Do you think the NHL is finished for good?

[drumwolf]

I'm personally not holding my breath that the NHL will ever recover from this fiasco, and I wouldn't be shocked if the league just plain goes out of business.

Nor would I be completely bummed, either. I love hockey, but I used to work for the NHL offices in New York in the late '90s, and they are just a piss-poor, bloated, arrogant, stagnant, and stodgy organization. If the NHL were to collapse, it would be a huge bummer for hockey fans in the short term, but it might be needed bitter medicine for the sport.

[drdtroit]

1. No,

but I think we may see a trimmed down league. Being from Motown, I would love to see the original 6!

[drumwolf]

2. Oh, I absolutely think that at the VERY least,

we will have a few less teams than we did -- that's the best-case scenario for the NHL in my mind.

If you ask me, we need to just put the NHL out of its misery and start up a new major hockey league to replace it.

[drdtroit]

9. Why not a world hockey league like soccer?

There are so many great players all over the globe that it would be pretty exciting.
Globalized sports for a global age!

[IrateCitizen]

3. It will be severely contracted when it does come back...

The NHL thought it could establish itself as on the same level as MLB and the NFL in the United States. It turns out it couldn't even get past NASCAR.

Hockey will ALWAYS be a "niche sport" in the US, more on the same level as soccer. Personally, I liked what one sportswriter (I can't remember who) had to say about the NHL -- "If you live in an area that doesn't get snow, you shouldn't have a team." It's a bit oversimplistic, but it's pretty accurate.

I mean, hockey in FL? Please! Two NHL teams in southern CA? Absurd! Moving a team from Winnipeg to Phoenix? Crazy!

I think that the NHL will end up shedding several teams over the next few years as revenues plunge. The overall end product will be a lot better for the sport in the end, IMHO.

[SmileyBoy]

16. Go to this site for more info on Winnipeg getting a team back:

http://www.jetsowner.com

[RT Atlanta]

4. I hope so...

Never been a sport that I cared much for anyhow.

[tridim]

13. If you don't care about hockey, why would you hope for it's demise?

There are millions of American hockey fans who just want to have their sport back. Myself included.

I don't enjoy watching Football or Soccer, but I'd never hope for them to go away.

[expatriot]

5. The Nigerian Hustler League or the Nieces of the Hessian Legionaires?

I don't know.

[CubsFan1982]

6. I think so.

What's the NHL going to do to get fans back? There's no way they can put on some kinda McGwire/Sosa lovefest like MLB did to get fans back after the strike. I think you can stick a fork in the NHL, they're done. People who want hockey will get their fix from college and semi-pro teams. They won't miss the NHL that much.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[drumwolf]

10. Ask me if I care if you care

and feel free to predict the answer

[lpbk2713]

8. Well, we've got four more years of BFEE to contend with.

That means the economy will be in the shitter for four more years.

And that means most families/individuals won't have any money to spend on entertainment, this includes NHL games. There will probably be an increase in attendance in minor league and amateur sporting events but just like any other big businesses the owners will see that they get their money first and then when they see their franchise won't make them any more money they'll grab the money and run.

[Sandpiper]

11. Professional Hockey will live, the NHL will die a well-deserved death

Gary Bettman is an idiot who drove his league to the brink of financial ruin through his own poor decisions.

His solution was to try and break the players' union to fix his own mistakes.


Everything the guy touches turns to ashes. He makes Bud Selig look like a genius in comparison.

I hope the NHL implodes and that a new Bettman-free professional hockey league is formed.

[drumwolf]

12. Fuckin' Bettman.

He has no respect for the sport for the fans, and I can vouch that he also had no respect for the NHL office employees. He is a very pompous, petty individual.

[SmileyBoy]

14. They might dismantle it and start from scratch, I believe.

And in the proccess, they'll add teams in REAL hockey cities that never should've had their teams leave in the first place, like Winnipeg, Quebec City and Hartford.

[tridim]

15. What happens to the Stanley Cup if the NHL is dissolved?

I don't know the history of the trophy, but isn't it an exclusively NHL thing?

[Beware the Beast Man]

18. I don't think so.

The Stanley is pretty old. It predates the NHL for sure.

[Sandpiper]

19. The Stanley Cup predates the NHL

So I would think that it could still be awarded if the NHL dissolved.

[Beware the Beast Man]

17. For the sake of sounding elitist,

the "Americanization" of the NHL was the worst thing that ever happened to pro hockey. Beyond teams in Arizona, Florida, and Texas, it seems as if the NHL has spent the last decade trying to appeal to a larger audience, with disastrous results.

[Sandpiper]

20. Hockey is at best a regionally popular sport in the U.S.

The worst mistake the NHL ever made was turning the league into a primarily U.S.-based league.

If the NHL wants to survive, it needs to go back to being a primarily Canadian league.

[HEyHEY]

21. I hope so

Then we can start a new, better league

[Sandpiper]

22. Hockey can survive without the NHL

Which has become the worst managed league in all of professional sports.

[Kat45]

23. Since hockey is the only professional sport I like, I hope

pro hockey will still exist. I'm in Boston, and we are hockey country in the USA. The Northeast and the North Central and (some) Midwest states are full of huge hockey towns. Man, I grew up watching Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito at the Boston Garden, skipped school to go to the two Stanley Cup parades--hockey was the best! It's unfortunate that the league just kept expanding beyond expansion until there were way too many teams in way too many areas that didn't know a hockey puck from a biscuit.

[MrSlayer]

24. No the league will be back. But it might be finished as we know it.

The owners will never let it go away completely but the way it comes back could be very different. We could be looking at scab players and even more ludicrous rule changes. Gary Bettman should be hanged for his crimes against the sport. If they were smart they would let it go back to the way it was before Bettman arrived. Trim the league back to 21 teams, give up the pipe dream of NFL type popularity and structure the salaries and prices to levels appropriate to it's popularity as it was in the 70's and 80's. Let the real fan base come back and the real game come back.

[bettyellen]

25. my freeper exboss would have nuthin to live for anymore, so here's hoping!

[jandrok]

26. What's the NHL?

Is that a sports league of some kind? Has something to do with ice or cold weather, right? Right? What's up with it? It go outta business or something?

[Baclava]

27. It'll take them 10+ years to ever recover from this strike...

It'll come back with about six less teams and a cap around 35 million. The NHLPA will be broken and there will be no Union.