We Have Hockey 2013!
We Have Hockey 2013 !
After three long, contentious months of a ridiculous, unnecessary work stoppage “NHL” no longer stands for “Not Hockey, Lockout.” Hockey’s back! Finally! Who’s to blame for Lockout 2.0 (the owners) is irrelevant. So is the fact that it should’ve been over months ago. The bottom line is that both sides came to their senses and realized they had to get it done before another season was lost in time. If they hadn’t, they might as well have not even come back at all. Even in the warped world that is NHL logic, rational thought actually prevailed. If you think about it, that’s an amazing thing in and of itself.
Ultimately, I think the fans will come back. After all, what else do Canadians have to do in the winter? It’ll take some time, but they came back last time. And the NBA’s fans came back in record numbers after their lockout last year. Looking at the NFL’s attendance numbers, you’d never even know they had a lockout. Besides, the NHL was going much too strong before the lockout started and, as we all know, absence only makes the heart grow fonder. The condensed schedule might actually help, too. It sure did with the NBA last season.
But first, the NHL has a whole lot of mending to do. The owners need to realize that they can’t patronize the fans by sugar-coating the lockout as a “good” thing. Last time, they were able to work back into the publics good graces with dynamic young players and exciting rules changes that made the product better. They don’t have that this time. The Winter Classic was created in the wake of the 2004-05 lockout, and it quickly became the NHL’s marquee event. Except this year, the Winter Classic was a casualty of Lockout 2.0. So was the All-Star Game. Canceling your two biggest and most popular events doesn’t exactly help you on the public relations front. Especially when the reason for their cancellation is pure greed.
The owners also need to get out of their ridiculous “lockout first, negotiate later” strategy every time the CBA expires. Lockouts should be a last resort, not a first option. How can they expect to build any sort of public trust when the expectation has now become that there’s going to be an NHL lockout every X years? Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you. Fool me three times? Well, we’ve gotten to three. Is it worth risking number four in 2020 or 2022 or whenever?
Do the fans a favor and make this be lesson learned. Major League Baseball invented the pro sports work stoppage. Yet they’re the only one of the Big Four that hasn’t had a lockout in the past two years. After the ill-will created by the cancellation of the 1994 World Series, I’d be surprised if there’s ever a work stoppage in baseball again. Hockey needs to get that same message. We all stupidly figured they had after losing the 2004-05 season. Maybe by the time the expiration of this CBA rolls around a decade from now, they’ll have figured it out. For the sake of the sport and its continued growth, the NHL needs to stop it with the lockouts.
I have a few suggestions on things the NHL can do for its fans other than cheaper/free tickets and ridiculous apology messages painted on the ice. The first is guaranteeing Olympic participation and reviving the World Cup of Hockey. The owners are hesitant to allow the players to go to the Sochi Olympics, but the players want to go. And it’s what the fans want. After taking the game away for three months for no good reason, the owners need to start actually thinking about the fans. If that means shutting the game down for two weeks so that the NHL players can participate in the Olympics, so be it.
It’s already been clearly established that the NHL owners can’t see the big picture. But even they have to realize the exposure that only the biggest sporting event in the world can bring would only be a good thing for their sport and their league. Hockey’s an international sport. And the world’s best all play in the NHL. That’s why they need to play in the Olympics (which, ultimately, I think they will). And that’s also why we need events like the World Cup of Hockey.
Most importantly, the owners need to fire Gary Bettman. There might be only 30 people in the world who don’t think he needs to go. Unfortunately, those are the only 30 who have the power to do anything about it. But, if you step back and think about it, the NHL had lost a grand total of zero games due to work stoppages in its long, glorious history until Mr. Lockout showed up. In the 20 years since, there have been three lockouts (that’s important to note: each time it was the owners locking out the players), with more than 2,000 games lost, including the entire 2004-05 season.
Bettman’s clearly the problem, yet he still has a job! The owners who actually do get it need to take a stand and say enough’s enough. The only constants in Mr. Lockout’s tenure have been work stoppages, anger and general unrest. So do something about it! That’s what Major League Baseball did when they fired Fay Vincent. This whole commissioners hand-picking their successors thing isn’t helpful, either, but one thing at a time.
The owners can make long strides towards restoring their credibility by canning Gary Bettman (like they should). And may I suggest a potential replacement? Scot Beckenbaugh, the federal mediator who’s a hero to hockey fans everywhere. The voice of reason who got the two sides to put their anger and mistrust aside and hammer out a deal to save the 2012-13 season. The one man who saw through all the crap and knew that getting the players back on the ice was in the best interest of everybody.
If he hadn’t been involved, the NHL was destined to go down a path of self-destruction. Instead, Scot Beckenbaugh salvaged the 2012-13 NHL season. He shouldn’t be applauded. He deserves so much more. He deserves to be the NHL’s commissioner. And the fans deserve him. Because if Lockout 2.0 proved anything, it’s that Gary Bettman is in way over his head.
