|
|
Post by Boston_Habs on Mar 8, 2002 13:12:44 GMT -5
After the GM meetings, it appears that there will be NO meaningful changes to the game in spite of the success of the Olympics. What a waste. They might try to adopt some form of hurry-up faceoff and be more diligent about obstruction calls in the neutral zone (we've heard that before), but that's about it. The most disturbing comment came from Mike Milbury who had the nerve to say "... one thing that came out of the meetings is that we like the game the way it is." Huh??
The Wall Street Journal last week gave the following stat comparison
NHL Olympics
Avg. game time 3 hrs 2 hrs. 15 min.
Avg. shots on goal 53 65
Penalty minutes 24 16
Face-offs 61 46
Yeah, Mike, the NHL game is way better.
|
|
|
|
Post by Johnny Verdun on Mar 8, 2002 18:49:45 GMT -5
Couldn't agree more. They're a bunch of ham-headed morons who couldn't run a decent crack cocaine operation in Trenton, NJ.
The product so uniformly uninspiring most of the time that only someone in denial could say that it's fine "just the way it is". Decent seats cost up around $100 or more, and for what? To see cycling, dump and chase, hook and hold, no-flow, no-beauty hockey that starts and stops so often that it's a wonder the players can even work up a sweat. What's surprising about the ticket prices is that tickets should really be free, judging by the apparent value advertisers, hot dog, beer and souvenir sellers get out of having 18,000 captives for the evening with only mediocre hockey to compete (sporadically) for their attention. Christ it's like being stuck at the airport for 3 hours without having had dinner beforehand. I saw a guy buy his kid cotton candy at the Molson Center the other night. It wasn't even like you remember cotton candy from the old days, when a kid could get so much cotton on a stick that it would take up an entire elevator. This just looked like a little strip of pink fibreglass insulation in a bag. Well, but who's offering it at a better price? No one. So that's $3.50. Want a medecine-sized bottle of water? That's $3.50. What's that? You say you want a beer? You're crazy as hell, but sure, somebody'll happily oblige if you don't mind paying a hefty $7.00 for a luke-warm Molson's. And don't worry, the taste and cost of this stuff won't occupy your mind for a minute because you can watch coming attractions on the big screen, or advertisements for luxury cars, or perfume, or TV shows. And if the game isn't enough to rouse you from your slumber you'll be instructed when to make noise, or when to do the wave, or when to go for more priceless food and beer during the timeouts used to prod and poke at the TV audience at home. And just when you thought you couldn't feel more insulted and humiliated, what's this? It's a crew of people who come out with shovels and other tools to feign ice maintenance tasks while the players lounge around at the bench and, like the rest of us, watch TV.
The whole thing has become so garrish and offensive that it's hard to concentrate on the hockey, which is probably the point. Because if you just left most of these teams alone in a building with 18,000 people undistracted, serious hockey fans, the silence would be deafening. Real hockey fans aren't impressed by much besides good hockey, in sharp contrast to the majority of the plump, corporate types and their skanky secretaries. watching disinterestedly from the best seats and the luxury boxes unless the puck is on the goal line or there's a fight between two players who couldn't keep up with Jokerit or TPS Turku for a period of play on the big ice. But we've been prepared for this too, this element which has lost all it's spontaneity and meaning for real hockey fans since the teams often face eachother only twice a season, over an 82 game stretch. Yes we've been prepped for this because the PA bellows at us, in true WWF fashion before each period "Let's Get Reaadddddy to Rummmmmble"....
I don't even want to talk about it....
|
|
|
|
Post by habmeister on Mar 8, 2002 19:10:43 GMT -5
Unfortunately GM's cannot make rash decisions based on one small tournament with no more than 30 games and change the greatest league in the world because of it. There is a catch 22 with shortening the game 45 minutes. Its called sales. If customers are in the seats for 45 less minutes then that is a lot less beer, food, t-shirts, etc...that they spend while at the rink. On the other hand if a game on a weekday night that normally goes from 7-10 will instead be finished at 915 then there will be a lot more parents that will go to weekday games with their kids.
Are these the fans the NHL is trying to appeal to? NO. They want the corporate type guys who order $7 beer after beer and sit in the luxury suites ordering $5 slices of pizza and $10 caesar salads.
So as much as we'd like to see the game be shortened the NHL will have to do some kind of study first to see if it would harm or help them financially in the grand scheme of things.
As far as the no touch icing, i must say i like it, although i must also say that i like the red line in.
In closing, i have to say that i love the way habsrus posters state their opinions and stick by them with facts.
|
|
|
|
Post by Johnny Verdun on Mar 8, 2002 19:57:14 GMT -5
We know what the result of that study will be already. It will provide the $ figure to back up their gut feeling that keeping games around 2 hrs and 20 minutes will cost them in concession sales and television advertising revenue. The real point to me is that they have backed themselves into a corner by virtue of player payroll insanity, so that everything they do, every breath they take, is assessed first on economic grounds. The "net" result is that the game comes second. The bottom line comes first. It's too bad. Wider ice. Fewer whistles. Fewer timeouts. Better hockey. Less nonsense. Better prices. They'll find reasons why none of them are feasible, and they'll be right. But to me the real story is the series of decisions, each of which could have been different, that resulted without exception in a choice for short-term economic gain over the long term health and preservation of the game.
|
|
