Let's take a quick trip across the pond to the NHL where last night the Buffalo Sabres paid a visit to the Verizon Centre in Washington DC to play the Capitals for their penultimate home game of the regular season.
Washington took an early lead in the game through Alex Ovechkin who scored on the powerplay for his 55th goal of the season. The Buffalo side came back just 4 minutes later though and took the lead with two goals within the space of a minute to make it 2-1 Sabres going into the first interval.
Goals at 23:41 and 23:50 both on the powerplay from Semin and Federov respectively regained the lead for Washington. Derek Roy of the Sabres tied the game again on the powerplay with less then 2 minutes on the clock in the second frame. Washington responded just seconds later when Sergei Federov scored his 10th of the year to make it 4-3 Caps.
The third period saw just one goal coming in the last ten minutes from Maxim Afinogenov to push the game into overtime. One minute fifty one seconds into the extra session Jason Pominville put the puck past rookie goalie Simeon Varlamov to secure the win.
As a Capitals fan myself you might be wondering why I'm writing about a loss, the reason in case you hadn't heard was because the 1 point that Washington gained from the overtime loss gave them to 102 points on the season which was enough for the team to clinch their second straight Southeast Division title.
Today also saw a big game in Boston where the Bruins took on the Rangers. It was a closely fought affair with the only goal coming for the home side in the first period when rookie Blake Wheeler netted his 22nd of the year. Boston netminder Tim Thomas put on a first star performance stopping all 31 shots from New York for his 5th shutout this year, he should have plenty more to come in the future as he has recently signed a 4 year contract extension. The game was big news though as it meant that Boston got their 112th point of the season putting them out of reach of the second placed Capitals and therefore clinching the Eastern Conference title.
Saturday, 4 April 2009
Thursday, 2 April 2009
The Beginning of the End?
With the showpiece event of the UK ice hockey calender almost upon us it seems as though the Elite League which recently lost the Basingstoke Bison could be losing even more clubs going into next season leaving the league with as few as 6 teams in a situation similar to that which was seen in the final years of the ISL.
This post from The Hockey Forum would seem to be just another rumor and as they say, no smoke without fire.
"I have put this on here rather than on the rumour thread as I really believe this to be true. I have had some information passed to me today from an unofficial but trustworthy source that Newcastle, Edinburgh and Manchester are about to quit the Elite League. Apparantly the other 6 had a secret board meeting without those mentioned and placed totally unacceptable conditions on these three clubs that they feel they have no option but to turn down the leagues ultimatums.
Apparantly Basingstoke got wind of this a few weeks ago and that just confirmed their exit. The league appear happy to go with a 6 team league next season. I really cannot reveal my source but those that know me, also know I am not one for rumour mongering or stirring on the forums. I am absolutely shocked by the news and really did not see this coming"
So yet again the Mickey Mouse operation which is ice hockey in this country seems to have messed things up leaving us with only 2 real options both of which have their critics.
The first of which is the case for lowering the number of imports and the wage cap for next season so that the rink teams (Edinburgh, Hull, Newcastle, Manchester) can be more competitive and then hopefully draw in bigger crowds and sponsors with the overall goal of making more money and becoming more stable. This would definatly level the playing field so to speak but in my opinion this shouldn't be considered as an option even if the only alternative is having teams dropping out the league.
Why do I think this I hear you asking? Well a drop in the imports and wage cap will inevitably lead to a worse product being put out on the ice. Now a 6 import league would be fine to watch for £10 a ticket but because of the huge fees the "Big 4" have to pay to rent the arenas there would be no change in price and fans would be left paying the same as they do now for less and lets face it not many people like being ripped off so crowd sizes would go down and the arena teams would be left struggling to make ends meet.
What all this means is the successful teams who have well worked out buisness plans would be made to suffer. Why do these teams have to be held down by ones who are less successful? They are a constant drain on the league and other teams whether it be the fact they need to bend the rules just to compete by having more imports or asking for financial support.
So the other option of dropping down to 6 teams may seem more likely. Only having the big boys in the league could mean for a rise of the wage cap and number of imports which in turn would give us a better on ice product which could theoretically draw in bigger sponsors and set us up for overall better league with potential of expanding the league in the future.
However more likely the 6 team situation would make things worse. Cardiff and Hull wouldn't be able to cope with a rise in the wage cap as well as the big 4 and they would become uncompetitive and start to lose money and be forced out giving us just a 4 team league which would surely make even the most exciting Panthers V Steelers game stale, "Who are Panthers playing this week?", "Sheffield", "But they played each other last week and the week before!". This would probably lead to less casual fans coming to games when it is going to be the same week in week out so again attendences would drop and teams would be struggling!
