And I like hockey! Seriously I do. It pains me to see the consistent failure Minnesota hockey is. I love a good playoff matchup, but I didn't watch anything past early May this year. A lot of that has to do with a league which has some major problems that are only getting worse. Here are three huge ones.
Every #1 seed lost in the first round of the playoffs. What is the value of having a great record if all it gets you is a speedy exit from the playoffs? Tampa, Washington, Nashville and Calgary gave you excitement heading into the playoffs, but all of them were shown the door. Tampa, the best team this league has produced in years, was SWEPT by a lowly Columbus squad. Not only do you send all the best players home in the first round, you force fans to have to familiarize themselves with teams they didn't pay attention to throughout the season just to follow what's happening. If only one of the top seeds lost, then you would've had a much better playoffs. Instead, it was a championship of "who?"
Come playoff time, the goal of the underdogs is to cripple the other teams best players with scrub players, and they do it with amazing success. Imagine five of the best players on a baseball team or football team were specifically targeted during a playoff game by some guy who was just signed to the respective team the day before. No one would tolerate it, but watching 4th line guys go head hunting, tasked with a mission of ending a season, and sometimes a career, of the best players on the other side, is a tactic which is neutralizing the sport, driving away the fans. And this is only getting worse.
The league has to get better at calling these games. Game five of the Stanley Cup final was decided on a blown call. Even the offending player knew they had committed a penalty. The refs missed it, and there was no way for the league to get the blown call correct. It's not diminishing the human referees to have available instant replay; it only makes the games better.
What can the league do? As unlikely as these things are to come to fruition, I would suggest three instant changes.
- Make the rinks Olympic size. The more open ice means the best players thrive. This alone would make it harder for underdogs to upset teams in the first round, but not impossible. The league should be looking to showcase their best teams and players in a given year, not have to send out addendum to update you on the no name wild card teams no one cares about. The open ice would make CONSISTENT skill important again.
- When a player injures another player, they sit until the other player comes back from the injury. If the player is assessed a suspension for injuring the other player, then the suspension begins the day the injured player returns, and they sit the entire time the player they injured is healing, and THEN the suspension. If a player cripples another player and that player doesn't ever return to the ice, then the player who caused the career ending injury never plays again either. This new standard would instantly stop the bloodbath the first round of the NHL playoffs has become.
- Give the teams the ability to have a play reviewed, regardless of whether it's a scoring play or not. If everyone in the arena sees the penalty, but not the refs, then you need to have the ability to right the wrong. Give each team a review each period.
I would also make the argument the league needs to move some of these teams out of the far south. Nothing against Miami, Arizona, Carolina and Dallas, but these teams are lowest rung on the ladders in these major metro areas. At least in Seattle, Quebec, Kansas City and Salt Lake City the communities would not have to have a tutorial to explain exactly what they are watching.
The NHL can have a great story like St. Louis happen, but with its lousy playoff situation, it gets diminished and ignored. Ice does indeed melt fast in June.
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