The New York Times' Joe LaPointe on the state of the great game in the New York metro area:
Although the Islanders and the Devils are ahead of the Rangers in the Atlantic Division, it is the Manhattan team that drives hockey interest, up or down, in the market. Sather's Rangers have helped to make the sport nearly invisible here.For fans who subscribe to Cablevision, which owns the Garden and the Rangers, it is more difficult this season to see this struggling team and the other two, too. In some communities, Cablevision has bumped its local hockey channels to a more expensive tier. In other words, it costs more to see bad hockey than it did before.
On talk radio, it is easier to find a January baseball debate than conversation about the three hockey teams. With the league headquarters in Midtown, the Rangers, the Devils and the Islanders make up the Bermuda Triangle of the sport. It disappears here, a mere decade after the Rangers won the Stanley Cup and spurred a huge surge of interest.
This is an area, mind you, that houses the defending Stanley Cup Champions, currently one of the league's most dominant teams. And they play in an arena that's empty most of the time.
Friends, our sport is in deep trouble on the professional level. As to who can save it, I'm at a loss to say.
The commish is going to take a big hit. As a Ranger fan, it’s tough going to the Garden here and there. I go to the Devs games every once in a while with some friends who are fans, and the place is a ghost town. Last time I went, I wore a Wolf*Pack jersey, and was amazed at the *one* person who actually said something to me.
I see that their fans have also taken the idea of having something random to chant during games so instead of the whistling followed by “Potvin Sucks”, it’s “Rangers Suck”. Wow. That’s original.
I haven’t been to an Isles game in years, and the team was disastrous the last time I was there. I’d be very concerned that these three teams are just so damaged by the overall sport and that the Rangers spending spree on random stars of the past that hockey is going to take more of a nosedive than it already is.
The Cablevision issue continues to be a joke. The Dolans said they would lower ticket prices next season if the Rangers didn’t make the playoffs, and that looks likely. They keep shooting themselves in the foot in that place, and I don’t know what the fix is. Is there a Isiah Thomas for hockey?
How to save hockey? 10 ideas off the top of my head:
1. Dump Bettman. He makes Bud Selig ALMOST look competent. Put a hockey guy in charge of the game.
2. Make the rink bigger. Players are bigger today and more room is needed to let offensive players work. Doing this should lessen the impact of neutral zone trap.
3. Make the players take off the helmets and visors. This should get rid of some of the stick work and make the players more recognizable.
4. Stop trying to legislate fighting out of the game. Let’s face it, people like it! Plus, Nos. 2-3 should take care of fighting.
5. Reduce the number of teams.
6. Salary cap that actually results in lower ticket prices.
7. Make wins matter. According to the Chicago Tribune the other day, there is a proposal to make wins worth 3 points. Get rid of the point for an OT loss as well as the point for a tie. (What if points were deducted for losses or ties?) What if the playoffs were based on winning percentage?
8. Reduce the number of teams in the playoffs. This will make regular season games actually mean something.
9. Stop allowing goalies to wear as much armor as Barry Bonds, i.e., reduce the size of the pads, blockers, gloves. As Don Cherry pointed out Sat night on HNIC, the total number of shots in a game is around the same total as they were 20 years ago while goals are down 3 goals per game in the same time frame. The fact is, goalies are too good these days.
10. As a Chicagoan, force Bill Wirtz to sell the Blackhawks.
I am sure some else more knowledgeable than I can come up with some even better ideas.
Making the rink bigger to counter the neutral zone trap sounds like a good idea to me. And #10 has my full support!
I’ll never understand Wirtz’s logic in not televising home games unless they’re sold out. Nobody I know would prefer to stay home and watch the Hawks on TV if they could be at the United Center. The blackout just prevents the team’s local fan base from expanding.
And Peter’s right, goalies are much better these days. It’s not just larger equipment, it’s better technique. When was the last time you saw a skate save?
The other ideas aren’t bad either, though I don’t know about #3, and I like the number of playoff teams as is.
Helmets and visors are a safety issue. Would anyone tell football players to play without headgear? We have enough concussion issues in hockey as it is.
The league needs to fix a few things, but for the most part I think the problems are local. You can’t force a boring team like the Devils to play exciting hockey, and you can’t legislate Mike Milbury and Glen Sather into becoming guys that put an entertaining and winning product on the ice.
Every time someone syas hockey is in trouble I look at the the Thrashers. they’re taking off like it’s nobody’s business in Atlanta. they win, they’re fun to watch, they’re accesible to the fans, they have a low team payroll and they have a great coach. And they’re in freakin’ Georgia. If a team can do as well as they’re doing in Georgia the problem isn’t necessarily with the game, it just might be with the people playing it in the Bermuda Triangle of hockey. You may as well add DC to that to.