The National Hockey League has always cast an eye across the Atlantic for the same reason it does almost everything else. It’s about money, plain and simple.
There is a gold mine over there, with literally millions of hockey fans. But how would they monetize it, while inconveniencing the North American hockey operator as little as possible?
Well maybe, just maybe, the allure of the almighty Benjamin can trump the values of the traditional hockey man this time around, as word surfaces that the NHL is seriously considering some kind of a Champions League as soon as 2016.
Chris Botta, a longtime hockey writer, broke the notion in the Sports Business Journal that hockey is perhaps ready to rekindle games against European club teams, in the same way European soccer takes time away from its various domestic schedules to facilitate such internationally popular fixtures such as Manchester United vs. Juventus, or Celtic vs. Ajax.
Remember, the NHL has for several years now opened their seasons in Europe, with a handful of teams playing each other in Stockholm, Prague, Helsinki, and even London. But that strategy has run the gamut without ever truly gripping the European hockey fans, and it appears to be dead now.
In 2011 when the New York Rangers opened in Europe they played exhibition games at the homes of Sparta Prague, Frolunda (Gothenburg), and Slovan Bratislava, and won them all. The games that truly mattered however — where New York would ice its best lineup and two points were on the line — were against other NHL teams, which excluded the European fan to a certain extent.
It was Champions League light, and we’re not sure that European hockey fans are nearly as interested in watching two NHL teams play for points, as they would be to see their own side play a meaningful, best-on-best game against an NHL opponent.
The NHL has long wanted to plant a flag in Europe. Or at least to get its hands in the pockets of the European hockey fan, the goal of all major North American leagues at one point or another. But after World Cup play in Europe was met with tepid results, and pre-season tours were not much more impactful, the time has come to either give up the dream or fully commit to it.
There isn’t a hockey fan alive that wouldn’t support a 72-game NHL season, with each team playing a parcel of games against a European opponent. Perhaps, as in soccer, there are more prestigious tournaments (like the Champions Cup) for the best NHL teams, and less prestigious trophies (the Carlsberg Cup) contested by the NHL’s less successful teams.
So while Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks are involved in a multi-group format with the top teams from the KHL, Sweden, Finland etc., teams like Florida and Calgary contest a domestic cup that includes a handful of lower ranking European clubs.
The games don’t have to count in the NHL standings, but would they not breathe some life into January and February in the NHL?
We recall the touring Russian sides from the 1980s, and it was intriguing to see Dynamo Riga, the Red Army (CSKA Moscow), or Khimik roll through town.
In fact, the biggest problem with those tours was that the NHL didn’t take the games very seriously, often calling up kids from the minors and giving veterans the night off. For this to work, NHL teams would have to be incentivized to dress its best lineup and try to win. It can’t be a three-quarters effort.
With the passel of TV suitors that the NHL has now, there’s no question that these Cups or tours could be sold as a package and televised across the pond, opening up an entirely new advertising base for NHL broadcasters.
And of course, the teams could make up for lost NHL gates by “specialty pricing,” not to mention the financial implications of giving the European hockey fan a meaningful reason to lend his/her heart (and wallet) to the NHL for the long term.
There’s a reason the NHL has never gained the foothold in Europe that it would like. That’s because the NHL has always wanted the money, but not wanted to upset its schedule, travel its players, deal with time zones, or actually put the name Jokerit or Avangard Omsk on a North American marquee.
It’s time to let the dream die, or go all in. And we’re pretty sure which way the average hockey fan would like to see the NHL go.