Violence Only Solves So Much….

As I watched Sportscenter last night, (Yes, I still watch highlights at night even though I think ESPN has become the bane of sports)  I realized some things about the state of hockey since the strike….The casual fan just doesn’t care anymore and I’m not sure that they should. The only conversation that I’ve had since the drop of the first puck is ” How sick were those fights were between those two teams on Friday?” OK, so I knew ”those two teams” were the Sabres-Sens,but with the constant uniform changes, I challenge you to mute your television and tell me that you could say the same. Just look at the standings, the traditional Big City teams are no longer ahead of the pack, with Nashville, Anaheim, Buffalo, and Tampa Bay sitting as  4 of the top 5 seeds in the NHL,( seeding-wise) while scoring has become so common place that guys like Johnathon Cheechoo can lead the league in goals one year and be obsolete the next. Couple that with the fact that the only coverage we get to see on a daily /nightly basis is a North of the Border Mullet Donning ESPN-analyst who never has anything bad to say about the NHL and “Good-Ole Fashioned Pond Hockey” and you’ve got yourself a dead end road.

 Now with that said, I think there is really only one remedy….. SHORTEN THE SEASON….I know that I am not the first to suggest this and nor would I try to claim to be, but I know that the only other Hockey conversations I’ve had this year are, “wow those kids in Pittsburgh have really turned things around”(which lasted about 45 seconds) and “Didn’t Hockey Just end?” (When my buddy Ben Raible posted his Preseason NHL predictions on our FANTASY FOOTBALL MESSAGE BOARD in MID-OCTOBER) The latter is probably the biggest reason I don’t care….Not the predictions of course, but the fact that the season feels like it’s 18 months long,  AND then, we have the playoffs. It seems to detract from the overall importance of each game. That’s why I suggest a 65 game schedule (which would be over in the next 2 weeks, so start it in December)….Play every team in the league once, while playing conference foes three times, and 4 games against division opponents. Now I know this COULD create a slight controversy, but IF there were a division tie have a one game playoff. I mean think about how sweet that would be if the Devils-Rangers had to play for the top-seed or just a spot in the Playoffs….I’m already salivating. Finally, put the playoffs back on regular cable or atleast ESPN because not every gets OLN, and the broadcasting last year was nothing short of awful from what I did hear. That cuts the season by 15 meaningless games, keeps guys healthier for the playoffs (in theory) and brings the casual fan back with the big-hitting action that we don’t begin to see until after the ALL-STAR break under the current format.

 I know this has skeptics scratching their heads asking two things,

1.Teams won’t be able to justify player contracts, and

2.Records will become virtually impossible to break.

Well I’ll take a stab at both of these issues. First, with the current state of contracts you have teams talking relocation just about every year. For example, the Penguins were thisclose to moving to KC this year while the NHL is doing everything in their power to get the Panthers out of Florida before it’s too late…Wait it’s already too late? Oh well, point is that although there will be contract hubbub from the NHLPA,players and agents you could make the argument that players could have the ability to play longer with the shorter calendar year while the dent in salary would only require players to buy one less Molson a month. The second issue is where it gets even hairier because the common fan like me loves to see records broken, ok unless we are talking baseball, where if people had their vote Babe Ruth would still hold the Home Run record. But we are talking Hockey, people want to see lots of goal, points and hard hitting action. Chew on this for a second…

 Wayne Gretzky “The Great One” played for 20 years and his career statline looks like this…

GP 1487 G 894 A 1963 P 2857

Break that down by year and its 75 GPY, 45 YGA 98 YAA 143 YPA or per game averages of .6 GPG, 1.3 APG, 1.9 PPG

Now look at Sid “The Kid” Crosby’s numbers thusfar:

GP 138 G 65 A 133 P 198

His Averages Per Year are 69 GP, 32.5 G, 66.5 A, 99 P

Per game that is .47 GPG, .94 apg, 1.43 PPG

All well below Gretzky’s numbers…So not to say that NOBODY will break his records but I don’t think that whether you play 80 games or 65 games as displayed by his 75 GPY average is a huge difference being as ” The Kid” is only averaging 6 less games per year to this point.

Even if you doubled his output per game over 6 games, that’s 6 G, 12 A, 18 P that would raise his GPG to about .5, just over 1 APG and just shy of 1.5 PPG.

So for now I think we can lock the RECORD debate in the vault for the sake of the NHL. (Although “The kid” will only get better while it seemed as if “The Great One” declined a bit after his 12th year, ‘91-92 LA Kings for those keeping track)

Even if they shortened the season would I be hooked to the rink again? I don’t know, but if you started the season in December it might help to offset the fact that it starts in the middle of NFL and College football season and at nearly the same time as NBA and College Hoops. You’d have playoff Hockey starting roughly after the NCAA tournament and before baseball and NBA playoffs heat up. Not to mention the rest the players would have to recooperate after the rigors of a full NHL season. 

Not to mention the common fan will probably need the rest as well…