Thursday, May 22, 2008
Stanley Cup Finals
The Stanley Cup Finals are coming! The Stanley Cup Finals are coming. The question is, does anyone care? Sadly, the answer is, outside of Detroit and Pittsburgh, the home cities of the two franchises competing, probably not.
The Clarion recalls a note we saw during last year's Stanley Cup Finals that only three non-Canadian, out-of-town newspapers had even bothered to send reporters to the games between Anaheim and Ottawa. This year for the first time since the 2000-01, three years before the cataclysmic lockout and lost season, there are no warm weather cities involved in the Cup final.
None of the warm weather, recent expansion cities have deep abiding loyalty to their hockey franchises. In fact, in most of those cities, they are a blip on the local radar, an afterthought. This is not the case for the teams in this year's finals. Detroit is Hockey-town USA. Pittsburgh is enamored with young, Sid the Kid, and their franchise has a history of glorious success. Media coverage is indeed up, but it is a far cry from what it was twenty years ago as this excellent article from the Toronto Globe and Mail details.
There are other obstacles facing the Stanley Cup Finals this year, too. In an oddity, Games One and Two of the Cup finals in Detroit are scheduled on the same nights, tonight and Monday, as Games Three and Four of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals featuring the Detroit Pistons. Worse yet for the NHL, not only are the games scheduled head to head for television purposes, but both series are in Detroit simultaneously, only thirty miles apart. The Red Wings have already had empty seats at Joe Louis arena this postseason. It definitely sucks further juice from what the NHL was hoping was going to be a renaissance series for a league who's trophy has a higher Q rating than any of it's stars.
Comments:
Did the strike just kill hockey?
I think that's when I quit watching, and never cared enough to start again. I think . . . .
I think that's when I quit watching, and never cared enough to start again. I think . . . .
The strike was the death blow. Expansion to cities with minimal fan bases and lots of other things competing for the public's attention and entertainment dollar set up the scenario.
Expansion watered down the product, games became so low scoring people thought they were watching soccer on ice. Plus it sapped tradition, the casual fan could get excited about the Bruins vs. the Canadians in the playoffs because of the tradition, the rivalry, heck the uniforms alone. But the Blue Jackets, the Predators, the Sharks, the Lighting? Who are these teams? Why would anyone care?
Expansion watered down the product, games became so low scoring people thought they were watching soccer on ice. Plus it sapped tradition, the casual fan could get excited about the Bruins vs. the Canadians in the playoffs because of the tradition, the rivalry, heck the uniforms alone. But the Blue Jackets, the Predators, the Sharks, the Lighting? Who are these teams? Why would anyone care?
I think expansion is bad in all sports. Look at the NBA teams that played for the championships in the 80's and 90's. Detroit had Isiah, Dumas, Lambier, Aguire, Mahorn, then Vinnie Johnson and Rodman coming off the bench. The Lakers had Magic and Wilkes (then Byron Scott) and Worthy and Kareem. Even teams that lost like Portland had Drexler and Kersey and Terry Porter and Duckworth.
Now you've got teams with only three guys who can score. No one guards Rondo. Lebron has no help. Barkely keeps harping that the Spurs have three good players and you could easily say the same for the Lakers.
It's a watered down game, and the games aren't as good. Same goes for baseball: guys that are in rotations now would've been lucky to be in the bullpen ten years ago.
Now you've got teams with only three guys who can score. No one guards Rondo. Lebron has no help. Barkely keeps harping that the Spurs have three good players and you could easily say the same for the Lakers.
It's a watered down game, and the games aren't as good. Same goes for baseball: guys that are in rotations now would've been lucky to be in the bullpen ten years ago.
It turned out the ratings were way up from last year. Somehow the league survives despite Betman. It was a pleasure to see a blue collar team triumph over the officials aided Malkin, Crosby gang. Just like the NBA (stop whining Mr. Stern) the league knows who it wants in the finals and the officiating is there to support the objective as much as it can get away with it.
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# posted by 
: 6/18/2008 3:35 PM
: 6/18/2008 3:35 PM