On Frozen Blog

A few of our readers yesterday thought us advocates for General Sherman’s re-entry into, and reigniting of, Atlanta. Not true. We only want the rink there burned down. The good news is that were you to do that on a game night no one would get hurt.

Jokes, people, jokes.

(Sherman’s dead, after all.)

These same readers thought us savagely ill-informed of Atlanta’s special claim to hockey, the present turnstile data there notwithstanding, hockey having already failed there once before presumably inconsequential. Personally, I’m a believer that NASCAR, the Braves, the Falcons, and especially SEC football are even more popular now in Atlanta than when the Flames skated there.

The truth of the matter is we really don’t know what the future holds for hockey in non-traditional markets in these very, very troubled economic times. However we do know that the present in most of them is pretty unsightly. Most particularly on game nights. We also know that Gary Bettman isn’t making frequent flier-building trips to Quebec these days to discuss curling.

We also know that something extraordinary is taking place up in Quebec City. At a time when pretty much everywhere else local politicians lose their jobs for suggesting use of public dollars for the construction of ballfields and arenas, Quebec City mayor Regis Lebeaume may well ride a platform of rink construction in his city to re-election. On Friday, October 16, Lebeaume announced plans to build a $400 million, state-of-the-art rink in Quebec City for the express purpose of securing an NHL franchise. The mayor has proposed his city’s spending $50 million, the province kicking in another $175 million, and the Fed another $175 million.

Actually, Quebec City and its mayor are thinking thoughts even larger than the NHL: they want the Winter Olympic Games there. Obviously they’d need a new rink for those.

On the occasion of the Montreal Canadiens’ 100th anniversary last week Commissioner Bettman was back in Quebec of course, but seated among all the Habs’ ex-greats he was also talking the future of NHL hockey in the province’s other big city. His audience? Quebec Premier Jean Charest.

“Quebec Premier Jean Charest said he is confident [an] NHL team will return to Quebec City after discussing the matter with Gary Bettman,” yesterday’s National Post informed.

“The planets are aligned,” the Premier claimed, “It is going to happen.”

Perhaps this is just pols talking, but then again, it’s Canadian pols talking — promising, really — hockey. To Canadians. Canada’s already settled its health care debate.

Now then. The next question would be, given the current landscape of beleaguered NHL franchises (like say in Phoenix, Sunrise, Atlanta, and Nashville), would Quebec’s second team be more likely to arrive via expansion or relocation? Another fun question might be: to what extent will the suffering continue to suffer knowing that soldout hockey looms in at least two outposts to the North?

If there ever is to be a team again in Quebec City there is greater than a 100 percent chance it will share a division with Les Habitants, and one of hockey’s all too brief but also all too inflamed rivalries would be reignited. Via the WHA-NHL merger what a miraculous wonder the Nordiques’ arrival was for hockey in the province of Quebec. A new Nordiques-Habs Winter Classic to christen Quebec City’s return to the league in four or five years’ time? Sign me up.

Such a move necessarily would precipitate a chain reaction of realignment/reconfiguration. Whatever movement takes place, once all the dust is settled, the league you have to think will move forward with an even number of teams balanced evenly in two conferences playing a relatively balanced schedule. You also have to think that the league would use the opportunity to redress some long outstanding travel inequities among its member clubs — particularly for say a member of distinct standing, such as Detroit. It would be wise (and “green” as the parlance of the times goes), for instance, for the league to give strong consideration to reducing the volume of flights its member teams must take. The virtuous beauty of the old Patrick division, for instance, was its bus-friendly charm for both players and fans. Let us get Al Gore enlisted in this cause! 

Anyway, for the immediate time being, we have a bit more than mere speculation in front of us — money is moving. And there’s nothing wrong with indulging this story with good humor. When a few years back the Pittsburgh Penguins veered in and out of bankruptcy and seemed shackled under local political indifference, we thought it good fun to share contact info for moving companies and Kansas City real estate brokers with our bloggermates devoted to the flightless fowl. We’d have expected the same in kind. It’s part of what makes sports so fun.  

More seriously, the hope here is that to the extent that notable restructuring does need to happen, and does happen, that the league remember what it’s asked of Washington — perpetrated upon Washington, really. Twice our team has been bent over big-time by the league — first with a rude and crude and never to be replicated again mockery of an expansion draft, which delivered a laughingstock roster of Ice Capaders here for the inaugural season, and the second with Bettman’s hairbrained Southeast concoction 25 years later. How many tens of millions of dollars has that decision cost Ted Leonsis with its weeknight matchups of the division dreck (for the longest while, too, eight game apeice with them!)? The league’s television broadcast partners would rather slot reruns of ‘Britney and Kevin: Chaotic’ than Southeast stupor.

So in this holiday season let us dream a little of filled rather than forgotten and neglected rinks, of old rivalries rekindled. Most especially, of hockey located where it is loved!