The NHL’s Great Mistake

We have now past the scheduled start of the NHL season, and again, for the second time in 8 years we are without professional hockey. The NHL, which locked itself out of the entire 2004-05 season, had just started to really gain some traction again in America when, once again, it has locked itself out.

The NHL was on the verge of becoming a sport to watch in America again, after teams from LA and the New York Area (New Jersey Devils) played in the Stanley Cup finals. Finals which, in a city such as LA, which hasn’t cared much for hockey since The Great One left, were being watch widely. In fact, the clinching game of the finals received a 13.6 household rating in LA, which is the best there since 1976.

The point of all of this is that the NHL was starting to be paid attention by American sports fans. But alas, this lockout, if it last the entire season, could be the beginning of a long and ugly demise for the the league in America. One of my best friends is a hockey fan above all other sports, and says that if they do indeed lockout for the entire season, it is going to take him years to forgive them at this point.

The issue is that they just simply isn’t the level of money to go around in hockey as there is in the other professional sports in America. Some clubs simply are not making the profits that they need to make in order to stay competitive.

I have a few ideas for how the league could improve and give itself a better chance with American Sports fans. I feel that the NHL should cut six teams and go down to 24. They should stay in their strongest markets. And they should explore new markets without major winter sports teams already established there.

Dropping down to 24 teams would help for a few reason. I think you would take some of the failing teams out of the equation, meaning that there would be higher profit ratios across the league. Another issue with the NHL to me is that the talent is very diluted. Fourth lines at this point are no more than filler players who are getting 5 minutes of ice time a game. With 6 less teams there would be more talent for less teams making the hockey better in general. Better, more exciting hockey would bring more fans. And, staying with me here, fans bring money.

It is clear that ESPN and the NHL have not been getting along lately, as ESPN has spend 100 times the amount of time talking about Tim Tebow as they have talking about the lockout. However, ESPN is clearly not opposed to putting hockey on their networks. Just recently, the start of the KHL (Russian Hockey League) was shown of ESPN2 and ESPN3. To me, this seems like they are just rubbing the NHL’s face in the fact that the NHL has been yet unable to get hockey back on ESPN since the lockout in 2004-05.  I do think though that the NHL may have been on it’s way back to at least getting a spot at the negotiating table with ESPN before this lockout. I cannot see, however, it happening anytime in the near future now.

The NHL owners have made a grave mistake in locking the league out. Lockouts are about money, and the owners think the players are receiving too much of their profits. The issue now is that even if the players agree to take less percentage of the profits, there are going to be less profits than there would have been with no lockout. The league has a long contract with NBC to broadcast games, but if they had continued to let the momentum build as it was, they would have been able, at the end of this contract to look outside of NBC. Now, as viewership is going to fall, as it always does with a lockout, there is going to be less options for the league to look for a new and more profitable TV contract. And, TV contracts are where a large portion of the income comes from for professional sports teams.

Locking out not only hurts the players and owners as neither of them make money during this time period. It most of all hurts the fan base of the NHL. It was not a large fan base to begin with, and I am here to tell you that I have already lost interest in whatever is left of this season. If that is anything.

Time To Catch Up…

It’s been a long while since I have been on here. I have been busy but it is not really an excuse. So, time for a blog catching up on a lot that is going on. Since I have last blogged the Cam Newton case has blown up. Seems like the NCAA is going to find something wrong, and who knows if Auburn knew about it. If they did, or even if they didn’t, does it matter? Colleges have players getting paid at them, whether the NCAA likes it or not. The NCAA can try to do all they can, but if there is a way for a college student to make a quick buck, they are going to take it. The next question that people are posing is whether or not Auburn should continue to play Newton while the investigation is going on. Of course they should continue to play him, and it would be stupid not to. If he is guilty, you are going to lose all your wins anyway, so why not make a push for a National Title. Makes perfect sense to me.

Moving on….The Blue Jackets are on a tear right now, moving their record to 12-6 with a 3-0 trip to California. Garon has been a monster this year posting a .960 save percentage. That is otherworldly and I can just pray that it keeps up. Nash continues to lead the offense, checking in with 16 points right now after his three goals in the win over the Ducks. Right now the Jackets 24 points would put them 4th in the West, and they have at least one less game played than everyone but the Wings. Looking good early on here for the Jackets.

