Out of all the major sports (Hockey, Baseball, Basketball, and Football) my least favorite is Hockey. This isn't because I hate the Leafs or because I didn't play hockey when I was younger or anything like that. It is simply because the NHL season is 82 games long and for the entire 82 games 99% of the players in the league don't try. They don't. They save it all for the playoffs. They wait until the Stanley Cup is on the line to go out onto the ice and play their best game.
Have you ever noticed when playoff time comes around in the NHL fans get all excited because they want to watch "playoff hockey" like it is some new form of hockey that was just invented and is really special. I understand that the playoffs mean more and that 82 games is a lot but seriously the level of play in the playoffs is so far above and beyond that of the play in the regular season it looks like two different games. I have watched all 3 Vancouver-St. Louis games so far and they have been amazing. Now if they had been regular season games do you think Brad Boyes would be diving to block shots? Or that scrums would ensure after every whistle because the guys were fired up and excited about the game?
No other sports league is like this, well at least not to this extreme. In football guys are making crazy plays and trying their best every game of the regular season and the caliber of play in the playoffs is just as high as in the regular season. You can attribute this to a shorter season if you want but 1 regular season game of football in the NFL is the physical equivalent to 10 in the NHL.
The real problem I have is that the NHL is struggling as a business. Every year the league loses money and teams are constantly being bought and sold and there are always talks of relocating teams due to poor sales. Maybe if the teams all tried for the entire season the fans would be there. Maybe if the coaches convinced their players to give 100% every game the on ice product would be better and fans would be attracted to the games.
Now I don't expect anything crazy like guys killing themselves mid-season after a 7 game road trip but how about some contact. You know why fans like playoff hockey? It is because guys finish their checks and the game is more physical. The new NHL is all about finesse players and scoring goals but come playoff time the game reverts to its old self and it once again becomes a contact sport.
Look at a team like the Phoenix Coyotes. They haven't made the playoffs since 2001. Now they haven't always had the best teams but I truly believe that if they treated every game like it was a playoff game they would make the playoffs. If they skated hard, finished checks, and had everyone trying to block shots they would be a better team. No one would want to play them because they played such a physically demanding game. Hell the team is coached by the greatest player of all time and they still don't try!
Now don't get me wrong there are plenty of guys who try. A guy like Ryan Kesler is going to go out every night and play his best. I wish the rest of his team would follow his example but they just don't. They go out and try to win but they don't play the best they can. They collect their pay cheque and bide their time until April rolls around and its time to take it seriously.
I love watching playoff hockey. It doesn't matter who is playing you know the games are going to be good. You know you are going to see everyone out there giving it their best effort and leaving everything they have out on the ice. Imagine that happened during the regular season too?
I am not trying to condemn the NHL or try to tear down the game of hockey. It is just so hard to watch a quality playoff hockey game and know that this is what I could be watching every time I turn on my TV. I sit there watching the Canucks play physical and treat every shift like its going to be their last ever and I get frustrated. To watch your favorite NHL team play in the playoffs is truly a gift and a curse.
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4 comments:
Have to be honest with you Mr. Choleras, one of your softest efforts to date. I would say an average NFL is closer to 5 times an NHL game. 16 x 5=80. And as far as basketball goes, I have never heard an NHL player admit to smoking pot before the game, Tweeting during halftime etc. And baseball has the least effort of all. The defenese submits Mr. Alex Rios and rests its case.
You also have to take into account the fact that if these players put their bodies on the line all season the way they do in the playoffs, they would all be dead by the end of the season. (not dead literally, i mean dead through fatigue and injury). By the time they hit the playoffs, they know they could only be 4 games away from the end of their season so they can sacrifice their bodies without worrying about another 80, or 40, or 30 games.
Plus, you want to talk about a sport where players don't put alot of effort in, lets look at baseball (I LOVE baseball, its probably my favourite sport, I am just proving a point). Chipper jones had to sit a game for a sore thumb. Really Chipper, you couldn't play through a "sore thumb"?.
Or even basketball, its the only sport where I have heard of a player being out with "an ingrown toenail".
the problem is that hitting is such an important part of hockey and yet during the regular season it doesn't occur. That would be like baseball players not sliding during the regular season. Or not diving to make catches. You can find examples of players in all sports being soft but Hockey is the only one a crucial part of the game is abandoned until the games actually matter.
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