to clear when forming their team. After all, there were players from the Finnish Elite League wearing the stars and stripes this year. This fact alone illustrates the little respect that this tournament receives in North America.

Now, the US beat Canada during the preliminary round, and that was awesome. Missing out on a medal wasn’t even a big deal since we were able to beat our neighbors to the north. However, there needs to be a few changes made to at least make the World Championship a respected event down the line. Continue reading →

2ITB Conference Finals predictions

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With the Conference Finals poised to begin, my somewhat successful prediction rate plummeted in the second round. With Phoenix, Los Angeles, New Jersey and New York advancing, I will try my hand at picking the two teams that will face off for the Stanley Cup.

Phoenix Coyotes vs. Los Angeles Kings

This is the matchup that all of zero people penciled in for the Western Conference Final back in October. Both teams had to scratch and claw over the final weeks of the regular season just to cement their respective playoff berths and each team has received tremendous goaltending.

Mike Smith is doing a fine job backing up the argument that a franchise goaltender in un-necessary, while Jonathon Quick (and Marty Brodeur, Henrik Lundqvist, Pekka Rinne etc.) have done plenty to prove that a legitimate 1A goaltender is a key for playoff success.

Both teams play a pretty boring style of collapsing and blocking shots whenever possible. Each club has a defensive style that chokes out their opponents. They rely on their goaltenders to do the heavy lifting when necessary but typically limit as many shots and chances as possible. Continue reading →

Bikini Hockey League: Good for the sport?

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Women playing hockey in bikinis. Let me repeat that. Women playing hockey in bikinis!

There is an initiative underway to form a made-for-TV “league” made up of two scantily clad teams of women playing roller hockey in slim beach wear. According to reports, the girls will live in a mansion in Tulsa, OK during the tryout period. Sounds like a reality TV winner to me.

The base purpose here is to give people 30 minutes of mindless television by roping together some cute girls, small bikinis and rollerblades. There isn’t much to read into here and the merits of the idea are certainly debatable. However, the fact that hockey will be at the focal point of such an idea (and show) is not a bad thing. Don’t try to convince me of any other train of thought.

If you really think about it, this isn’t all that different from seeing the likes of Kobe, David Beckham, Kate Upton and other celebrities at games in New York and Los Angeles. Not only are celebs heading out to support these teams on their playoff run, their presence is helping to prove that hockey is indeed cool. Obviously fans of the sport are well aware of this fact, but it is the casual fan who will be drawn to the sport by hotties like Upton and Carrie Underwood watching game. Bottom line; this creates interest around the game and gets people talking.

With every playoff game available on (somewhat) basic cable and celebs flocking to Staples Center and MSG, a bikini hockey league should succed in creating some form of conversation about the sport. Don’t mistake this as an effective way to grow the game. It is simply an idea that will serve as effective water cooler fodder. So long as the conversations are geared towards the positive, the BHL will have been a success. However, if there is nothing but negativity surrounding the show, it will be a drawback for the sport.

With the obvious differences of men vs. women, full uniforms vs. bikinis and ice vs. roller; there isn’t much of a direct comparison between the BHL and the NHL. However, creating good conversation about the sport is what is necessary to gain more respect. There is no way to replicate the interest growing in LA, Phoenix and Nashville due to the 2012 Playoffs, but drawing attention to the sport for a reason besides fighting is something every hockey fan is hoping for.

By no means do I expect the BHL to convince ESPN to actually do their job and cover the sport. Nor do I think that this venture will vault the NHL to the stratosphere of the NFL. However, with the NBA appearing to plateau in recent years, hockey could continue to snatch attention from those looking for a different outlet for sports entertainment.

There is certainly a chance that this show is a huge tire fire and makes hockey look worse than any damage the Most Valuable Primate ever could. But I’ll tune in a few times just to see what it is all about, even if it ends up as a glorified MTV Road Rules/Real World Challenge.

At long last, the Coyotes are saved

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While no official deal has been reached, it would appear that Greg Jamison will spearhead a group that has been endorsed by the league to purchase and save the Coyotes.

Jamison is the former CEO of the San Jose Sharks who is famous for making them profitable. Due, in part, to Jamison’s leadership, the Sharks are now a very stable club – despite being located in a non-traditional market. With Jamison at the helm, the league (and Coyotes), Glendale and Jamison are hoping to catch lightning in a bottle twice.

There has not been an official deal reached, just an announcement that an agreement has been reached to dot the Is and cross the Ts in this deal. There is still the looming specter of the Goldwater Institute, the watchdog group that destroyed the last bid for the team. That isn’t to say they were out of line. There is no doubt that they will comb through the final agreement and there is even a chance that they will attempt to put this deal to an end.

