Monday, June 11, 2007

aw...nuts!

Rats! Hockey season has ended for yet another long summer.








Congratulations to the 2007 Stanley Cup Champion Anaheim Ducks! Way to go, boys!



On another hockey note...

Tim Cowlishaw wrote an insightful article on the state of the NHL. Tim writes for the Dallas Mornign News, and the article (a quick and painless read) can be found here - http://www.dallasnews.
com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/hockey/stars/stories/
060607dnspocowlishaw.2cb3128.html



And here are my comments on the story, as I see it...

Here are my thoughts on Tim Cowlishaw's article:

1: Put microphones on all coaches and captains for all games.

I think this idea has merit. How much merit, i am unsure. But it cannot hurt, as long as they resist any and all broadcasting of live audio from these sources, as (a) you do not want to give away any pertinent game-plan information on live television to the other team, and (b) the last thing we need on tv is more cussing.

2: Start the season a month later.

That's a bad idea, really. The season goes too long as it is. Traditional hockey fans (ie. knowledgeable ones) want the season to start earlier, not later, so that it can be over by the first of June. Shorten training camps, start earlier, end earlier.

3: Convince the selfish Eastern Conference general managers to act in the best interests of the game and change the schedule.

I completely totally.

4: Kiss up to ESPN. Make amends.

Yeah, I would go along with that one. Sure, why not?

5: Let the skaters in shootouts go without their helmets.

Makes sense to me.

6: Eliminate the ability to ice the puck during penalty killing.

An excellent idea. I have agreed with this one for 5 or 6 years now. It is time to do it. Make a PowerPlay really mean something.

7: Adopt the 2-3-2 travel format for all series.

It makes sense. I could go either way on this one.

8: Adopt the shootout after 40 minutes of playoff overtime hockey.

No! However, other tweaking of OT I could live with. Like, say, after 20 minutes of scoreless OverTime play, go to 4 skaters aside. That should help to end things quicker. If that does not work, then after 40 minutes, go to 3 skaters aside!

9: Move the U.S. league office to Atlanta.

Dumb idea. Means nothing. So, here is a better idea...
Move the league head and corporate offices to Winnipeg. If they can't give them back the Jets, give them the prestige of having the Commish right there in their city. It is centrally located, it is in Canada, and there can be no crying about how it is unfair to have the league headquarters in (insert city name here) because it is also the home of the (insert name of team or teams here).

10: Contract to 26 teams.

This is an excellent idea. But i think 28 would be better, because it'd be easier for divvying up the divisions - simply go back to 4 divisions, 7 teams per division, two conferences. Much better plan, if i do say so myself!

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