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There's a really good read on Uni Watch about the NHL's Winter Classic.   The ratings slipped this year, and Uni Watch's analysis is that the novelty is wearing off.

Furthermore, the ratings may have been helped by Wrigley and then Fenway, and "Citi Field" isn't that sexy for a nationwide audience.   However, real Yankee Stadium is gone and the new fake one is tied up with a bowl game.  

Read the article, Citi might not be the lock Jeff and Rod Gilbert want it to be.

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This is making the internet rounds this morning.   I was just happy to hear the NHL is still in existence.  Alexander Semin scores from way out.


While I am sharing hockey videos - here's what happens when you give away hockey helmets and someone gets a hat trick. Stay with it.
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There used to be a great sport around these parts, and it was called hockey.   A lot of us used to enjoy it.

Back in 1994 my cousin was a big Rangers fan.  I liked blue and orange teams so I rooted for the Islanders.   The Rangers were on their way to winning a cup, and I needed to stop that from happening at all costs.   The Isles were useless in the playoffs that year but I fell in love with a scrappy Devils team and their awesome goalie Martin Brodeur - and these Devils seemed like they would be the ones to stop the Rangers from ever winning so I could keep on chanting 19-40 every time I walked past the cousin's house.

We were really into hockey 15 years ago.   I bought a Devils jersey.  I would watch every game at his house.  I'd show up with Devil horns and bring Devil dogs.  Anything to keep 19-40 alive.  Back in those days I had to get up at 3:30 in the morning for work.  It didn't matter, I stayed up for the NHL playoffs.

We all know that the Rangers won, and I lost - but hockey was alive.  It's good for leagues when the team from New York is good despite what those in the flyover states think.   Hockey had a brand new contract with FOX, and FOX was proving itself to be really good at this sports thing.

Then the geniuses had a lockout and started the 1995 season late.  The Devils won it, but they swept in the finals which didn't help the cause.  Neither did threatening to move to Nashville in the middle of a cup run.

Still we loved our hockey.   We played NHL 95 on the Sega Genesis like you couldn't believe.   Messier came and went and came back.  Even the great Wayne Gretzky came to New York.   However, little by little hockey was slipping away.  

Eventually the NHL decided not to play a season and nobody cared.

Tonight is the All-Star game.  It's 90 minutes away and I only now got excited enough to write about it.  I'm going to check it out and I hope I last more than five minutes.   I couldn't tell you who is playing, I don't know if I get Versus in HD (they keep telling me "you gotta see hockey in hi-def!") and I bet I won't recognize any of the players.

I have heard of Niklas Lidstrom but he decided he isn't playing and the league has decided to make him sit out a regular season game as punishment.  I've heard of Sydney Crosby, but he isn't playing either.

Well, I bet Martin Brodeur made the team.  Oh what's that - he's been out with an injury all season?  The Devils are somehow in first with the Rangers just a point behind.   You'd think someone would notice.

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I've been playing a lot of Fifa 09 lately, and I always enjoy the Premier League.

Futbol (soccer to youse guys) is interesting in how passionate small cities and towns can get.  Imagine packing in 50,000 to see FC Queens play Brooklyn United.   It will never happen here but it happens everywhere else.

The other interesting thing that happens over there is League Play vs. Cup Play and I wonder if that wouldn't help the NHL.

Sure, go ahead and play out your ridiculously long season chasing your Stanley Cup, but what if you took the season and made it better, while keeping teams interested and adding some international flavor to the game.

I propose Stanley Cup play and Sponsorname Cup play.

In the Stanley Cup play it will be the NHL as you know it.   The only change is that only 8 teams will make the playoffs.  That's right, I said eight.  You had better win your division or at least the one wild card.

Now the argument comes from the teams that will be hopelessly behind on January 1st.

These teams will have a second (and maybe third) life.   The Sponsorname Cup.   Once a week, teams will play in a separate tournament that does not count in the Stanley Cup standings.   Yeah I just added even more games.    I also propose we open the Sponsorname Cup up to international teams.  Let some teams from the Kontinental Hockey League in Russia.  They too start their season in September.

A little Moscow Dynamo vs New York Rangers on January 1?

Yeah the travel is a bear but you could have a few teams make the trip for Sponsorname Cup.  If teams can play preseason games in Europe, then I'm sure we can figure that out.

A quick World Cup (Soccer) type first round and then eliminations.   Play one cup game every few weeks.   You might not win the Stanley Cup but at least you'd have something to play for.

Have I thought all this out, no.   You chime in and help me work the idea.




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I guess this is fun.  I'm really glad they moved away from that horrible idea of making the last event at Yankee Stadium a hockey game.   How about some Rangers-Islanders at Corporate Bailout Stadium?    Too bad they'd never do two teams from one market.  

N.H.L. Ties Its Brand to Great Outdoors 

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

Published: December 31, 2008

The N.H.L. gleaned two simple lessons from the rousing debut of its Winter Classic game last New Year’s Day. No. 1: Do it again. No. 2: Make it much, much bigger.

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Good luck to Marty & The Devils as they embark on another season.

Martin Brodeur is one of the all-time hockey players, and arguably the best goalie of all time.

He had the misfortune to play for a franchise nobody cares about, and at a time when hockey did some stupid things such as not playing a season (that will hurt your career stats) and the even stupider move of not starting the 1994-95 season on time.

On 1994-95 for a second:   the Rangers had won the cup and the NHL had a network deal with Fox.  Hockey was cool and sexy, and Fox was excited to push the NHL as hard as they pushed NFL.   Starting that season in January killed all of the buzz and the elague never recovered.    (Not keeping Messier on the Rangers didn't help).

Meanwhile during 15 years of the NHL wandering thru the desert, Marty has won three rings with three coaches and a different supporting cast.   He will wind up with most of the career goalie records.  

If this guy were a Ranger there would be a statue of him outside the Garden.

Enjoy him while he's around and remember that whatever team is playing the Rangers is the team I am rooting for.

Newsday reports that it looks like there won't be a hockey game at Yankee Stadium. That was an awful horrible idea. The last game at the Stadium should be a Yankee game - hopefully game four of the World Series, a loss to the Mets.

http://www.newsday.com/sports/hockey/rangers/ny-spoutgame0517,0,5862918.story