There is no emotional roller coaster greater than that of fans of the NHL.
After feeling really good yesterday about how the league was handling itself regarding those potential rules changes, I wake up to read news that bothered me.
Allegedly, the NHL is contemplating expanding the playoffs from 16 teams to 20 teams, wherein there would be a best-of-three "play in" series between the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th place teams in each conference.
This bothers me on a number of levels. For starters, it makes the already-too-long regular season even more meaningless. Two-thirds of the league will make the playoffs, more than any other professional sport. Secondly, bad teams that probably should be rebuilding or moving towards youth (i.e. Rangers 1998-2003) will be tempted to acquire older and/or more expensive players in the hopes of making a playoff run for the 10th spot, which would almost always end in futility, and they would just be worse off for future seasons.
What is most troublesome for me is that while the NHL is making desperate attempts to increase offense and scoring, they create a playoff scenario that is likely to undermine that very desire. Let me explain why I feel that is the case. You will have four three-game playoff series taking place, those "play in" games, if you will. The teams that will be participating in those games will be the bottom eight that qualify for the playoffs. It is probably a good assumption that those clubs won't be among the most proficient offensive teams in the league. So now you may have weaker offensive teams participating in very short three-game matchups. Are they likely to go all out offensively? I doubt it. I would imagine they would play very close to the vest defensively, because if you get behind in a three-game series, it is very difficult to come back. I feel that in those situations, teams would play very conservatively to avoid giving up a cheap goal, and you end up with potentially twelve slow played, defensive snooze fests.
The league is just creating a novelty to generate some playoff money for those lower echelon teams. It will just extend the season even longer, and will produce bad hockey from teams that should have been playing golf around that time. I don't like it.
(I picked this up after I typed my thoughts above. I think Spector agrees with me, and he also mentions Bird and Rodent in his article today.)
There was some heated debate yesterday at the GM meetings. Can you guess what it was about? Sidney Crosby, of course. Well, not him alone, but the 2005 entry draft. Everyone wants a chance to grab this kid, and I can't say I blame them. More than likely, however, they will go with a lottery based on the teams' records from the last three or four years.
Overall, I guess, it seems that news outlets, well, the few news sources that give any coverage to the NHL now, are reporting a bit of optimism from those involved. Sportsnet reports that Gary Bettman hinted that the league could work with this mystery concept that is floating around now. The website also indicates that this concept, informally put forth by the NHLPA last Monday, involves revenue sharing and a luxury tax system. I am positive that it has to include some form of linkage and/or a hard cap, because I don't feel the league would give that up this late in the game.
TSN has an article recapping the GM meetings. You can read that here.
Scott Burnside is pretty busy over at ESPN. He writes that Gary Bettman and Bob Goodenow met privately on Thursday evening, and are probably planning more meetings for next week. Scott thinks the sides may have found some common ground. Mr. Burnside also gives his take on the GM meetings, and how they fit into the big picture.
So there is your news. If you want to actually watch some hockey, the Wolf Pack is in action tonight against the Providence Bruins. Game time is 7:05 pm EST. Also, the NCAA men's hockey championship will be decided tonight, as Denver University faces off against North Dakota. That game will be shown on ESPN at 7:00 pm EST.
Enjoy the nice weather, finally.
HDH
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