I went to my first Xavier game this year and I would have to say that it was a little painful to watch. They had to beat IPFW in overtime, and there was not much offense to speak of. In that game, Mark Lyons was a problem. It seems as though in the second half the other night against Iowa he was great, but the kid has a lot of work to do. Holloway of course is a monster and is averaging over 25 points per game right now. He is going to have to lead this team that will probably only go about nine players deep all season. McClean making it back for the second game of the season was huge too, they need his presence on the boards. Rebounding is something that Frease needs to make a priority because the man is not good at it and he is 7 feet tall. This team might have some issues, but it also has a ton of talent and I expect by the end of the year it will be a pretty solid team.

There could be some pretty cool news for the Reds this offseason happening tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day that the NL announces the winner of the MVP award and the “experts” think that Joey Votto will take the hardware home. This seems to be the right call, though Pujols and Votto were pretty much at the same level. Dusty Baker came in second to Bud Black by one point in the NL Manager of the Year vote, and I am totally okay with that. I believe that he was not the reason that they were good and he should not be rewarded for being given a good team. On the other hand Black was given a terrible team and made them contend until the last three weeks of the season. Black deserved the award.

Michigan finally became bowl eligible for the first time in a couple of years, and celebrated like the won the National Title. You know what though, I am totally fine with that. I am happy that they are going to be in a bowl this year and if they finish the year with 8 wins it will be a fine season with the awful defense that they have. Next year, they need to get rid of Greg Robinson and the freshman that are playing will be older and wiser. I would think that they could be looking at 9 or 10 wins next season with how young of a team they are. That would be really nice after the seasons that they have been putting together over the couple of years…….UC won big last night to snap a losing streak that was getting embarrassing after the past couple of years. I love the Bearcats, but the way they were playing was not up to par with how good they are. They need to step up and work hard at getting to a bowl game this year. This team is too good to finish with less than 6 wins. Come on Butch Jones.

The Bengals are a joke….

And I still cannot bring myself to talk about Arsenal, so I won’t just this moment.

Weekend Roundup

It is a wonderful time of the year. This time of the year is wonderful because when we make it to the weekend we can be sure that there are going to be plenty of sports on to take up or time. With all football, college and pro, mid-season, hockey and basketball starting, baseball ending and soccer picking up steam there is enough sports to keep a guy like me busy for most of the weekend. So let’s get into some of the action from this past weekend.

I’m going to start with soccer since it is the sport that brought me the most joy this weekend. All of the big teams won to keep pace with leaders Chelsea in England. My boys Arsenal had to put in a goal in the 89th minute to take their game from last place West Ham. That does not tell the whole story though. Robert Green, who made a huge blunder for England against the US in the world cup, came up huge for West Ham and player one of the better games I’ve ever seen a keeper play. Arsenal had plenty of chances and I will take the 1-0 win. Chelsea were put on their back heals by Blackburn, but fought back through Anelka and Ivonovic to keep a 5 point lead over the rest of the league. Nani inspired once again and Man Utd kept pace with the rest. The only big team to fall this week was Man City. After looking like true title contenders two weeks ago, things have gone quite wrong for them.

So on from there to college football. Brian Kelly has had a bad week. I thought I knew what a bad week was, but I guess I won’t until a student dies on my watch, and then my once storied football program loses to Tulsa. Then I might know what a bad week is. To be honest, I don’t feel bad for the guy being that I am a UC fan and all. Speaking of UC, how pathetic did they look on Saturday? Man, it was painful to even watch. Anderson is no Collaros and UC is not the same team without Collaros. Though I think that may not have mattered all that much. Lets be honest, Syracuse was the better team at Nippert Stadium on Saturday. I am beginning to question Butch Jones. So football did not start out well with UC losing, then it was on to watching Michigan prove that they do indeed have the worst defense I have ever seen against Penn State. I was hoping on every drive that they would just hold Penn State to a field goal. If you are hoping your defense hold a team to a field goal, your defense is in trouble. But hey, Denard Robinson looked good. One more win for a bowl….

Other thing happening in college football: ABC decided that I needed to watch the Ohio State massacre of Minnesota instead of a good game like Oregon and USC. Ohio State has really looked like a good team in the 2 weeks since they lost to Wisconsin though, so that makes me sad. Auburn won again, by 20, against a pretty week ‘Ole Miss. But a win is a win and even though they dropped to second in the BCS standings, they are still in line to play for that National Title. The new number 1 in the BCS is Oregon, whose offense looks rather unstoppable. My friend and I were talking and decided that we would like to see a Boise State and Oregon National Title game.

