11/05/24
December 07, 2004
Good luck with that. I'd love to see hockey of any kind, but I think we're more likely to have a season than for this idea to get off the ground. And I think I'm more likely to sprout wings and fly than for that to happen.
posted by 86 at 09:39 AM on December 07, 2004
I say we form a mob, storm the Hockey Hall of Fame, and free the silver. Who's with me?
posted by DrJohnEvans at 11:17 AM on December 07, 2004
Actually, wait... it's kinda drizzling out, so maybe we better save it for another day...
posted by DrJohnEvans at 11:18 AM on December 07, 2004
86, didn't you want to say something to dear ol' Gary?
posted by garfield at 11:55 AM on December 07, 2004
Why yes, yes I did. It's off-topic, but whatever. I've haven't been a fan of the way Bettman has run the NHL. During the lock-out, I keep coming up with new questions to ask Gary. And watching football I came up with another. Gary, this year the NFL directed their refs to more tighlty enforce illegal contact by defensive backs downfield. They placed a heavy emphasis on this in the preseason and continued that into the regular season. A dozen weeks into the year pass interference calls and passing stats are up. Essentially, it looks as if they have been highly successful in getting their players and refs to understand the way the games will and should be called. A year ago, the NHL attempted to do a similar thing. They placed a pre-season emphasis on obstruction calls. However, little more than three weeks into the regular season things reverted to old form. From one game to the next a certain action might or might not result in the penalty. From one period or minute to the next, the same action was called two or three different ways. Not only were the obstruction calls not being made, but the inconsistency created by the half-measures seemed to make things even worse. In my mind, this shows the difference between a well run league and a poorly run league. What does it show you?
posted by 86 at 12:05 PM on December 07, 2004
OTx2: a sign the NHL is pucked - Maxim chimes in, which led me to this awful title: "Hey Ted Nolan, how are you doing? Keeping busy? That's a shame. Are you kidding me? The answer is 'No!'! I wouldn't offer you a job in virtual reality either! Bwahahahaha!!!!"
posted by garfield at 12:09 PM on December 07, 2004
[re:OT v.1].....and Gary, don't cop out with the 2-ref excuse. How many officials that can call an infraction are on a football field?
posted by garfield at 12:11 PM on December 07, 2004
gspm...thanks for the dose of nostalgia and the reminder of an improbable future.
posted by garfield at 12:13 PM on December 07, 2004
I'd seen an allusion to it in a (inaccessible, insder) Duhatschek column on the Globe and Mail a few weeks ago but then saw it on the CBC website today. Really, they should sell t-shirts. I figure that this is on par with the NHLFA when it comes to relevance to the "big" money NHL. If they at least made t-shirts people could add them to their Free James Brown, Free Winona, Free Pee Wee (ew, must come up with better search terms for that one) and Free Martha shirts.
posted by gspm at 12:26 PM on December 07, 2004
It's a pretty cool idea. And I don't even care that much about hockey. Some bizarre combination of Hoosiers and Miracle...
posted by tieguy at 12:43 PM on December 07, 2004
Actually Colby Cosh suggested something like this might happend quite some time ago. He also posted some details on just how the cup came to be in the NHL's hands. If this latest round of talks fail on Thursday watch for real talk about this to heat up in the media. RE: OT v.1 - I believe that the refs in hockey really do get a bum rap. It is certainly one of the most difficult games in the world to officiate. While hockey does set a very bad example when it comes to the rules changing during different points of the game every sport I've ever seen suffers from the same problem. Whether it's the NHL, NFL, NBA, MLS or the MLB if a rule is open to interpretation the way it will be called changes during the game. As for being consistent over the year the original push to crack down on obstruction came from the NHL. The pushback came from the owners who said fans were sick and tired of watching games with 15 - 20 penalties called each game. It broke up the flow, and slowed things down to much. Therefore the NHL backed off. Simple as that. While I think Bettman has done a lot of things wrong with the NHL he doesn't have a dictator's like power over it. Really he is simply a figurehead for the owners.
