Hockey loses another fan
Deep down it is all about the politics, ain't it?
“All hockey players are bilingual. They know English and profanity.” Gordie Howe
About a month ago, responding to a funny skeet from a friend on Bluesky related a player in the NFL, I said that “I realized today that I can name more EPL rosters than NFL ones while watching Liverpool vs Man City....” He responded that so does the rest of the world, which is true of course. However, that was not the point I was trying to make. Even five years ago it would have been the exact opposite. Lacking many affordable options (or if you go back far enough really ANY options) to watch EPL (or any EUFA/FIFA) games. My boyhood fandom for the most popular sport in the history of the world slowly fledged as after having the privilege to attend the 1994 World Cup games in person, I’ve really only watched FIFA World Cup for almost two decades.
The American version of football was grotesquely weird to me when I first came to this country. It made no sense to me because I did not know or understand the rules of the game. Slowly I have gained the prerequisite knowledge and gradually started to understand and enjoy the game. For reason beyond the scope of this story I’ve ended up being a Patriots fan because of Drew Bledsoe in 19941.
The accessibility of EPL and other FIFA/EUFA games has grown tremendously over the last few years. Bloody Wrexham, thanks to the God’s Perfect Idiot, have literally every single match shown on TV in the US so far this season. Meanwhile, my interest in the NFL version of the football started to vain… yes, the fact that Patriots been terrible did not help much but it started and largely remained with me every since 2016, when I gradually learned that 3 out of the 4 or 5 people most responsible for Patriots dynasty are bloody fascists2.
I mentioned to my friend that I started to sort of lose the degree of interest in the game, in general, similar to what happened with hockey after the second lockout... His response was asking me to tell his spouse to kill him if he ever loses interest in hockey3.
That's how I felt and what I thought 15 years ago! I grew up with hockey as my very close 2nd4 favorite sport5 and was practically addicted to game at some point. I became a fan of the Detroit Red Wings when I was still essentially a kid, watching the ‘84 NHL-Soviets series. This was the first time my friends and I (and potentially most everyone in the Soviet Union) were able to watch the NHL stars! That year the top line for the NHL team was the young trio of some guys named Gretzky, Mario and a skinny kid with a weird name - Steve Yzerman. Most of my friends immediately became fans of the two biggest stars. Who can blame them? Not aware yet but already dealing with my mental trauma, I picked the least heralded one of the three and immediately became a fan of the Winged Wheel.
Over the years I’ve watched a ton of amazing hockey games: from Devils-Rangers Game 6 (yes, THAT game), to the three 1996 World Cup games in Philly (which is an entirely separate story that someone should remind me to write one day). I’ve gone to Wings’ locker room in the old Nassau Coliseum and stood awestruck in front of Stevie Y., Sergei Fedorov, Niklas Lidstrom, Igor Larionov, and at that time Slava Fetisov6 and listed to some crazy but funny stories7. I’ve attended the training camp for the Russian Olympic team when it was held near Philly a couple of decades ago and “scored” a practice Red Wings sweater that 2/3rd of the team signed and then got trashed with them.
I’ve played every possible version of the sports myself and in most electronic incarnations8. I’ve been a commissioner of a (not fantasy) but a full simulation hockey league with 30 franchises for about 5 years (back in the 90s!!). Yet, since 2014 I have watched nary a game. The pure greed and lies and bullshit from the league just got to me I guess.
Without getting too political, I will just say that in every labor dispute in the top 4 professional sports in the US, I have always strongly and overwhelmingly supported the players. There are many reasons for that and if anyone is truly interested, I can attempt to write a review of labor relations in pro-sports - no I am no expert.
The first time, the NHL shut-down was in 1994. This was right around the time when the Red Wings were breaking out after decades of crappy performances and the NHL was seeing an influx of European players, significantly increasing the quality of the game. I mean if you ask me what was the Golden Age of hockey, I just might have to say the 90s, where we still had shadows of Gretzky, Mario, Messier, Coffee, etc. but we already had Jagr, Bure, Lidstrom, etc.
Yes, the neutral zone trap and the left wing lock, sucked the proverbial ass and the game was not as free flowing and fun as during the Habs’ 70s dynasty or the Islanders one creating a bridge to the Oilers in the 80s. The game may not have been as much fun, but the talent was at a historic high.
