The NHL needs good ideas to resurrect its product. Bringing back Stan Jonathan and Bob Probert to "teach" the European players how the game is played gets my vote. But another idea more amenable to the suits running the NHL is to stage outdoor games. You might remember Edmonton hosting Montreal in a surreal open-air contest a few years back. On New Year's Day, switch off the football and turn on the hockey. The Buffalo Sabres take on the Pittsburgh Penguins at Ralph Wilson Stadium, one of the larger NFL venues, in front of an expected 73,000 people--and millions more, warm at home, watching NBC. The event will be a vision to behold on the television. But it shouldn't be. Have you ever played pond hockey? It's the natural setting for a game. Hockey in a football staudium is merely pond hockey on a grander scale. The NHL jumped the shark when they removed teams from places that could actually host an outdoor game (Winnipeg, Quebec, Hartford) and added teams from places where the mercury almost never hits 32 (Phoenix, Tampa, Anaheim). I'm making a new rule: no beach volleyball teams in Saskatoon and no ice hockey in Miami.
Hockey is a great sport, that needs to be re-discovered. Especially with HDTV. I was glad to find out I have the day off and will be able to watch this game.
Happy New Year!
Hoc...key?
I am a Hockey Krishna and love the sport. But (even though I can't understand it) it unfortunately is not a taste acquired by everybody.
No matter how hard the NHL tries to market the sport, it will only be popular with a fraction of the sporting public.
That said, this outdoor game today is exciting and will be fun. Plus, you get to see the phenom who is Sidney Crosby.
The NHL could greatly increase interest in their product by implementing the idea of my brother, which is to simply make use of the behind the goal 70 degree camera angle used in hockey video games.
If you have ever played one you know how great the hockey video games are at allowing you to follow the action as it develops. Hockey keeps following the puck instead. Just use those cameras that start from behind the goals and are on wires across the ice giving a better angle and sweep and ratings and interest would improve. People who watch it live already love it.
That may be true Bruce. I watch at maximum probably two Bruins games a year, but I love the NHL video games.
71,219 showed up on a cold snowy day to watch these two teams play to a tie and then to a shootout. Not a bad hockey niche that Buffalo!
So, after being 'tutored' by Probert, how did those Swedish parents react when their squeaky clean kids came back home on drugs, drunk and beating the crap out of anything that moved?
I would much rather view a hockey game sitting in a warmer stadium than outsite freezing my you know what off. Not everyone enjoys frigid weather.
I agree with you about warm venues Ken. I hate the cold but would bundle up and enjoy getting lubricated with hard liquor to watch an outdoor NHL game.
And was watching my Broons shut out the Caps last night and wanted to note that although it may not have been a 70 degree camera angle, there is a panning camera with a wide lense pretty close to ice level in back of the net that makes for excellent viewing to watch plays develop in the offensive zone.