posted by camcanuck at 01:42 PM on December 07, 2004
cam, from what I know a lot of the pushback came from the players who said it was impossible to play when they had no idea what was a penalty and what wasn't from one night to the next. I don't know where you heard about the owners, but I remember the players making a fuss early last year. I know its a tough game to officiate, but the problem isn't the way one ref calls the game, it's that they are all calling their own game. And that falls on the league's shoulders to fix.
posted by 86 at 01:48 PM on December 07, 2004
86, the owners reaction was simply a mirror of what they saw and heard from the media and (to a much lesser extent) the fans. The media didn't like it so crackdown was given less importance. This really is the largest impeedment to serious change in the NHL. Until the majority of fans & media except that a hook is a hook regardless of when it happens this will not change. Go to a bar and watch a game... err... well wait til Chistmas and then go watch a Wold Junior game at a bar (that may be difficult in the US). If you asked I'm sure the majority of the fans there would say the ref's should 'let'em play'. My comment about how difficult to officate was just meant to emphasise that you can't use the NFL as a example on how to crack down on rules in the NHL. I agree the biggest problem now is that during a game each ref calls a slightly different game. The 2 ref system doesn't work, and only adds to the confusion. The NHL should get rid of it.
posted by camcanuck at 02:15 PM on December 07, 2004
Well look, I agree with pretty much everything you said, but I'll say this... In a well run league, these types of changes seem to stick and work as they were intended. In a poorly run league, they go down in flames after three weeks.
posted by 86 at 02:32 PM on December 07, 2004
86, The biggest problem with Gary (and some if not most of the team owners) is he doesn't seem to have a desire to make the game better and by proxy exhibits very few leadship qualities. In the case of the NHL it's going to take someone the fans and the players trust to simply say too bad if you don't like it, this is the way it's going to be because it will improve the game. The only person I could see having that kind of influence would be 'The Great One'. When this whole lockout issue is taken care of it will be time to focus on the game instead of just the buisness.
posted by camcanuck at 03:14 PM on December 07, 2004
Whatever Gary's problems are, he can't enact change in the league he supposedly heads. That's a big problem. And Mr. Officiating is too much of an apologist to effectively manipulate the weakling commish. So the soul of our game is in the hands of tweedledee and tweedledum, and we're splitting hairs about correct analogies. I don't get it.
posted by garfield at 03:55 PM on December 07, 2004
Can I just take a minute to point out here that a game without obstruction calls will probably be a clutch-and-grabfest in which no player is allowed to actually skate and the number of scoring chances are thus cut down even more? You know what I'm talking about. Picture Leafs-Philly with no whistles. Ugly, ugly hockey. Thank you.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 07:28 PM on December 07, 2004
It would take a coalition of people to make that kind of change: Gretzky, Mario, Gordie Howe, Ken Dryden, Scotty Bowman, Borje Salming, plus broadcasters, writers, and some high profile fans. That said, I think it would come together pretty quickly once the ball started rolling.
posted by chicobangs at 11:31 AM on December 08, 2004
(*Note: Many of the names in the above comment were randomly added. There are many more who would be equally worthy and willing to make that kind of change.)
posted by chicobangs at 11:32 AM on December 08, 2004
I recently read Dryden's book The Game and to read him having these "woe is the game" thoughts twenty years ago based on his playing career from 6 or 7 years earlier - and then tracing those "woe is the game" thoughts back to WWII - I am not surprised to see him leave hockey and head into politics. I imagine he would exist with some level of frustration when it comes to hockey. Not to say he wouldn't be interested or capable of contributing to a coalition of the willing but that he might be an ideal person to include if he hasn't already HAD IT with hockey.
posted by gspm at 03:27 PM on December 08, 2004
"If there is no NHL season the Stanley Cup should then be awarded to the best hockey team in Canada, which was Lord Stanley's original intent for the Cup."