With the playoff race being so close in the West, there could be the suggestion of changing the format.
Wow: 1,230 games done, 14 teams eliminated and now a maximum of 105 more games for the 16 teams in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Mid-April to mid-June, this part of the year has become a complete lifestyle change for many.
So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride in pro sports best post-season.
Looking back at the season, I might suggest the league’s general managers will again be thinking of a couple small tweaks or re-tweaks to make their lives a little easier. I’m not sure this whole ROW (regulation and overtime wins) will survive for too long.
Devaluing shootout victories is not a very good idea, especially when all it does is confuse the fan. Now that we have gone through one season with it, and fans finally paid some attention to that column in the standings, most people now understand some wins are actually more valuable than others. It’s confusing and ridiculous to have an asterisk beside some victories.
The NHL should endorse the shootout completely, remove the shootout or change the point structure for wins, overtime wins and shootout wins. But don’t call it a win one day, and less than a win the next.
GROWING THE PLAYOFF POOL
I’ve also heard from a couple of teams, the murmur of growing the playoff pool from 16 to 20 teams, might get some support. Quality teams are missing the playoffs. Teams that have 95 points (in the West) and 91 points (in the East) didn’t make the playoffs.
Now before you hit the comments button, I’m not completely convinced that moving to 20 teams is the right thing. It would also create a lot more stability for those teams that have lived on the bubble for the last few years. Unfortunately, teams that don’t make the playoffs are viewed as failures and for some that just isn’t true.
This season alone, it might have made sense for Dallas, Calgary, Carolina and Toronto to be playoff teams. It would certainly allow more teams to generate playoff revenue, which some teams (don’t read TML here!) could certainly use. Increasing the teams will undoubtedly extend the length of the playoffs, which can’t happen. And it would also devalue the great post-trade deadline races that have become the norm since 2005. My gut says that a 16-team playoff is just fine. Now if we could only find a way to end it sooner!
ALREADY TALKING NEXT YEAR
Information on the next season schedule is dribbling out. As we told you a few weeks back, the Rangers, Kings, Ducks and Sabres are starting in Europe in October of 2011. That also means that the three month negotiation on new U.S. Network contracts, are coming to an end soon. The deals should be announced by May 1. The incumbents, NBC and Versus (who are now both owned by the Flyers parent company Comcast), will certainly be back.
I’m sure all along they have been trying to convince commissioner Bettman and COO John Collins that they should be exclusive partners for the next five or six years. At the right price ($200 million?) I’m sure that could be arranged. For the betterment of the game, that doesn’t make much sense. The game is on a very positive upswing, and with labour issues in both the NFL and NBA in the news, the NHL has a small window of opportunity to diversify.
Adding a small package of games on a second cable network in the United States might help the NHL get close to the 200 million dollar mark, and create some viewing opportunities outside of the regular hardcore hockey fan south of the border. Whether it be ESPN or FX (remembering that Fox regional networks produce more hockey in the U.S. than any other group, including Comcast), it might be worth taking a little less on the exclusivity to create long-term stability. Competition on the air is healthy for the networks and for the game. As much as it pains me to say, hockey is not as high in the viewing habits of Americans as we in Canada envision it. Given the right exposure(s), it could be. It will take time, a long time. But it is possible.
REMEMBERING ROGER
Finally, on the eve of the playoffs, I couldn’t help but smile as Mike Gillis and Francesco Aquillini unveiled the statue of Roger Nielson outside Rogers Arena. I was the TV producer on record for most of the Canucks games that playoff year. We gave away 2,000 HNIC towels outside the Pacific Coliseum for Game 3 against Chicago after Roger’s famous towel protest.
My most fond memory of the team that year might have been in the series before in Los Angeles. The night before Game 3 against the Kings, a fire alarm went off at the hotel that the Canucks, the officials and the broadcasters were staying.
No, it wasn’t a prank; there was a grease fire in the kitchen that required attention. So there we were all of us, in the parking lot in our PJs or housecoats, and some still in party mode watching the L.A.F.D. on the roof of the hotel. Walking around, I counted most of the players were outside as well, all but one. Apparently, Tiger Williams claimed he was a member of the Weyburn Volunteer Fire Department. That, according to David, gave him the authority to climb to the roof and assist his fire-fighting brothers. It was one of those stories that 29 years later, most may not believe, because it wouldn’t or couldn’t happen now. But it was Tiger. And it did happen, he helped put the fire out. And he helped the Canucks with 10 points that playoff year and get them to the Stanley Cup Final.
Enjoy the playoffs!
