The NHL Lockout

So it finally happened. The NHL owners locked out the players, starting the second work stoppage in the sport in the past 10 years. From a financial standpoint, this absolutely had to happen. Professional hockey is a distant fifth place (behind the NFL, MLB, NBA, and yes, NASCAR) in popularity in the United States, and with the average player salary hovering around the $1.75M mark, the league was in dire financial straights. If player costs are eating the 75% of net profits as the NHL owners report, then you've obviously got to get that number way, way down or the league is toast.

But really, the league's been toast for a while. I really don't understand it myself - the NHL is a great product. I freaking love hockey. It's exciting, fun to watch, and stays rediculously competitive throughout the season. There are some major pitfalls of hockey though, and they need to be corrected to get pro hockey back into America's hearts again. Here are my opinions on what the NHL is screwing up:

1. The season is entirely too freaking long
The NFL, the United States' most popular sports league by far and away, has a whopping 16 game regular season. The NHL by comparison, has an 82 game regular season, followed by an extensive best-of-seven playoffs. With a shorter season, the NFL creates a sense of urgency in teams - every week matters, every game matters, every second matters. Lose two games? You could be kissing the title goodbye. There isn't that sense of urgency in hockey at all. Your team could go through a 9 game losing streak, and you could legitimately shrug it off because losing 9 games might not mean a thing in the long run. But who wants to see their team lose 9 games in a row and not suffer in the slightest for it? When NHL teams lose a game, they can just shrug it off, go home, and wake up the next day and try again. Shorten the season to 60 games or so, and you'll see those boys playing a lot harder day in and day out. Harder play means better product.

2. Ticket prices are rediculous
I lived in Atlanta for 4 years and probably went to 50 or so Thrashers games. Why? Because the Thrashers had a deal offering college students admission to games for $8. How much were normal tickets? Too fucking expensive. $10-25 for nosebleeds, and if you want to sit by the ice, it's gonna cost you triple digits. This is a major problem with all pro sports in America, but the problem with the NHL is that people just aren't willing to pay the price. Get people excited about your product, owners - slash some prices and get those fans in the seats night in and night out. You'll be shocked how many repeat customers you'll draw back. As it stands now, if a family of four wants to go catch a hockey game, you're looking at one hell of a chunk of change - something in the neighborhood of $150 for tickets, concessions, and parking. That's just absolutely insane, especially when for that price you could go to a freaking amusement park.

3. Too many teams
There are just too many teams in the NHL. Some cities love their hockey, and they're going to suffer because of this lockout. Places like Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, Philadelphia, and Boston - I'm sure that losing a hockey season is going to devistate the fans in those respective cities. But in Miami, Atlanta, Nashville, Washington, Columbus, Los Angeles, and countless other cities I doubt people will even notice until the football seasons end and there's a void of sports on TV. While I don't want my Thrashers contracted, it sure would make a lot of sense. Too many teams, not enough support. Does the state of Florida really need two pro hockey teams?

4. Everybody makes the playoffs
Allowing 16 teams, half the freaking league, to make the playoffs further detracts from the legitimacy of the regular season. If you can limp along, half-ass it every night, and still make the playoffs why wouldn't you? Since it's anybody's game when the playoffs roll around, and everybody plays at 100% [fyi, saying "110%" is just stupid] any team can have a legit shot of winning Lord Stanley's Cup at the end of the season. Half the league has a chance. That's just absolutely rediculous. Halving this number would create urgency and vigor within competing teams, and you'd see some amazing games. That, and it would shorten the playoffs - America's got a short attention span [see the loathing regarding the 2004 NBA playoffs and their seemingly 12-year length], so fitting an entire playoff within a couple weeks could hold America captive in early Spring, where there's not really anything else going on.

5. Salaries are too high
The NHL is the most physically demanding sport in played in the States, but they absolutely do not deserve to make the salaries they are currently pulling down. Hockey players have some of the most bloated, overblown contracts in all of pro sports. A salary cap really is the only way to keep the NHL around in the future. The NFL has a cap and its helped teams in smaller markets stay competitive with their big city rivals, and has kept the fans helplessly addicted to the league. Hell, even the worst teams [San Diego, Chicago, and Detroit] still find ways to sell out games.

6. Who the hell are these guys?
The NHL is the worst at marketing their players. Jerome Iginla, arguably the league's brightest star, could walk around New York City during rush hour and probably not get recognized but by a few people. Hell, he could walk around Tallahassee and I bet I'd be the only one to recognize him. Compare this with the other pro sports leagues: I would bet the vast majority of America would recognize Shaquille O'Neal, Alex Rodriguez, Michael Vick, or hell, even Jeff Gordon if they saw them on the street.

How many of these guys do you recognize?

Yeah, other than Randy Moss, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tiger Woods, and pro poker player Chris Moneymaker, you're probably wondering who the other guy is. 4th from the left is Ilya Kovalchuk, the 2003-4 NHL season's leading goal scorer. And you wouldn't recognize him if he came right up to you and shook your hand.

7. Ties suck ass and point-based standings are stupid
No other serious pro sport has ties. Sure, you can have ties in the NFL but it rarely ever happens. The NBA and MLB each have extra play added onto the end of the game, and they keep playing till somebody wins. The NHL has overtime, but if they're still tied at the end, game over. With a tie. Ties are complete and utter bullshit. Ties are akin to shitting on your fans. "Sorry guys, but we ended up no better than where we started. Who's the better team? Neither of us! Nobody wins!" When nobody wins, it's the ticket-paying fans that lose. Institute the shootout, pro sports' most exciting time, when the overtime period is over. Winning a game on a shootout leaves fans excited, wanting more. Also, the rediculous points system the NHL uses to determine standings (wins, losses, ties, and overtime losses) is just plain dumb. Eliminate ties, and don't give overtime losers a goddamned thing. They lost the game, they shouldn't get anything. Pro football teams don't get a half game boost in the standings for making it through regulation tied with the other team, so neither should hockey.

There are lots of other rules than should probably be changed [offsides lines, wider ice, ban of black tape on hockey sticks to allow for better puck visibility, make the goalie net larger to boost scoring, ease up on the frivilous penalties] but the big seven are outlined above.

Now all of you who are moaning about me taking time out to talk about hockey, get over it. I like hockey a lot, and it's not like you've got anything to worry about now. With no season to speak of, the only hockey talk you'll hear out of me will be from playing ESPN NHL Hockey 2K5 on my Xbox. At least those guys won't let me down...


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