NHL All Star game mid-week bomb

Is the NHL out of business in 10 years?

 

Come on. That's the kind of ridiculous comment that perpetuates the overall lack of interest in hockey. Do you even watch the NHL?

As for the All-Star game, I agree the TV slot was brutal. But the league's GMs need to put aside their stuffy traditionalism and agree to something similar to what baseball did with its All-Star game. Home ice advantage in the Stanley Cup Finals makes sense to me.

I've also heard the ESPN rumor, only it came from Barry Melrose, himself (through a local minor league GM who has worked closely with Melrose the last few years). The NHL will apparently be back on ESPN soon.

 

No.

It will change and if we're lucky, there'll be a reduction in the number of teams. With the exception of a few weak-ass franchises which should be moved to Canada or dumped (Florida, Phoenix, Nashville, Atlanta), the sport is doing fine.

I predict that the NHL will expand into Europe within the next five to ten years.
In certain European countries, notably Finland, Sweden, Russia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, hockey is as popular as it is in Canada.

 

If it moved to the Ocho, at least we might have a chance of cable providers picking it up. ESPN 8 is a lot more likely to be on my dial than OLN/Versus/Wherehaslancearmstronggonenet.

 

As I posted on another hockey thread, the NHL should have played its All-Star Game last night. There was no NFL and very little to command attention other than college basketball and Tiger Woods at the PGA event in San Diego. No American Idol. Hell, the AHL's much smarter with its skills competition Sunday and its all-star game tonight.

 

Blog about the AHL All-Star Game (tonight in Toronto at the Ricoh Centre), home of the Toronto Marlies.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070126.WBhockeyblog20070126154155/WBStory/WBhockeyblog/


For one of my many freelance gigs, I’ve covered half of the Toronto Marlies’ home games, in their two years of existence as AHL affiliate to the Maple Leafs. Over that span, I recall exactly one sellout (opening night of their first year), and dozens of other nights that make a typical Blackhawks home crowd look like the Beatles’ famous Shea Stadium concert.

 

I just hope Cotton McKnight and Pepper Brooks will be doing the broadcasts. The best announcing duo in sports, bar none!! Double J needs new shorts!!!!

 

Yet another reason why Toronto should never, ever be seriously considered by anyone as the Centre of the Hockey Universe. There are many small communities in Ontario alone that have nothing more than a Junior C or Senior A team yet still deserve the title more than Toronto does.

 

Nope. But hopefully it's back to doing what it does best -- focusing on appealing to those of us who actually like hockey, and trying to nurture the game locally in markets that are actually viable, rather than chasing the pipe dream of mass appeal and a monster rights contract with a US television network.

 

;D

 

You, sir, are sentenced to a season of OHL hockey at St. Michael's College Arena. May God have mercy on your soul.

 

Speaking of OHL hockey, did you see the Colbert report the other night talking about the Oshawa/Saginaw game?

As it turns out, Saginaw won so there will be a Stephen Colbert Day in Oshawa--on the mayor's birthday in March.