Anyway. The game was great, the team I liked that sucked for decades was finally breaking out and in addition to the glitz-free World Championship we were getting NHLers in the Olympics and the World Cup. That lockout seemed like a mere speed bump. Of course being young and naive (I am speaking about myself) made it easier to believe that.
Whilst every major sport has had a work stoppage in the 80s and 90s, going forward NFL and MLB avoided any and all stoppages and NBA kept it to only one half a season. The NHL?
Prominent labor historian Eric Loomis does a great job summarizing the 2004 NHL lockout9. I grinded my teeth and accepted the loss of the season and the significant imbalance created by the newly signed CBA. I think I mentioned that I was naive back in my younger years. I thought that after losing an entire freaking season, people will get smarter and we, as fans, will not have to suffer again.
Then came the 2012 lockout.
The NHL has always been the proverbial “poor step-child10” among the major pro sports in the US. It makes logical sense that the NHL owners greed, whilst looking at the other leagues got the better of them, but that’s assuming there is anything good to begin with. Historically, major league team owners have rarely been good people who cared about winning, community, glory, legacy… rather profits, and more profits.
Yes, I am quite jaded. After all, name me a publicly funded stadium that actually did anything positive economically for the community11…. whilst, we just had Oakland lose a team to yet another greedy megalomaniacal owner who cares more about land development in Vegas and profits off of it than the actual team. That’s what it felt like back then when the NHL went into another lockout.
What’s worse, the demands from owners were, IMHO, beyond ridiculous. Especially compared to other leagues’ CBAs. In the end, players caved in. To some degree because of economics, to some degree because of public pressure12. Next, NHL lost it’s first ever decent TV deal and agreed to sign a horrible one with significantly less games and exposure13.
I honestly, tried to get over all of that.
Yet, with the significant rule changes back after the first lockout and quickly the change to overtime rules, all put together, were too much for me to overcome.
What hurt the most was either the fact the players caved in second consecutive time or that NHL managed to be the only league besides the NBA to have any significant work stoppages this century. It’s like the NFL and MLB figured out a way to sate the owners greed while trying to remember about the fans and the NHL went out of their way to do the former at the same time completely disregarding the latter.
I still bleed red for the Winged Wheel and I still root for the Finnish national teams in all of the international competitions and I am paying attention to the multiple ways my boyhood idol, Stevie Y., after building a historic resume in Tampa as their GM, keeps bloody screwing up the rebuild of the franchise again and again14.
Of course, now I am just ranting like any self-respecting sports fan.
Alas, while I will always bleed that red (or Suomi’s blue and white), I shan’t support the tragedy that has become the National Hockey League.
“Would you rather spread manure, or play hockey in Madison Square Garden in front of 20,000 people?”
“Spread manure.”
“You candy ass!”
If anyone is really curious about my college years and how I ended up being a Bledsoe/Pats fan, please ask but it is silly, lengthy and really contains no value.
In case it needs to be spelled out I am referring to Kraft, Belichick, and Brady. You can argue who the next two most important figures in the dynasty are but I am sure no one will surpass these three. Okay, maybe Vinatieri, but I’ve no idea of his political positions and allegiances.
Just to be crystal clear - it was a joke.
I never really cared for basketball, with the exception of the magic of Michael Jordan (yet another potential essay). Largely, I did not care for the sport because my father, beyond a coach for his university team, used to deconstruct and criticize every play of every game on TV which quickly got old and boring for the young me.
It was easier and cheaper to play football than hockey, of course. In addition, while growing up, my best childhood friends just happened to be a then prodigy for the local FC Zenith and the U18 national team. This could be a whole other story in and of itself. In many ways my childhood friends reminds me of Alex Daigle or Alexei Yashin to make a hockey-related comparisons.
His behavior and support of Putin changed my perception of arguably the second greatest defensemen to ever play the sport.
One story had to do with a sweaty $1 bill and concussed Slava Kozlov, which he of course denied.
Ask me if I knew the decapitating trick in NHL 94!
Sorry for the X link. Tell Eric to migrate his old Twitter threads to a different platform.
For some reason this phrase stuck with me right now and yet I am feeling that there’s something off with it…
I am not going to write on this topic. There’s plenty of well research information out there already. Public funding of stadiums is a fucking scam.
It is a mystery to me why most often people side with owners over the athletes in any/all labor disputes.
I don’t remember the specifics and am too lazy to look them up as these are not critical to the point of the story.
Even if I get one single comment or request, I will bloody write about what I would do if I were Steve Yzerman this year.