What could derail the Jamison deal is the portion of the agreement that will see the new figurehead (if you will) run Jobing.com Arena. If Goldwater determines the agreement to violate whatever silly law they referenced last year, things could get complicated. With no true knowledge of what Goldwater gets all knotted up about, I can’t truly say if this deal will catch any snags. After all, Gary Bettman even noted that they expect to structure the deal properly as to not raise any red flags.

Based on my knowledge of the history of this scenario, I do think that the city paying one of the new owners may upset a group that stopped a previous sale based on the city paying the owner to buy the team. Of course that is a wildly broad way of putting it, but the former deal saw Glendale selling bonds as a way to supplement the sale. Jamison’s group surely has found a way around such an issue, but I do wonder if Goldwater will take them to task over the owner being paid by the city.

Ultimately, I see this deal going through and the Coyotes finally getting some solid ownership. The team has been in Phoenix for 15 years and has yet to make money. That is a pretty terrifying piece of information. I suppose if there was anyone to turn the team around, it would be Jamison. Acting as the ringleader, he will be the one to guide the spending of the investment group he compiled. His experience with the Sharks speaks for itself and bodes well for the Coyotes franchise. Continue reading →

2ITB second round predictions

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After a wonderfully successful set of first round selections, I fully expect to fall flat on my face with my choices for the second round. I went five for eight in the first round, missing only the Penguins, Bruins and Sharks as eliminated teams. Admittedly, I chose San Jose as my reach upset. So I wasn’t torn up by their elimination.

I made some preliminary choices last night, but I reserve the right to make tweaks prior to the bulk of the games starting this afternoon. Now, on with my second round predictions.

New York Rangers vs. Washington Capitals

The Capitals got by New York last year in what was a pretty entertaining series. The Capitals sat atop the East with the Rangers barely getting in last spring. The tables have turned here in 2012, with the Rangers taking the East and the Caps sneaking into the postseason before upsetting the Bruins in round one.

I like the Capitals to pull the upset again in round two, but I question their ability to beat King Hank. The Rangers struggled with the Senators and their hot goalie. Now they get a deeper team with a hot goalie in the Capitals. Washington is coming off a seven game war with the Bruins in which they survived on ugly, low scoring affairs to advance. I think the Rangers are perfectly built for low scoring affairs.

Why New York will win

Henrik Lundqvist was quite good in round one and is adding to his Hart Trophy resume as each game passes. The Rangers have the ability to choke out any offense that the Capitals may still have after a low scoring first round series. New York will need to find a way to put some goals in the net, however, if they hope to make quick work of the Caps.

Why Washington will win

Braden Holtby has been dazzling for the Caps, playing a key role in their upset of the Bruins. The Capitals are a dangerous team considering they’re playing with house money, more or less. There are very few expectations considering they snuck into the playoffs late. Washington didn’t score too many goals against Boston and won’t find much more skating room against the Rangers. They will need to control the offensive zone if they hope to pull the upset.

Outcome: Rangers in six Continue reading →

The Instigator Podcast 1.9 – Southern Aggression

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For the ninth episode of The Instigator, Eric and I talk about the first round of the NHL playoffs, parity and non-traditional hockey markets. Of course, we also play plus/minus.

Thought, comments and criticism is welcome here, there or on Twitter. Find us: @3rdmanin @2ITB_Buffalo

NHL playoffs marred, but captivating with physicality

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The NHL playoffs will forever be the best month and a half of television that you can find. No matter who is in the tournament, the yearly battle for the Stanley Cup is some of the most dramatic and captivating television you can find.

Even with all of the shenanigans, this year has yet to disappoint. The nightly gongshow that has become the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs has become appointment television that even the most casual of hockey fans have found interest with. The ratings from the Pittsburgh/Philadelphia ratings do all the talking.

Say what you will, but the physical nature of the Penguins/Flyers series has been terrific television.

However, things are starting to spiral out of control. From the lack of respect from the players, the lack of control from the officials to the lack of consistency from the league, some major problems have come to a head through just half of round one. Yet, I do have to ask, is this all bad for the game?

Obviously the ridiculous hits and headhunting are an ugly addition to these playoffs and need to be stopped. However, the fights and line brawls have to bring some extra spice for those casual viewers who may not be true hockey fans. Think about it, casual sports fans think hockey is all about fighting; these playoffs have provided plenty of that. There has even been some decent numbers in the goal scoring department, another category that is referenced when bemoaning television viewership.

While the offense hasn’t surpassed  the magical six goals per game mark – 5.28 goals per game entering Wednesday – nearly every game has been a blast to watch. Personally, five goals in a game is really all you need. A 3-2 game is typically thrilling and features nearly two goals per period, you can’t ask for too much more.  Also consider that there have been eight overtime games played of the 25 so far in these playoffs. Those OT games are basically canned drama that any fan could find interesting. Even the scoring numbers have been slightly skewed. Considering there have been three 1-0 games and two additional three-goal contests, the scoring could be much higher. Continue reading →