Pieces in Place, NHL Needs Love from ESPN, Shake Up in Front Office

The good old days of hockey seem like long gone since the loss of numerous classic teams to the south, the extremely damaging lockout of 2004, and the loss of major TV contracts and mainstream media coverage. The loss of superstar talents like Mark Messier, Wayne Gretzky, Steve Yzerman, Al Iafrate, Eric Lindros, Ed Belfour, and many others are no longer giving the league the sex appeal that it once had, which tends to be the favroite explanation as to why the league hasn't been able to bounce back from the lockout of 2004. Superstars like Sergei Fedorov and Pavel Bure aren't even making headlines by corting the rich and famous Hollywood hotties. (Anna Kournikova to be particular) Classic teams in northern cities where hockey had ruled have lost their teams to places like Florida, Carolina, Atlanta, Phoenix, and Dallas; cities where fans have had mixed reactions to this foreign game. And on top of all of this, the front offices of the NHL have deemed it necessary for teams to predominantly play against teams in their own division, leaving NHL schedules beyond bland and repetetive, preventing matchups between the most exciting rivals of yester-year. The NHL is just simply not the same as it once was back in the so called "good old days." Or is it?

ESPN dropped hockey like a bad girlfriend following the lockout in 2004. The ratings weren't high enough. The fans won't come back after the absence. Hockey was done in the minds of high-powered ESPN/Mickey Mouse suits in Connecticut. Hockey was out and weeknights and weekend afternoons during the winter would be filled up with exciting events such as:

• Non-main event poker
• English Polo Championships (seriously, this took up 3 hours of airtime on ESPN2 last month)
• WNBA (I'm not sexist but seriously, women don't even watch that garbage)
• Strongman competitions
• 938545 hours of NFL draft previews
• Classic bowling
• Classic boxing
• Meaningless fiction sports dramas
• NASCAR -- but it's the most popular sport in the US!

...And there is only so much NBA in a given week. ESPN has a monopoly in the basic cable sports network world. Things are "popular" because ESPN hypes them up, shows them during primetime hours, and shoves it down the throats of any sports fan in America looking to get any competetive sports fix they can during the colllege football/NFL/MLB hiatus. Bringing the NHL back to ESPN would be a miniscule burden to bear for the network compared to how much the NHL would benefit from this type of mainstream exposure. Bringing NHL back to the ESPN limelight would also show the country that the things we loved about the NHL of the "good old days" are right here and right now in a league that is currently exhiled to the depths of television obscurity (AKA VS).

The dominance and flashiness of Wayne Gretzky is back in the youthful energy and highlight reel plays of Sidney Crosby. Mike Comrie is making headlines with Hillary Duff (gross) and Sean Avery is corting the Hollywood elite from LA to New York and making appearances on TRL. (gross...but somebody get Zetterberg a supermodel girlfriend too!!) Superstars are emerging on each team, however, most are currently flying under the radar due to locally restricted media coverage. Most importantly for your casual hockey observer, full on nose breaking, blood splattering, good old "commit assault and get away with it cuz its hockey" fighting is finally back in full force after a couple years of peace and quiet. For ex-hockey fans looking to get back into the game, the abundance of powerplays are creating more scoring than ever before. The speed of the game is faster than ever before as well and further adds to the excitement of the new NHL.

The pieces are in place for the NHL to break out into the mainstream once again. NHL on NBC was a good start but ESPN needs to get onboard and give the NHL the coverage like it did prior to the lockout. The NHL front office has got to diversify the schedules in order to revitalize old rivalries, schedle more matchups of classic Original 6 teams, and rebuild fanbases using schedules that don't favor 1000 exciting matchups like Detroit vs. Columbus over and over during the course of one season. Sid the Kid and superstars alike are going to sell tickets wherever they play, and it isn't doing the league any good when Sidney Crosby plays the majority of his games in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. The NHL needs to embrace the power of these superstars and use them to sell help sell tickets and, most importantly, resell themselves to ESPN-esque mainstream media.

As much as I love classic matchups in bowling from 1988, I think I would be able to sacrifice for a primetime hockeynight matchup between Detroit and Colorado.