Auf gefrorenem Blog

Ich erhalte eine Menge Messwert erfolgt in jenen neun Stunden. But for hockey reporters, even Sunbelt ones, by late January they’ve navigated enough slush and sleet to shut down D.C.-area schools for a month. So why not throw the media a bone and convene this event annually in warmer climates? (Being Mr. Freeze, I adopt Matt Bradley’s embrace of Mother Nature’s short-sun-season’s gifts: while many of his teammates head south for fun in the sun this week he’s heading up to his home near Ottawa for some snowmobiling in minus-20 temps. And so I’d only leave my full-time job to cover the game were it scheduled in Winnipeg.)

But here’s the rub: be imaginative about site selection Ć¢ā‚¬ā€ take this glitz and glamour to new and untapped warmer markets. (Did I just request the league’s brass to be creative . . . in a positive sense?) Notice that the league has no problem dispatching its teams to remote outposts during September’s exhibition slate. The Ducks even opened their 1997 season with two games against Vancouver in Japan! The good folks in Austin, Texas, this month have regularly flirted with pond hockey temps. My sense is they aren’t so thrilled. But what if Wednesday’s game were being held there? They might discover a never-before-imagined appreciation of the recreation that can take place on ice.

You don’t grow the game by shuttling your farm team and a few big-league regulars to 5,000-seat arenas in smaller markets right as the NFL and college pigskin are getting out of the gate, before the leaves have even changed color.