After a five month absence I've made my triumphant return to the Vagabonds and with a new weekly (hopefully) installment that still remains untitled. In reality, I can't decide between the two titles I've listed above, maybe some reader feedback would sway me in one direction or the other. That's assuming we have readers. Maybe Chuck and Troy can just influence me. Anyways the point of "Top Cheese"or "Friday, Unassisted" is to cover topics revolving around the NHL. As we've just passed the quarter pole of the season, there's no better time than now to get going.
The NBA Lockout and the NHL
After hearing the news last week that the NBA players and owners have finally come to an agreement and in turn ended the lockout, I couldn't help but feel a disappointed. A. This leaves the NHL as the only league that has cancelled an entire season (Note that MLB in 1994 played into the summer before cancelling the rest of the season). And B. I was hoping to see if the NHL would grow during an NBA-less Winter. O well.
The resumption of the NBA, however, will have no effect on the NHL positive or negative. NHL fans and hockey fans in general are amongst the most loyal in the world. A short, intense NBA season won't draw any fans away from the action on the ice. And why should it? The NHL generates more parity than the NBA and as a result produces a more exciting regular season. All thirty clubs, well maybe 29 with the Islanders, enter the year with playoff aspirations (See Wild, Minnesota in first place). With the shootout and overtime losses inflating teams' records, three-quarters of the league will be playing meaningful hockey into the early Spring. Ask a Kings fan, Sacramento not LA, what he thinks about his team's chances this season.
I think looking back, we can now be thankful that the NHL swallowed its pride almost seven years ago and cancelled its season. The league was in dire need of change with swollen salaries, swollen goalie pads, and marred by clutching, grabbing, cynical hockey that significantly slowed down the fastest game on earth. Great change often follows catastrophic events, and the NHL lockout was no different. The league essentially reinvented itself, giving fans the shootout and cracking down on the aforementioned hooking, clutching, and grabbing that so plagued the pre-lockout league. As I mentioned above, the shootout certainly helped in creating more parity but so too did the new salary cap especially with the Canadian teams. Forced to work with the weaker Canadian dollar in an increasingly money driven league, Canadian teams made only one Stanley Cup appearance in the ten seasons before the lockout. Ironically enough it was the Flames in the last season before the work stoppage. In the six seasons since the lockout however, three Canadian teams have made appearances in the finals culminating in Vancouver's seven game series loss last season to the Bruins. While all three teams have avoided lifting the silver chalice, their deep playoff runs were marked by raucous crowds and arena bedlam creating compelling television for the playoff viewer. One cannot ignore the impact the stronger Canadian dollar has had on these teams, but the salary cap has no doubt significantly improved the plight of Canadian teams. If the lockout didn't "save" the NHL it at least resuscitated the struggling league. Bettman left certain problems untouched, contraction, more teams in Canada, fighting, to name a few, but he and the league fixed enough to ensure the NHL's success going forward. Furthermore, his innovative attitude has continued to influence the league to this day for the better. Look no further than my next topic. Today, David Stern's veto of the Chris Paul trade showed that the NBA didn't properly address its core problems. I fear that the NBA will soon regret that it didn't cancel its season.
Radical Realignment
Surely you've seen the NHL's new realignment plan for next year. With the Winnipeg Jets stuck in the Southeast division (Winnipeg in January is very similar to St. Petersburg), change was inevitable. Most thought it'd be simple: switch Winnipeg out with Columbus or Detroit. But Gary Bettman doesn't think simple. He took hockey from Quebec, Winnipeg, and Hartford, and put it in places like Phoenix, Raleigh, Tampa Bay, Dallas, and Nashville. So at this point we shouldn't be surprised that Bettman called for such radical realignment. He restructured the divisions into four "Conferences," which hopefully will receive names soon instead of designated letters.Realignment. The new conferences cut down on travel as they are more geographically structured. Moreover the NHL tweaked scheduling to include home and homes with every team while maintaining the six matchups each team plays against its conference opponents. The system allows for current rivalries to fester while giving us the pleasure of seeing the Pens and Caps play six times a year. Wild fans in particular have the most to look forward to not only because they boast the best team in the league right now. No disrespect to the Oilers, Canucks, Flames, and Avs, but the Wild have no natural rivalry in the league and most of it stems from their division. Minnesota has sustained an incredible attendance record since its inception but has seen a dip in the last few seasons. Now with the team's success and the prospect of eighteen games against the Red Wings, Blackhawks, and Stars (people are still bitter) next season, the fanbase in Minnesota could grow exponentially. The optimism of 2003 could return to the State of Hockey with the Wild becoming a marquis American franchise. Chicago, Detroit, and Minnesota should play for an unofficial trophy called the "Great Lakes Cup" (or something, I don't love that name), the winner being the team with the best record against the other two. The Upper Midwest is on the precipice of great hockey rivalries.
That's all for this week.
That's Friday, unassisted, Friday, unassisted at 9:34 (or maybe not).
-Dill
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