Well the Bengal’s lost again and this is quickly becoming the theme of the season. It is nice not to really care all that much though. I did watch a lot of the game and they did look good on the first drive. That is the only time they looked good though. They were driving with a chance to tie the game there at the end until Palmer threw the ball to no one in particular, unless you count the Dolphin that intercepted the pass. I am looking back the post I put up defending him and thinking about deleting it. Kidding, but he is not good anymore. Brett Favre started again for the Vikings, and I still don’t care. ESPN however does, so we will be hearing about it a lot this week.

The fourth game of the World Series happened last night and it was an alright game. Dominate pitching by the Giants has given them a 3-1 lead in the series. If I have to offer a guess I would say that the Rangers manage a win tonight to let the Giants home fans enjoy their teams glory in-game 6. I thought this would be a better series than it has been and actually thought that the Rangers would win it in seven. Not sure why I am saying this now, because no one knew that before and I could have acted like I was right all along. Oh well. I hear that the rating say that baseball actually beat out football last night, so maybe the sport isn’t completely dead yet.

I watched my first Blue Jackets game of the year Saturday night too. Well okay, I was back and forth between that and college football. But Dish Network got Fox Sports Ohio back, so now I am able to watch as many games as I want. My first watching experience did not go so well with the Jackets getting beat 5-1 but I am sure I will get so see some wins this year too.

Blue Jackets Experiment…

So I decided this year to become a Columbus Blue Jackets fan this season. A little bit more about why I am a Blue Jackets fan now can be found here: https://unfairsportsthoughts.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/since-its-hockey-season/.  I have tried really hard to keep up with them, but right now I have Dish Network, and Dish Network and Fox Sports Ohio do not have an agreement right now. So I don’t get Fox Sports Ohio and I don’t get to watch the Blue Jacket games when they are on. Since I haven’t been able to watch them I am still keeping up with them the best that I can. It is only going so well right now though. I mean, I know what their record is, how many points they have and who the team leaders are statically.

The point of this is to say, I am trying to be a Blue Jackets fan, but I don’t feel like one right now. I have not seen a second of them so far this year. I am going to try to do better seeing their games, whether is comes from streaming them or going out to a bar or something that is willing to put hockey on TV. Anyway, I am happy that the Jackets are over .500 and I think that they are could push for a playoff spot this year. Since over half the league makes the playoff, that is viable. And honestly, I would happy with the playoffs from this young team that has a lot to build on. For now, go Jackets and keep up the good work!

Weekend Preview

So I am writing about the upcoming weekend early this week. And I’ll be honest, it’s just because I want to write something and I am not sure what to write about. So I am going to include tonight’s world series game as part of the weekend because it’s my blog and I’ll do as I please. Michigan and UC and Arsenal play on Saturday, so for me that should be a good day. Sunday the Bengals play and there is a chance that they won’t be on TV. That would probably be a good thing for the cities moral.

I’ll start with tonight because there is a World Series game, and I am excited about it. Cliff Lee was blown up last night by a weak hitting Giants lineup, so I can’t help but be fascinated by what may happen tonight. The pitchers going are Matt Cain and C.J. Wilson. Both are pretty solid pitchers so it should be a good pitching match up right? Well that is what we thought last night too. Everyone is talking about Lee pitching badly and there being a ton of runs given up by two aces last night. I am confused on how people are getting over Benji Molina running the bases. I mean, have you ever seen anything more entertaining? I know I haven’t. I am going to go out on a limb and say that the Rangers take this game, with a score line around 3-1. I know that Cain is a good pitcher, but I promise that the Giants are not a good offensive team.

Saturday morning is always soccer time for me. I will be able to watch Arsenal again this weekend and they have looked quite good lately. I actually think that myself and some of my friends may be getting together to watch the game, which is always a little crazy in America. The English Premier League is still not all that close right now with Chelsea still looking like they will not concede even ten goals on the season. All I can hope for is that Arsenal wins to keep pace at this point. Go Gunners!

