Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Tell me that you love me and that we belong together

What is your favorite thing about the NHL:

The Cup. The oldest trophy in professional sports, won with no less than 98 and no more than 110 games' worth of blood, sweat, and tears. You cannot touch that thing after your team has won it, can't dip your hand in the pool of history and emotion that the thing is bathed in, and come away unaffected by it in some way. Anyone who says otherwise is either lying or dead inside.

What is your least favorite thing about the NHL:

The brass and their complete lack of vision (not to mention the lack of any wherwithal to carry out any kind of vision). Forget about expansion and all you northerners' desire to contract every team south of Chicago for a moment. The NHL has historically been totally and completely unable (or unwilling) to think long-term--truly long-term. Short-sighted garbage like the Instigator Rule gets rammed through with no thought given to what kind of effect it will have on the League as a whole, bad TV deals are followed by even worse TV deals, and marketing? What is this "marketing" of which you speak?

4 comments:

Paige said...

I didn't know that much about the cup. Also, I totally agree with the NHL not doing enough marketing. Especially in the South. My sister lives in Atlanta, and she seriously asked me if the Sabres were doing well. Plus, she didn't even know if they had a hockey team... duh, can you say "Thrashers?" I'm never letting her down for that.

HG said...

You cannot touch that thing after your team has won it, can't dip your hand in the pool of history and emotion that the thing is bathed in, and come away unaffected by it in some way.

That's beautiful. I love the imagery. Wow.

Heather B. said...

Even before I really started watching hockey regularly, I was fascinated by the Cup. Definitely one of the best things about the sport.

Brit said...

The Cup is definitely more sacred then the trophies given to other sports teams, and has so much more history.

The NHL does need to market better, and try to reach out to the general populace more. My sister and I were debating lip sync hosts (its homecoming week, we're all a little strange), and I mentioned a hockey player and her response was "no one wants to see a hockey player". It made me sad.