As the second weekend of October approaches, it is a time to reflect on what is most important in the sports world. No, it's not the extremely competitive Major League Baseball Division Series, nor the fifth week of the National Football League season. What I am talking about is the start of the National Hockey League season.
Yes, hockey, that great sport that America imported from our neighbor to the north and tried to make our own. The sport so wonderful, it decided to take an entire season off to solve its "labor problems." A sport so American, it kicked off its season by playing two games in Europe.
Last time I checked, Europe is far away from the United States and Prague, Czech Republic, is not the home of the New York Rangers. Doesn't it make sense to play your home opener in your actual home arena? I'm pretty sure citizens from the "Greatest City in the World" didn't travel thousands of miles to see a team that is only blocks from their home.
Then again, who even knew that the NHL season had started? Personally, I didn't. I had no idea that the NHL had even started training camps until I saw the scores of preseason games running across the bottom line of ESPN. Granted, I was watching a football game, but at least they had the scores from hockey.
I often wonder why this is - why I just don't care about hockey and why the majority of the country feels the same way. I am from Boston, home of the legendary Black and Gold Bruins, but I still don't follow them. There must be a reason.
First, I think the lockout had a drastic effect on a sport that was already marginalized. It had expanded too fast in the 1990s, taking teams away from Canadian strongholds such as Winnipeg and giving them to "hockey-mad" towns such as Phoenix. When the Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightening win back-to-back Stanley Cups, you know the sport is in trouble.
Second, they are on Versus. Yes, Versus, the channel that doesn't even reach half of the households in the country. Unlike every other major league sport in America, which appear either on national networks such as CBS or FOX, hockey went with Versus (a network formerly known as the Outdoor Life Network). Again, it's a sign you are in trouble when nobody can watch the games on TV.
Finally, and not to sound too Amerocentric, but there are no major American stars anymore. Every major player is either Canadian or European, with half having names that are impossible to pronounce.
While Sidney Crosby is easy to say, he is the exception. Gone are the days of Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe and Wayne Gretzky. They have been replaced by the likes of Alexander Ovechkin, Henrick Lundqvist and Zedno Chara (Bonus points if you can name the teams these three play for). Advantage, yesteryear.
So, is the situation fixable? Can hockey return to the golden era, when Americans grew up wanting to be like Gretzky and skated on the frozen ponds in their backyards? Maybe, but it will take time. Put the sport back in cities that care about it, where people are passionate about their teams, and it will make a comeback. Remember, it's hard to play hockey on ice when the temperature is warmer outside than inside.
You can reach this staff writer at jhall@theeagleonline.com.
