I think overhaul is overstating it. When I saw the headline, i got a bit excited. I was thinking that the NHL was going big. But of course they are not. All they are looking to do is have local rivals play more often and hopefully generate more interest that way. When Sid and Geno retire, 8 games vs the Blue Jackets instead of 3 aren’t gonna cut it.
If I’m the NHL, I’m going outside the box like the NBA has thought about doing and going with a Euro soccer style competition. Problem is, I don’t know how they could do it. I’d like to see an abbreviated league schedule so that every game matters and every goal matters. Think about the excitement for a Tuesday night game in November if the stakes were double what they are now. That’s part of the lure with American gridiron football and world football. Every game matters, whereas other sports that have an 80 or 162 game season have half their schedule where most fans don’t care.
An abbreviated NHL league schedule and a cup competition running concurrently at the same time and giving each team roughly 80 games of gate revenue would be ideal. You’d have the Stanley Cup as the big prize and then a second cup, call it the NHL Cup as a secondary competition. I just don’t know how you’d get there with 32 teams.
Come on Bettman. You can do better. You have a great sport. Be forward thinking. Time to change your Mickey Mouse garage run league into a good one.
Anyone have an SMF type deep thought?