If this were football, it would mean they decided to punt!
The NHL Board of Governors have met and said their farewells, with little to announce to the anxious hockey world. The two day meetings provided for discussion on a few items including the controversial scheduling situation this year and in the finest tradition of governmental bureaucrats, the barons of the hockey world took the easy way out and put the issue up for further study.
With the Canadian teams clamoring for a more inclusive schedule (ie: one that brings the original six and the hot new guns west a bit more frequently) the talk of the pre meeting period was that an accommodation would be made that cut back on the inter divisional games a bit so as to send hockey’s new missionaries off to the distant territories to sell the game.
In the end the plan was laid dormant by one vote short of the required majority to put the plan in place. Instead, the owners decided to put the plans off for further study, leaving a good number of fans more than a little annoyed at the prospect of not seeing their childhood favourite team or the newest sensations at least once a year.
Also left off the table by the end of the meetings was any tinkering with the playoff format for the moment. No more talk of a March madness bracket or the idea of providing byes and adding more teams. The loss of the bracketing plan is seen as a defeat for Gary Bettman, who preferred the basketball model of playoff seeding, apparently as it would be good for American Television to follow along with. Unfortunately for Mr. Bettman the Governors didn’t see the wisdom of changing a set up that seems to work well. All in all as the last round of golf was played, the final set of tennis put down and of course the final drink by the pool consumed it ends up as a status quo for now.
But maybe, it may not be so for as long as they might have wished. Those that came up short, will get busy working on the governors who could have gone either way, a bit of work and the proposals could soon be back up for discussion. It could be possibly as soon as the New Year, when they gather again in Dallas for the all star game in late January.
One Governor that they won’t be swaying is Brian Burke now of the Anaheim Ducks, he is against any further tinkering which would require his team to travel east any more than it does. It’s a stand that puts him at odds with his protégé and the General Manager of his old team the Canucks. Perhaps it’s just that he enjoys playing Vancouver, giving him a chance to gain some points at the expense of his old employer.
Showing posts with label NHL Board of Governors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NHL Board of Governors. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Monday, December 04, 2006
Board of Governors to look at schedules and playoff guidelines
As the thirty NHL Board of governors gather in the hockey hotbed of Florida today, two items will dominate the agenda. In between rounds of golf and martinis by the pool, they’ll discuss the growing list of complaints about the unbalanced schedule in place this year.
With some teams receiving visits from the NHL’s new hot guns about as often as a sighting of Hailey’s comet, there is a move afoot to tweak the schedule so as to guarantee at least one visit a year from each team.
The new schedule parameters were designed to create rivalries within the divisions and conferences but sometimes too much of a good thing breeds contempt for the product. Every once and a while a fan wants to see more of a Sydney Crosby or an Alexander Ovechkin and less of the Minnesota Wild or Phoenix Coyotes.
The other issue is some change made to the playoff system. Whether it’s as dramatic as emulating the March Madness format of the NCAA basketball playoffs to something less dramatic than byes for the best and adding two more teams to the chase, the Governors will look at a variety of presentations.
There have been a number of suggestions put forward about how to solve the problem, one has been put together by Hockey Night in Canada’s Harry Neale, who has drawn up a project that would see all teams play each other at least once in each city before the teams get down to the nasty bit of inter divisional battles that make hockey in April so exciting.
His playoff suggestions are far more dramatic, giving the top two teams in a division a bye in the first round, adding two teams per conference to the playoff hunt and starting the playoffs with a best of three series to determine who would move on to meet the teams that received the byes. It’s a major departure from what we’ve become used to and one has to wonder if the NHL’s Board is really interested in such a massive makeover of the playoff system.
Another option is to follow the guidelines of the March Madness of college basketball, where teams are bracketed before the playoffs begin and will know the road they need to take all the way through to the finals. It would be an approach that would certainly be a godsend to those putting together the office pool.
Other business at hand today, an introduction to the new owner of the Penguins, a discussion on where the TV contracts are going these days, some number crunching about income expectations and a review of where the league is going with its new media ideas. And Ted Saskin will address the board, the second year in a row that the player’s union rep has made a presentation to the NHL's power brokers.
With some teams receiving visits from the NHL’s new hot guns about as often as a sighting of Hailey’s comet, there is a move afoot to tweak the schedule so as to guarantee at least one visit a year from each team.
The new schedule parameters were designed to create rivalries within the divisions and conferences but sometimes too much of a good thing breeds contempt for the product. Every once and a while a fan wants to see more of a Sydney Crosby or an Alexander Ovechkin and less of the Minnesota Wild or Phoenix Coyotes.
The other issue is some change made to the playoff system. Whether it’s as dramatic as emulating the March Madness format of the NCAA basketball playoffs to something less dramatic than byes for the best and adding two more teams to the chase, the Governors will look at a variety of presentations.
There have been a number of suggestions put forward about how to solve the problem, one has been put together by Hockey Night in Canada’s Harry Neale, who has drawn up a project that would see all teams play each other at least once in each city before the teams get down to the nasty bit of inter divisional battles that make hockey in April so exciting.
His playoff suggestions are far more dramatic, giving the top two teams in a division a bye in the first round, adding two teams per conference to the playoff hunt and starting the playoffs with a best of three series to determine who would move on to meet the teams that received the byes. It’s a major departure from what we’ve become used to and one has to wonder if the NHL’s Board is really interested in such a massive makeover of the playoff system.
Another option is to follow the guidelines of the March Madness of college basketball, where teams are bracketed before the playoffs begin and will know the road they need to take all the way through to the finals. It would be an approach that would certainly be a godsend to those putting together the office pool.
Other business at hand today, an introduction to the new owner of the Penguins, a discussion on where the TV contracts are going these days, some number crunching about income expectations and a review of where the league is going with its new media ideas. And Ted Saskin will address the board, the second year in a row that the player’s union rep has made a presentation to the NHL's power brokers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)