When the Evander Kane situation with the Winnipeg Jets blew up last week more than a few members of the hockey community rushed in to cry racism. Some comments were honest disagreements with fair analysis but others were downright pigheaded, sniveling, condescending, and ignored Kane’s many transgressions in the NHL’s conservative culture.
As the facts came out, it was learned that another Winnipeg player who’s black, Dustin Byfuglien, was Kane’s toughest critic and the man that threw Kane’s track suit into the shower.
The hockey media that tried to make a racial incident out of the Kane situation owe the rest of us an apology for their unbridled ignorance, laziness, and own political agendas. They also do a disservice to those in hockey who have faced racial discrimination. Fans on the outside will be more inclined to blow off legitimate stories of racial issues because they are tired of the media trying to manufacture racial controversies where none exist.
The NHL has much to apologize for but its conservative culture of rejecting the antics of Kane is a credit to the game, as it offers a haven for the millions of sports fans who are tired of the crotch-grabbing and profane freak show that the NFL has become.
The real loser in all of this is Kane. Had he opened his heart to Winnipeg and its passionate fan base he could have owned the town for life. It’s all on him.
NHL Fans will Pay Price for Ill-Timed World Cup
The NHL announced during the All-Star Break that there would be a World Cup of Hockey in the fall of 2016 that will take place in Toronto. Once you get past the celebrating and actually take a moment to analyze the situation, it will be the fans that pay the price for a tournament that will butt heads with the prime of college and pro football season, not to mention the Major League Baseball pennant races.
Last year, the Olympics cost the New York Islanders their best player and captain, John Tavares, who went down with a knee injury. The Olympics tore the Tampa Bay Lightning locker room apart as long time star Martin St. Louis demanded to be traded out of bitterness for being a second choice of Tampa Bay and Team Canada General Manager Steve Yzerman.
The NHL season is already too long with its 82 building dates that masquerade as regular season games, which is then followed by a two-month playoff grind that is the most grueling in all of sports. When you add international competition to the already jam packed schedule you end up with tired players that get hurt more frequently and games that are of lesser quality because of the fatigued players.
In the end, NHL fans, corporate sponsors, and the TV Networks all pay the price and suffer the collateral damage. There should be no international competition that includes NHL players, period. There is too much money invested by the fans, networks, and owners to have an outside event damage the league and its prized assets.
Vegas Halfway to Lighting the Lamp
Good news comes from Las Vegas where the NHL ticket drive for 10,000 deposits passed the halfway mark in just two days. Here’s hoping that the league puts a team in Sin City sooner rather than later.
Here’s also hoping that the proposal to call the team Nevada instead of Las Vegas is shut down fast. Las Vegas is an international brand as arguably the most iconic city in the world. Las Vegas has far more name cache than Nevada and the league should capitalize on it. People who will never care to see a hockey game will rock Las Vegas hockey jerseys all over the world just because it says Las Vegas for crying out loud!
It is the height of absurdity for the theory to be that if they call the team Nevada it will take away gambling connotations with the proposed franchise. Look, if you put a team in Las Vegas, gambling is going to be a part of the conversation no matter what you name it.
Leave it to the NHL to potentially miss the wide open net yet again on this one. Then again, this is a league that still allows fighting while claiming to want to get rid of concussions with its Department of Player Safety. That’s what’s known as an oxymoron with an emphasis on moron.
McDavid to be Patrick Ewing of Hockey?
The conspiracy theories have already started about the NHL rigging the draft lottery so that Connor McDavid ends up in Toronto, much like when Patrick Ewing ended up with the New York Knicks in 1985 after the NBA draft lottery than many to this day believe was rigged. The fact that the NHL does not show the actual drawing of the lottery balls leads credence to such conspiracies. There is little doubt that the NHL would love to have McDavid in Toronto as the savior of its most important money making franchise.
Low scores Low ratings
Only one out of the first four games on NBC have cleared the 1.0 mark for ratings this season. Sunday’s 1-1 regulation game between the Blackhawks and Penguins may have been good to those in the know, but to outsiders a 1-1 hockey game is just not interesting. The game remains imbalanced with goaltenders that are so big with such bulky equipment that there is far less net to shoot at. Unfortunately, the NHL doesn’t want to fight Donald Fehr and the players union on making goaltender equipment smaller. The only realistic alternative is to then make the goals bigger. It’s called evolution.
Torts wants Back
John Tortorella has emerged from exile and now admits that he deserved to be fired last spring by the Vancouver Canucks. Torts wants back in the game as a coach. His teams were dreadfully boring to watch with their incessant shot blocking and cave man creativity on offense. But his antics behind the bench and at press conferences were the best in the game. If he comes back let’s hope it is as a more offensive oriented coach who maintains his acerbic personality. It would be a tragedy for Torts to emasculate himself. It also wouldn’t work.
