Tank's Take February 17, 2004

Stop Tinkering With The NHL

As an air of doom and gloom smothers this NHL season, with the dim prospects of a long work stoppage beginning next season, league officials have begun to look into ways to improve the popularity of their sport. Last weekend between cocktails and games of craps in Las Vegas the General Managers presented a proposal, which they hope, would increase scoring and thus bring interest back to their sport. However the proposal is just another example of how the game is hurt by poor leadership and poor marketing.

Among the proposal are some good ideas including decreasing the size of goalie pads. Some goalies now have pads that are almost comical large, thus giving them an unfair advantage on the shooter. However, will this rule if adopted be enforced? The goalies already have a limit of 12 inches on their pads, but looking across the league its plain to see the current 12-inch rule is not enforced, so how can we seriously expect them to enforce the 10-inch rule?

Another good proposal is the new tag up offsides rule, this will allow some one who is stuck in the offensive zone to get to the neutral zone and back without offsides being called. This will help the game flow better as there will be less offsides called in the NHL, and less whistles is always a good thing.

The league is also proposing to move the goal net back three feet to where it was before 1990, also not a bad idea.

However, this rule that will not allow goalies to go behind the red is a joke. Maybe the NHL should make a rule allowing the goalies top be fare game if they leave the crease area, but to not allow them behind the net will cancel out the other good proposals, which bring better flow to the game. If this rule is passed there will be many more icing calls and freeze up calls, as goalies will jump on the puck more thus slowing the game down to a snail's pace.

Another idea being whispered was the idea of a regulation win being worth three points and introducing shootouts to eliminate all ties. This is another faulty idea. For years hockey was 2 points for a win and 1 point for a tie. Then they added 1 point for so-called overtime loses, throwing off the traditional point structure. If they change it further it will only make things worse.

What I say do is this if you lose in overtime you get a handshake and the word tough luck man. Rewarding a point for losing is a total joke. I would like to see the NHL completely reverse itself and go back to the old system they had before 2000.

The new rules were made to reduce ties, but ties are apart of hockey, and to eliminate ties with shootouts would be even more ridiculous. Hockey worked well for 80 years with tie games and no points for losing in overtime, why must people complain now.

Also the reasons behind the rule changes are ridiculous in the first place. They claim there is not enough offense. Yet Shots on Goal are only down 6 per game since the high flying 80s. The reason there is less scoring is goalie are better, and handicapping them makes no sense.

What the NHL needs to do is market the goalies. Instead of lamenting there are no 6-5 games, make the fans excited about a 2-1 game. Defense can be exciting. I don't get all of this lust for offense. It permeates all sports not just hockey. ESPN is the most to blame for this as in baseball they highlight every homer, and in basketball the highlight every dunk. While in hockey they just show goal after goal, while often ignoring the key defensive plays.

What is more exciting then a playoff game that goes deep into overtime with neither goalie seeming to give. Its what makes the NHL playoffs perhaps the most exciting of all the 4 major professional sports. To take that away would be a grave mistake.

Sure the regular season can seem like it drags on if there are several ties in one night, but the NHL like the NBA is a postseason sport, and that's where the NHL needs to make its money. One good way to this will be to shorten the season. The playoffs should never go past Memorial Day, and the regular season should not reach into to April. A good idea will be to reduce the schedule by to games and condense the schedule so the playoffs can begin no later then April 1st. This way they're always a round ahead of the NBA and can have their finals stand out rather then having to share the stage with the NBA.

The bottom line is the NHL does not need to tinker with the game. The game is fine on the ice. They just need to market it better. If this means finding a new home for broadcast and cable games national fine. ESPN is not the lone cable company the NHL could very well thrive on Spike TV or USA, or Turner.

The NHL should also market its stars better, get their cooperate sponsors to make hockey players household names. That is the key to the NBA's success since 1984. There are countless commercials with NBA stars but only a scant few of hockey stars. If you make Martin Brodeur a national star by having him do a few commercials all of a sudden there is no longer need to increase offense as you will be able to excite fans with spectacular goaltending.

In this media age its not the product that is always important but how you package it, and the NHL is only hurting itself more by lamenting the decrease in scoring. If they turned it around and made goalies the stars of the game there would be no need for any changes as fans will be able to be excited by a good 2-1 game like they should be.

The 2004 baseball season officially kicked off this weekend as the New York Yankees acquired MVP Alex Rodriguez from the Texas Rangers. Just a few months ago A-Rod had his bags all backed to go to the Boston Red Sox, however the Sox and Rangers could not agree on money payouts and the deal died.

Had the Sox gotten Rodriguez they could have been a lock for winning the World Series, thus ending their 85-year drought. However they hesitated over a few million dollars, and had to watch helpless as the Yankees beat them to the punch again.

Now all of Red Sox Nation is up in arms crying over the Yankees payroll. However they only have themselves to blame. The Red Sox should have A-Rod, but they don't, so the Rangers who desperately needed to cut payroll sent him to the Yankees. Its decision like this that have kept the Red Sox cursed since 1918, as the Red Sox like Will E. Coyote have gone off the cliff again only to see the Yankees racing by them like the Road Runner into first place.

Hero of the Week: Dale Earnhardt Jr. who won the Daytona 500 this weekend, three years after his father's sudden and shocking death on the famous race track. The win for Dale Jr. officially catapults him to the staring roll of NASCAR; a role almost ordained for him since his father a 7-time Champion was killed in 2001. Since then Dale has been the star of many commercials and music video bumping Jeff Gordon as the young face of NASCAR. The 29-year old Earnhardt who has challenged for the NASCAR championship over the last few years while steadily climbing up the rankings looks poised for a big breakout year, don't be surprised to see him holding the newly renamed Nextel Cup at the end of the season.

Geeks of the Week: Fred Jones of the Indiana Pacer sand Jason Richardson of the Golden State Warriors for perhaps the lamest Slam Dunk Final in NBA All-Star Game History. After making impressive dunks in the first round to two finalist tried to top themselves and instead bored the fans watching in the stands at home with continued aborted dunks and missed dunks. Though Jones won the competition its was almost by default as Richardson missed a dunk that could have made him a 3-time winner. However Jones certainly did not impress, all they did was make us long for the days of Michael versus Dominique.

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