To start off I’d like to say I’m a football fan and if there’s nothing to do on a week night, I’m a basketball fan as well. But I’m no bona fide expert in either sport and I have not studied the possibilities of either sport having a work stoppage in the 2011-2012 season. What I do know is that many people are worried that there WILL in fact be a lockout in at least one and or the other sport. So my job is not going to be to talk about the effect that will no doubt happen to the aforementioned sports. I lived through a lockout myself. When I was 10, I saw hockey go through a difficult time and the controversial lockout of their own. I remember how alone I felt in the world with nothing but EA Sports NHL 2005 to comfort me.
So to you die-hard football and basketball fans I will say this: I have an idea what you’re going through and I wish you luck. This article is nothing personal, but it’d be easier for me to write this as if it’s a fact that both football AND basketball have work stoppages for their upcoming seasons. That is all.
After the crippling 2005 lockout, the NHL has made a legitimate recovery. Rule changes to increase the scoring were made and they’ve been trying to make the game more likeable by the casual fan. Now while the true fans of the game, the fans that stuck it through the lockout, may not like the “new” NHL, I have to admit, they have made changes for the better. Their advertising has been ridiculously good and their new approach of “selling the players” has been flawless in drawing in fans.
While what they’ve been doing has really increased the interest in the sport, they have an ideal opportunity for next year. It is no secret that the NHL and the NBA have been sporting rivals for a long time. They’ve been battling for fans for quite some time and the competition escalated with the ever famous Sports Illustrated cover in 1994. So now, if there’s no NBA or even NFL season, the NHL has got to improve their game even further.
I think they already started improving. They changed their head of disciplinary actions to Brendan Shanahan and gave guys like, guys that played in the league themselves, more power of the head office. An example of a good change in the NHL was the most recent NHL All Star game. For those of you who don’t know, instead of having the usual meaningless East vs. West matchup, they instead appointed 2 captains and had a draft with all of the All Stars involved. The event was a complete success. Not only was the game itself exciting to watch, but watching the draft itself was an exciting event. You really saw the players’ personalities which is something the NHL should strive more. Players like Crosby and Ovechkin have such a big following because of their personalities AND because of their skills. People adore Crosby’s laid back/shy/humble-ish style while people adore Ovechkin’s sense of humor and showmanship. I may hate these players on the ice but I do respect what they’re doing to the league.
The most important thing for the NHL to think about though during the offseason is that too much change can be a bad thing. According to some, they over-changed the game after the 2005 lockout and the game isn’t as exciting (which has some truth to it). One unique aspect of the NHL that differs from basketball and other sports is that the players control the pace of the game. NBA games are constantly being controlled by the referees and at times can be irritating to watch. Players in the NHL are given enough allowance to fight back and the referees know when to break it up. The referees are allowed to use discretion in hockey for this reason, the game runs smoothly. The NHL has to continue giving the refs the leeway they need to continue doing their job.
I’ve been impressed with the growth of the NHL and the way they adapted to the new day in age. I’m sure they won’t mess up this opportunity.
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| Hayden Panettiere and ours |
One last proof the NHL is better than the NBA though.
Where has you trophy been? We know where ours has.
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| Mark Cuban and their trophy |
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