A few years ago, it was perhaps Dmitri Filipovic of the Hockey PDOcast, Travis Yost of TSN or Dom Luszczysyn, then of The Hockey News and now of The Athletic, who led the call for the NHL be more like the NBA. (That's Dom Loose-CHIZ-in, for those of you who are interested in saying the name close to correctly.)
Sell the players, not the teams, as the attraction. To be a big time sport, perhaps not tucked entirely in the shadows of the NBA, MLB and NFL, the players needed to earn star billing. This whole regional concept -- endless rivalry matchups as the selling pitch on TV commercials -- were not getting it done, either for them or the league.
It was a disservice that was limiting the revenue of the league, and the earnings of players, who could not translate any standing in the league into cash earned through endorsements, etc.
Sounds logical. It may be more difficult with the NHL's larger team rosters and the fact that the stars in the league do not play as large a share of minutes per game as do the NBA's stars. But it is a smart marketing concern.
Well, forget all that. It's Canada all the time now. In the true north, at least in English-speaking Canada, it's give us the Canucks, Oilers, Flames, Jets, Maple Leafs, Canadiens and Senators and only them. To the lower 24, get lost.
Perhaps this troubling noise began earlier, but I started to notice this drum being pounded last summer, right before the Stanley Cup bubble cities were determined.
For a time, it looked like Las Vegas and another city in the United States would be selected because of health concerns by Canadian and provincial governments over travel across the border during the Covid-19 pandemic.
David Amber, a Sportsnet host on television and the Hockey Central radio show and podcast out of Toronto, was aghast that Canada might not play host to any games last summer. Stunned how could this be? Never mind that no fans were being included and that there would be a full plate of games being shown each day.
OK, so I may not mind the proprietary nature of such feelings, but this was the start of something bigger, at least to me. Next was Amber's inability to consider how, should the bubble cities both NOT BE IN TORONTO, how could this work?
He could not see that games played in the morning in Las Vegas, or Vancouver or Edmonton, would be in the proper window for viewing in Toronto. The "but it's not in Toronto" whine was coming through loud and clear.
Eventually, and for myriad responsible reasons, the games were played in Edmonton and Toronto, with the final two rounds in Edmonton. Somehow -- it's a miracle, really -- viewers in Toronto were able to find a way to watch the games.
Now, with the start of the 2021 season, the drum beats for the North Division, or more important to the rights holders of broadcasts in Canada, the All-Canada Division, the Canadian Division or Canada. Whatever the term, nationalism has consumed Rogers Sportsnet (it has regional English-language contracts with the Canucks, Oilers, Flames and Maple Leafs as well as the national Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday night packages) and TSN (Jets, Senators and Canadiens English-language regional contracts as well as a share of the regional Maple Leafs rights).
Rogers' radio shows and podcasts have asked the same question each day: Can this Canadian-division format be incorporated into the regular schedule beyond this season? Why wouldn't you want it? Who doesn't want it? You get the drill. It's sounds much like my kids, when they were younger, asking why they couldn't have ice cream every day, why shouldn't they, who doesn't want them to?
Chris Johnston, a voice of reason and an insider for Sportsnet, was on the Leafs Hour show with Ben Ennis and JD Bunkis, who asked for the 4,000th time why this Canada division could not be maintained next season and beyond. (The day prior, they asked the same thing of NHLPA executive Donald Fehr, who gave them neither a real window of hope nor a bitter pill of dismissal.)
Johnston told the hosts that the downside of this format would be that stars like Nathan MacKinnon would not garner much attention up north, what with the Colorado Avalanche not crossing the border this regular season. Bunkis said that he didn't care about this, about the Dallas Stars or any other team not above the U.S.-Canada border.
So keep this in mind as we go forward. We will be hearing this noise for some time, and much like the lazy fans in the New York area who would rather see 900 games between the Rangers, Devils and Islanders than play teams in the West, North or South, there is a certain not-so-fine whine being produced.
I'll still serve them in the Lounge, and games from the North Division will be viewed (I am watching one right now), but perhaps they may be told to lower their voices slightly -- I am trying to be polite yet stern -- and to pay in "real money."*
*Quotation is from my good friend Steve, the former Anti-Puck who is now in Florida but still on the Ducks bandwagon.
