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Miss Universe over the Cup Finals? Somewhere, Lord Stanley Rolls Over in His Grave

By Philadelphiaflyernut, Section NHL
Posted on Wed May 30 2007 at 5:27 PM EST
More on: (all tags)

Miss Japan vs. The Anaheim Ducks. Miss Japan wins the title of Miss Universe on NBC, better ratings and a pretty nifty crown. The Ducks win Game One of the Stanley Cup Finals on Versus (formerly OLN) and approval from such "celebrities" as Sasha Cohen, Cuba Cooding, Jr and some dude from "Heroes." Ding ding, Round I goes to Miss Japan.

Gary Bettman seems content on keeping the fan base minimal and expanding the league to cities where hockey will never survive. A red flag should have been raised when teams like the Predators had superb seasons and a measly turn out at games. Even with the sale of the team to a new owner and Bettman's promise that the team will not leave Nashville, it's hard to imagine that a city like Québec won't be joining the league soon. Imagine how many people in Québec would turn out to see the Predators? It seems a waste to keep them where they aren't appreciated.

But back to the subject of the league's PR movement. They tried those crazy gladiator commercials last year and all they did was anger women's right's groups. They had some pretty funny commercials this year with some of their league super stars doing things "regular" people do, but when the commercials have limited playing time on stations OTHER than Versus, then you'd have to say that campaign has failed. To make matters worse, Versus isn't even available in many parts of the country, so some people probably don't even realize that there still is a hockey league and there is this thing called the Stanley Cup Finals.

The worse slap in the face to the league was NBC's decision to stop broadcasting Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals when it headed to overtime and turn over to the Preakness pre-game show. Granted, I know there are a lot of horse racing fans who were probably jumping with nerves to hear the latest update on Barbaro memorials and which horse didn't want to eat its carrot that morning, but there were many hockey fans left in the dark because they didn't have Versus to turn to. Would NBC have done that if they were broadcasting a NFL game? Only if they wanted a bunch of football fans burning their building down, would they. Instead, they once again slap the few NHL fans left in the face and forced us to find alternate ways of watching the end of the game.

How long can this last? How long can the few fans left find alternate ways of watching their team? Hockey isn't football. It doesn't have the universal appeal of football. It's a sport you're either born into watching or you slowly pick up as the years go by. That is, only in cities where hockey is a staple. Hockey won't die out in cities like Detroit and Philadelphia, no matter how low attendance dips. However, hockey is on life support in other cities and it's sad to think that there are people in the front office who don't seem to realize how much harm they are doing to the sport and to the league.

I have a slight sense of hope that the sport I love can turn things around. The NBA seemed to do so and so did Major League Baseball, but these are leagues that like to show off their players so that fans can be "fans" of players. The NHL needs to start doing something like that. Until they stop letting people like Sidney Crosby give all the right answers, the league is going to maintain the team oriented approach instead of a star approach. Crosby is a great player, but he is notorious for saying all the right things. Give me drama! Yell at someone! Call them a fool! For Pete's sake, call someone a diver! Say something quotable!!! If it can't be Crosby, then find someone else. Add some spice to this league. If Terrell Owens could skate, I would suggest drafting him.

I know I'll tune into Game 2 on Wednesday and I know the hard core fans will also. We'll switch between NBC, Versus and NHL.com whenever necessary. We'll continue to beg for some spice to our league, but we'll sit by content when they continue to hand us bland players and bland commentaries. But the league should realize this, the hardcore fans can't carry the league and the hardcore fans are slowly becoming fewer and far between. Until the league breathes some life into this sport, we fans will have no choice but to remove it from life support. Perhaps it will pull a miracle, or perhaps it will slowly die out. It's in the league's hands.