Either way everyone seems to end up as losers in this one so lets just hope the league can find a decent solution for once, although something tells me this is unlikely to come from a league who don't even let their fans know the rules by which they play!
With the future of UK hockey at stake the flagship event of the finals weekend this year is a more important advert then ever and you would think the league would try and make the best of it by doing what they did in the first few playoff weekends that were held in Nottingham, set up lots of stalls around the arena either on the olympic rink or outside in Bolero Square to catch peoples eye, make some more money by selling jerseys etc. but I can't help but think I will be disapointed by what will be on offer once more. Each passing year sees less and less value for money and entertainment then ever before despite rising ticket prices (an adult is now £75 for the weekend) it really is an extortionate price for just 3 Elite League games.
None the less I will be at the games this weekend, reporting regularly via twitter (username EIHL_Playoffs) and blogging here with anything I hear over the weekend.
This post from The Hockey Forum would seem to be just another rumor and as they say, no smoke without fire.
"I have put this on here rather than on the rumour thread as I really believe this to be true. I have had some information passed to me today from an unofficial but trustworthy source that Newcastle, Edinburgh and Manchester are about to quit the Elite League. Apparantly the other 6 had a secret board meeting without those mentioned and placed totally unacceptable conditions on these three clubs that they feel they have no option but to turn down the leagues ultimatums.
Apparantly Basingstoke got wind of this a few weeks ago and that just confirmed their exit. The league appear happy to go with a 6 team league next season. I really cannot reveal my source but those that know me, also know I am not one for rumour mongering or stirring on the forums. I am absolutely shocked by the news and really did not see this coming"
So yet again the Mickey Mouse operation which is ice hockey in this country seems to have messed things up leaving us with only 2 real options both of which have their critics.
The first of which is the case for lowering the number of imports and the wage cap for next season so that the rink teams (Edinburgh, Hull, Newcastle, Manchester) can be more competitive and then hopefully draw in bigger crowds and sponsors with the overall goal of making more money and becoming more stable. This would definatly level the playing field so to speak but in my opinion this shouldn't be considered as an option even if the only alternative is having teams dropping out the league.
Why do I think this I hear you asking? Well a drop in the imports and wage cap will inevitably lead to a worse product being put out on the ice. Now a 6 import league would be fine to watch for £10 a ticket but because of the huge fees the "Big 4" have to pay to rent the arenas there would be no change in price and fans would be left paying the same as they do now for less and lets face it not many people like being ripped off so crowd sizes would go down and the arena teams would be left struggling to make ends meet.
What all this means is the successful teams who have well worked out buisness plans would be made to suffer. Why do these teams have to be held down by ones who are less successful? They are a constant drain on the league and other teams whether it be the fact they need to bend the rules just to compete by having more imports or asking for financial support.
So the other option of dropping down to 6 teams may seem more likely. Only having the big boys in the league could mean for a rise of the wage cap and number of imports which in turn would give us a better on ice product which could theoretically draw in bigger sponsors and set us up for overall better league with potential of expanding the league in the future.
However more likely the 6 team situation would make things worse. Cardiff and Hull wouldn't be able to cope with a rise in the wage cap as well as the big 4 and they would become uncompetitive and start to lose money and be forced out giving us just a 4 team league which would surely make even the most exciting Panthers V Steelers game stale, "Who are Panthers playing this week?", "Sheffield", "But they played each other last week and the week before!". This would probably lead to less casual fans coming to games when it is going to be the same week in week out so again attendences would drop and teams would be struggling!
Either way everyone seems to end up as losers in this one so lets just hope the league can find a decent solution for once, although something tells me this is unlikely to come from a league who don't even let their fans know the rules by which they play!
With the future of UK hockey at stake the flagship event of the finals weekend this year is a more important advert then ever and you would think the league would try and make the best of it by doing what they did in the first few playoff weekends that were held in Nottingham, set up lots of stalls around the arena either on the olympic rink or outside in Bolero Square to catch peoples eye, make some more money by selling jerseys etc. but I can't help but think I will be disapointed by what will be on offer once more. Each passing year sees less and less value for money and entertainment then ever before despite rising ticket prices (an adult is now £75 for the weekend) it really is an extortionate price for just 3 Elite League games.
None the less I will be at the games this weekend, reporting regularly via twitter (username EIHL_Playoffs) and blogging here with anything I hear over the weekend.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