After soccer goes off Saturday, of course, becomes all about college football. There are some good games this week, but I would like to start here by complaining that the Saturday night game is going to be Ohio State vs. Minnesota. I mean, seriously, Minnesota is awful and Ohio State should realistically win this game by 50-60 points. Why should I be stuck watching them with Oregon and USC will be playing at the same time. Speaking of USC and Oregon, I am pretty excited about this game. I mean, with the defense that USC boasts it should be a walk in the park for the high-powered offense that Oregon has, but it should be fun to watch at least. Michigan plays Penn State this weekend and it is a winnable game for them. If they do get the win, they will be bowl eligible for the first time in 3 seasons. Denard Robinson has had time to heal now, which is good as well. If Michigan is going to win they need him to be healthy. Speaking of teams that need their starting QB to win, UC may be without Zach Collaros this weekend. This would put getting a win in doubt, even though they are playing Syracuse. I think that UC, with or without Collaros, wins this game but it is going to be a close one.

I forgot, but also going on tonight is Florida State vs. N.C. State. This should be an okay game. FSU is a really solid team, but N.C. State is better than people give them credit for. I have watched both of these teams play a couple of times this year and I am impressed with both. I am more impressed with FSU and I believe that they will get a 14 point win tonight, but N.C. State may put up a better fight than some people expect.

The Bengals play against the Dolphins on Sunday….

The Blue Jackets play tonight against the Oilers and then on Saturday against the Avalanche. They have surprised me so far by being 5-3 and need to keep up the good play on the road. I expect that they will eventually start to lose some games on the road, but they should start to win some at home too. This team, if it keeps playing like this may be able to push for a playoff spot. I mean, only like 6 teams total don’t make the playoffs right?

There is a good amount going on this weekend, so turn on the TV, sit down and enjoy. Sports can make or break my weekend, so lets hope for some good wins this weekend huh?

Since It’s Hockey Season…

I guess I can go ahead and write something about hockey since the season is starting and I am at least a little excited about it. I am more excited about it than I have been in a long time, and it is because I am taking an interesting in a new team for me. I am throwing myself into the fire and becoming a Blue Jackets fan. I am going to do it right to. I am going to become a real fan even if it kills me, and it might kill me.

Everyone seems to have the Blue Jackets as either the worst or the second worst team in the Western Conference and to be honest with you, I really don’t blame them. I know a good amount about hockey thanks to my friend Nathaniel, who likes the sport just a little bit. He and I talk a lot about it, and I play fantasy as well. I point all of this out to make the point that I know who some of these hockey players are. I know who the big name guys are, I know who the young studs are. I know almost every starting goalie in hockey. What I don’t know though, are most of the players that play for the Blue Jackets. It is going to take a little while getting into the season and watching games to learn who these guys are and who is good and who is not.

Learning new players and learning new teams is what makes sports exciting to me. It is why, after 2 full years of engrossing myself in soccer, I am still fascinated. I don’t know all of the players, even on the big teams, in soccer because the sport is so big. Well I am hoping that taking a liking to the Blue Jackets, no matter how bad they are will help me with falling back in love with hockey.

I fell in love with hockey, well let’s say I fell in “like” with hockey at a young age. I started to like it at the same time as all of the kids who are my age. I started to like it when I saw the Mighty Ducks movies. And after the first movie I knew the name of one player and one player only. That player was Mike Modano. I started to root for him and started to root for the stars. They won a Stanley Cup when I was young, and I knew it was a big deal, but I was a Modano fan. I stuck it out with the Stars for a long time, but the last couple of years I had lost interest. Well this past off-season they let Modano and Turco go, two of the people I loved. I figured it was time for a new team, a team I could watch and go to games of.

The only bad part….The Blue Jackets are that team, and they are no good.

Oh well, I am going to be a true fan anyway. I mean, they have Rick Nash right? At least that is a bright spot. Steve Mason was good two seasons ago!! (see, I told you I knew a little bit still!!). So yeah, there are some promising players on the Blue Jackets, and I have to hope that these guys are going to carry this team to the playoffs. Yeah, I think the playoffs are a realistic goal for any team in the NHL, since you know, over half the league makes the playoffs!!

So here are the goals for my first season as a Blue Jackets fan. Make the playoffs, and I don’t even care if they get swept in the first round like two years ago. The other goal, is to win the series against those damn Red Wings. Nathaniel, the hockey loving friend, is a Red Wings fan and I think it would be a lot of fun to have something to talk crap about. Because right now I have nothing, and I refuse to be the fan that talks crap when they have nothing to talk crap about.

So welcome to the new hockey season and GO BLUE JACKETS. And go Rick Nash (I promise everyone knows how good you are even though you’re on a bad team!)