The Fading Light of the NHL

Is it me or is the NHL going bad quicker than a jar of mayonnaise on a hot summer's day. I'm not talking about the players or the game, rather I'm talking about the NHL product in all of its forms. Allow me to enumerate some of the failings that provide this ever increasing feeling of product erosion. In the last several games that I've watched, the officiating has fallen to nothing better than peewee hockey, though this may be egregiously unfair to peewee officiating. I've seen pucks hitting the protector screen over the glass, high sticks (not just shoulder high - I'm talking well over your head high), face punches, missed off sides, slashing, goaltender interference, too many men on the ice (I mean 7 men on the ice!!!!), missed head shots, slew footing and hitting players from behind. All of these infractions have gone unnoticed by the very people purported to be watching for these very things and many of these offences have been turned into goals by the team committing those infractions.
This has a very significant impact on the game and how it is perceived by the very people this league is apparently trying to attract.

We have all witnessed the often pathetic, sometimes comedic handling of the Phoenix Coyotes debacle. In business, one expects an organization the size of the NHL, from time to time, to realize failings such as the Coyotes. An organization can't expand without taking risk and therefore I do not find fault with the attempt to put a team in Phoenix. Where I do find fault, was in their inability to recognize the severity of the problem before it got so far out of hand and to take remedial steps to correct its course. What they now have is one of the hockey's iconic figures (Gretzky), at odds with the NHL in a public way. Gee, this sounds all to familiar (Orr, Howe, Hull). Furthermore, the NHL has created the distinct impression in Canada that while it is perceived and treated like the poorer cousin; this cousin is basically picking up the tab (or a large part of it) on behalf of the richer target markets. Everyone understands that Canadians would enjoy hockey if it was played at midnight, broadcast on radio in a candle lit room. Heck, it is how the NHL came about, but I would be very cautious about letting that attitude permeate the country for too much longer, lest a European league takes interest in the Southern Ontario, Quebec and western Canada markets.

Finally, many Canadians wouldn't know this but there is a huge p#$%%#g match going on between cable tv and satellite broadcasting here in the great US of A. Caught in the middle of this are hockey viewers who have paid for but don't receive the services promised. It started with the lapse of the contract between Versus and Direct TV. Versus as you may not know, was given broadcasting rights by the NHL when ESPN showed no interest in their product several years ago. Nearing the end of September 2009, Direct TV announced it would not be broadcasting the Versus network as they were being held hostage by Versus for increased fees. Versus, coincidentally is owned by one of the cable companies. Why, may you ask, would the NHL not intervene in this little tiff? Well the cable companies are also owners of several teams in the NHL and have been carving out this little territory for themselves. Fair enough, as a viewer one realizes that if you want to watch the product you'll ante up the money for the NHL Center Ice package at a fairly hefty cost of $170.00 per year. Lo and Behold, if you purchase the NHL Center Ice package on Direct TV, the cable companies refuse to provide the HD signal that viewers of the NHL Center Ice package get with the cable companies. Even the games broadcast in HD from Canada are being blocked out.

Keep up the good work NHL.