Comments on: How About a Depression-Led Realignment?

By: Justyn - Minneapolis

Justyn - Minneapolis — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:08:22 +0000

“What these backward-looking luddites fail to realize is that if, heaven forbid, a team is Phoenix or Florida fails, it harms the rest of the league. It makes the league look like a joke.”
I AGREE! When the NHL pulled out of Winnipeg, Quebec City, Minneapolis and Hartford only to relocate to Phoenix, Colorad, Dallas and Carolina……it definitely DID BECOME A JOKE!

By: Blackaces

Blackaces — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 18:19:04 +0000

Ok, this is going to be a long response, but I want to get this off my chest. It’s directed mainly at the argument that teams in Nashville, Florida, etc should be contracted or relocated. (By the way, Ken, no need to be mean towards other hockey fans. Fans in Florida are just as legitimate than fans in Toronto. )
One thing that has consistently irritated me about a certain segment of the hockey community is the utter disdain they seem to have for teams/fans from non-traditional markets. (By the way, anyone care to explain what a non-traditional market is? Define traditional for me. It’s not as easy as it sounds.)
It strikes me that, as far as the NHL goes, everyone is in this together. We all hope to see this league and sport succeed. But not everyone acts this way. When it comes to hockey, it’s the only sport I’ve ever heard of where some fans not only root for other teams to lose, but they root for them to fail. That’s simply not good for the sport. It’s harmful. It’s ignorant. And it needs to stop. This philosophy that everything would be great if we cut out 10 teams and went back to the old days is naive and ignorant. Explain to me how it helps if we expose the sport to fewer people instead of more?
What these backward-looking luddites fail to realize is that if, heaven forbid, a team is Phoenix or Florida fails, it harms the rest of the league. It makes the league look like a joke. It makes our beloved sport look second rate, and we all know that it is anything but. Hockey is one of the greatest sports on earth. It’s tradition is a great strength. But I also think people fall a little bit too in love with tradition and are too resistant to anything new. They look backwards too much and any attempt at growing/updating the league is looked upon with scorn.
When will this notion that Sun Belt teams don’t deserve a team stop? Sure, it’s easy to pick on Nashville, Florida, etc. But what stops us from lumping Washington D.C. in there? How about St. Louis? Is that a ‘hockey city’? Heck, before Philly entered the league, would you have considered Philly a hockey city along the lines of Montreal? No, but a team was put there. It had success over the years, developed a following, grew and now people love it. Do we in the D.C. area deserve a team any less than someone in Winnipeg? (No, of course not.) So lumping together cities that do and don’t deserve teams is garbage.
The argument that Phoenix or Florida can’t support hockey is a canard. Sure, these markets aren’t perfect. But they have had precious little success on, and subsequently, off the ice in the last few years. No wonder fans haven’t come out; the teams have stunk! San Jose and Dallas aren’t exactly traditional hockey markets, yet they draw well and they’ve become solid hockey towns. Why? Because the teams have won. Fans enjoy this. If you want to judge a market, do it when the team is winning. If fans still don’t come out, then maybe the team should be moved. But if the team is losing, give the city a break and hope they start winning.
There are enough fans in these southern cities. The fact that the weather is warmer doesn’t mean that they are unsophisticated fans or that they are any less passionate than some guy up in Ottawa or Edmonton. So for heavens sake, stop rooting for these teams to fail, and start hoping they succeed!
Great site by the way, fellas. I just wanted to get this opinion out there on the internetS.

By: Ken

Ken — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:03:17 +0000

If they can’t handle the cold, they ain’t tough enough to play in the NHL. How long did it take the Rollar-hockey league to fail?
Both Florida franchises can move to Toronto, and even with the Leafs and MArlies in town, all of them can each outsell Tampa Bay’s 3 hockey fans…lol

By: Tiny

Tiny — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:17:16 +0000

Haha!
I could counter that the nick “Tiny” actually refers to a large physical stature combined with a body fat percentage that happens to be far below that of your average American, honed via a lifetime of actual skating on ice.
Not that dudes headed out to the local roller skating rink would ever understand.
Cue further insults!
Cheers.

By: Jefe

Jefe — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 22:34:33 +0000

BIG words from a TINY man. I am sorry, I just had to, the door was open.

By: HUGE

HUGE — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:56:15 +0000

LOL@ posters named Tiny.

By: Tiny

Tiny — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:35:12 +0000

LOL @ roller “hockey” players.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:26:34 +0000

It’s extremely naive to think that teams like Phoenix, Tampa, and Florida would not contract or relocate, whether north of the border or otherwise.
Many of these teams have been losing money for years, and their existence is somewhat dependant on their ownership’s willingness to continue losing money. As many of those owners are starting to see their bottom lines threatened, they are going to consider selling the teams, if anyone will buy. There may be no buyers for a massively unprofitable pro sports team these days, and certainly not a lot that will want to keep these teams, who have little to no sense of history where they are currently located, in their current markets.
The point is that for some of these franchises, moving the team may end up being the best-case scenario. The Phoenix Coyotes, after all, exist because the team moved from Winnipeg. The alternative is bankruptcy and contraction, and don’t think it can’t happen. I would much rather see these teams move to Canada than disappear outright, but honestly, the NHL may have a few more teams than it really should at this point.

By: Jefe

Jefe — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:40:51 +0000

Not all roller hockey players are figure skaters with sticks. Up north the roller players play inline to avoid the contact, but down here in the south we play roller because it is the only cheap option of “ice time”. I have played many a pick up and hosted many a pick up that was checking. The main problem we have down here is we want playing real hockey accessible to everyone (which involves strapping on inlines to play outside) but at the same time we are in a constant fight with the insurance company for them to insure checking inline, hence we have only checking pick up games and not a checking league. We are working on it though. Although I agree roller hockey is not real hockey (it is just basketball on skates), not every roller player plays traditional roller style hockey, some of us are just looking for cheap “ice time” and want to play checking and we are trying to go through the process of formalizing checking in inline. I live down here in Texas and for the last 2 years I have been trying to arrange a checking roller league but I have been stuck with the insurance company balking at the risk.

By: Schultz

Schultz — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:32:14 +0000

As the son of a die-hard Red Wings fan, I can tell you one reason the Joe was empty: it might possibly be the worst buidling to see a game in the world. Its old, its dirty, and more critically, its a very wide, squat building. The result is that the seats get very far away from the ice very quickly. Even relatively low seats are about as far away from the ice as the Verizon Center hallway. Higher seats are actually physically located in Windsor. (Ok, I made that part up.) In short, aside from the atmosphere (which is fantastic), you can actually get better views of the game from your sofa.