In Visitors, I invite one person each week to share perspectives on a sport, a sporting event, sporting aspects or any thing in between. This week, Warren Kelly a huge ice hockey and NHL fan, joins us to give his thoughts on the NHL season behind us. If you would like to contribute for a future edition of Visitors, do not hesitate to e-mail me.

The Season That Almost Wasn’t

By Warren Kelly

A year ago, nobody was really quite sure if there was going to be an NHL season this year at all. Debate and argument from both sides of a bitter labor dispute threatened the sport – the only professional sport I’ve really enjoyed watching in about five years.

But when the puck dropped on the 2005-2006 NHL season, it dropped on a sport that had changed dramatically. There were rules changes that were designed to increase scoring. Sudden Death rules were eliminated – ties would once more be decided by shootout. A lot of people wondered how the fans would react. I wasn’t sure I would like the changes. I am a goalie fan, so I wasn’t thrilled with the new rules limiting goalies – I really didn’t care about high scoring games. I enjoy watching skilled net minders taking care of business, and I was skeptical.

The NHL did suffer for the elimination of the ‘04-05 season – ESPN dropped them like the proverbial hot potato. Even when the league picked up a cable contract, it was with the Outdoor Life Network (who?), which most hockey fans (myself included) had no access to. Thousands of fans throughout the US found themselves limited to watching the local teams, which was great for fans in Detroit, not so much for fans in Ohio, or Georgia, or anyone who followed a team other than the local favorite. I’m a Washington Capitols fan from years back, and being stuck watching only the Columbus Blue Jackets each week hurt. But at least it was hockey, and it was fun to watch.

And that was the surprising part – it was fun to watch, even for a defense-fan like me. Scoring was way up this season – average goals per game was 6.1 this season, up from 5.1 in ‘03-04 and 5.3 in ‘02-03. But there were some outstanding goaltenders this year – including a young man named Cam Ward, who continues to impress people in the playoffs. And the fans have forgiven the NHL; average attendance is up to close to 17,000 per game, which is a 2.4% increase over “last” season.

The ‘05-06 season also brought hockey fans a look at the future, with the debuts of Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. Much of the attention focused on these two young standouts, but this season’s rookie crop is much richer than just those two men, with future stars like Kari Lehtonen of Atlanta, Marek Svatos of Colorado, and many others. Fans are used to having to wait several seasons while the young guns are in development, but the new class this year are ready to go now, and promise years of quality play in the future.

Even the shootout rule change proved successful. The fans enjoyed watching the goalies go one-on-one with some of the top shooters in the league, and 12% of the games this season were decided by shootout. I think this was one of the rules that fans were the most undecided about, and there are still some who liked the sudden death overtime system better, but the shootout is here to stay.

This season will go down in history, I think, as one that brought the NHL back to life. At a time when there were serious doubts as to whether the league could continue, or at least if it could continue with the same number of teams that it currently has, the NHL – players and owners both – were able to show that they were serious about the game. They brought fans back after a full season had been cancelled, and managed to add new fans. Increased attendance, increased scoring, increased excitement all have given the NHL a second wind. It simply remains to be seen what they can make of it – whether they will squander their second chance, or use it to become even better.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 14th, 2006 at 7:59 am and is filed under NHL, Winter Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.