Thought for the Day: Gonna be some changes made

Thought for the Day: Gonna be some changes made
August 14, 2008

First things first:
Today's theme is "Who's Your Puck Daddy".

So, at Puck Daddy, Yahoo's awesome hockey blog, they are working on the dog days of summer by having hockey notables, and average fans, submit their top five ways they would change the NHL.  As I am currently house-sitting at my parents and watching USA/Greece in Olympic Basketball, I thought I would put together my top five list.  I'm eschewing "clever" for "best ideas, even if someone else has already said it".

1). White jerseys at home.
This is the traditionalist in me (and yes, I know, the Original Six era had colored jerseys at home), but even after four seasons of dark jerseys at home, it still takes me a good five seconds of watching to get my bearings during a regular season game.  Wear the whites at home and don't worry about the third jerseys, if they look good, they will market themselves.

2). No touch icing.
This is the college hockey fan in me, but I know it would be safer for the players and would likely discourage icing if teams knew they were likely to incur both the faceoff and the no line change on a dump in.

3). Treat U.S. Hockey Fans like Football or Baseball Fans
Hockey broadcasters on national television games seem to have this feeling that every person watching the game is watching hockey for the first time.  Give us strategic breakdowns, show us why a play worked, or why the transition broke down and the like.  John Madden proved that you could analyze a football game with tactical and strategic talk and the average fan would follow.  The CBC crews do this with a pretty decent frequency, U.S. hockey fans deserve no less.  In fact, if you could figure out a way to, every so often, throw a straight Hockey Night in Canada feed to an American audience, it could be a huge win.  American soccer fans will watch the straight English feed of EPL games on Fox Soccer Channel, why not have a straight Canadian feed of an NHL game on Versus?  (Yes, I realize they did this at least a couple of times in the playoffs.  I just think they should do it more often and include the CBC studio shows.)

4). Pep Bands, Yes!  Spirit Squads, No!
Admittedly, this is a tough sell because you would lose a 50-75 seat block in your arena to it, but one of the best things about college hockey is the minimum of piped in music during stoppages of play.  College hockey also has the advantage of a built in fight song and pep band repertoire, but if the Whale can have Brass Bonanza, it can be made to work.  The live band wouldn't need to be there for every game, it would be a tough sell, but once or twice a month, bring in the band.

By the same token, we must work to eliminate the following scourges: "Game Day Hosts", the one CD of music that is distributed to every NHL team at the start of the season, scoreboard encouragements to "get loud" or "get rowdy", any encouragement to bring sexy back, anything that involves fat guys running on the ice while shirtless, and anything involving the words "Cha-Cha Slide" or "Cottoneyed Joe".

5). The Original Six Trophy and the 1967 Cup
Like English soccer (or college football), having extra cup/trophy competitions throughout the season could add some spice to the regular season.  Figure out a way to have the Original Six play each other home and road (designating specific games divisional games as Trophy games) and the team with the most points in those games gets the Original Six Trophy.  Do the same for the 1967 Expansion Teams (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and San Jose (filling in for Oakland/California), the 1970s expansion teams (Vancouver, Buffalo, Calgary, Isles, New Jersey, and Washington), a WHA Trophy (maybe they could find the Avco World Trophy), and the like.  Perhaps the Canadian teams could play for a regular season trophy.  There are any number of possibilities, people would likely embrace them, and if properly sponsored, teams might appreciate a small "winner take all" bonus check should they win one of those trophies.

On some level, I'm just happy to have hockey (and the Stanley Cup) back.  The NHL has made some mistakes, but there is nothing fatal in them.  Identify them, fix them, and commit to continuous improvement, but not change for the sake of change.

That's all for today, until next time,
I am Craig Barker, hockey fan who cannot skate.