I’ve heard it all regarding the opinions people have on the National Hockey League: the people who are glad it’s back, the people who wish it was still gone, and the people who didn’t know it left in the first place. But I heard an interesting comment the other day during the first couple of games of the season.
A buddy of mine told me, “Hockey is no longer relevant in our minds; we’ve gone a year without it and moved on. The players and the owners let us down, and it will take a while before we love it the way we did before the lockout.”
Was hockey all that great before the lockout? I was one of the few who watched one of the greatest Stanley Cups of all time, when the Lightning took down the Flames in seven games. However, I’d bet that at least half of the people reading this column thought the Devils, Red Wings or Avalanche took home the cup before reading the preceding sentence.
When I asked some people on my floor to name some of their favorite hockey players, I got a who’s who of stars from the NHL ’94 video game-names like Gretzky, Lemieux, Messier, Lindros, Roenick, Jagr and Hull rolled off their tongues. The consensus seemed to be that somewhere in the ’90s the sport with the puck, the stick and the ice had lost its cool.
When Wayne Gretzky came to the Los Angeles Kings in the early ’90s, everyone in America suddenly embraced a sport that our friends from the north have loved since its inception. Think about it: Other than Miracle, when is the last time you have heard an allusion to 1980s hockey? After the Great One invaded the states, it was suddenly chic to know what a one-timer was.
Somewhere along the line, hockey became an afterthought for the sports fan. Was it the influx of teams that played in warm weather and donned over-the-top logos? Maybe it was the disappointment and anger that arose from the end of Disney’s Mighty Ducks trilogy.
Whatever the reason, the Stanley Cup just never seemed like an epic event after the New York Rangers defeated the Canucks in seven thrilling games in 1994. They remember a possessed, almost sinister-looking Mark Messier laughing and screaming while raising up the cup, putting an end to hockey’s version of the Curse of the Bambino.
With apologies to the die-hard fans out there, I will say the following: for the past decade, hockey has had its moments, but has failed to captivate us as it had did in the past. Those great players I mentioned retired, got old or got injured.
The style of play seemed to become less skillful and more dull and bruising as teams like the New Jersey Devils piled up the cups. The size of the goalie’s equipment seemed to increase, whereas the speed of play seemed to decrease.
In addition, there was an extreme lack of parity in the sport as teams like the Red Wings and Avalanche amassed stars players and championships. I believe it got so bad that the lockout actually saved the sport from becoming irrelevant.
Now the NHL can implement new rules to make the game interesting again, and the salary cap can help achieve competitive balance.
The fans have also responded. The Pittsburgh Penguins, a franchise once on the brink of bankruptcy and contraction, has already sold out most of its regular-season home games, due to Lemieux and prodigy Sidney Crosby.
Scoring is up dramatically, and the league is doing a better job marketing its young talent, even though they have lost most of their major corporate sponsors.
As for those All-Stars of the Sega Genesis era, many are still directly involved with the game. Lemieux is player-owner of the Penguins, and Gretzky is serving as Hull’s coach on the Coyotes. Jagr, Lindros and Roenick still lace the skates up every night, too.
So here’s to the best NHL season in a long time and to hopes that hockey can find a new golden age out of the turmoil of the lockout.
