The NHL goes to London- A fair trade for Beckham?

The NHL 07-08 season opened over the weekend with two games in London, England of all places. The two southern California teams traveled nearly halfway around the world to take to the ice in 'The O2', which looks like one of those fish that will kill you unless it's cut just right. arena. John Bull attended the game but was unavailable to be reached for comment.

Taking a piece of the NHL to Europe is great way to expose the game to foreigners. England was a good choice, given that many other European countries already have their own hockey leagues. But taking the league abroad is a bit premature. Right now, the league is having a difficult enough time building and keeping a domestic fanbase. If the league wants to broaden its horizons, perhaps it should have considered playing a game in a U.S. city without a team. Las Vegas, Kansas City, Houston, Anchorage, New Orleans or Portland would have all been great choices to play a game. It would have been an opportunity to test the market in those cities as well as bring in new fans.

The games resulted in a 4-1 win by the Anaheim Ducks and a 4-1 win by the Kings, who will hopefully still be jetlagged from their aggressive international road trip preceding the Jackets' home opener on Friday.

NHL: The Not-so-national Hockey League

There's no question that the NHL is suffering. While it has never been a dominant sport in America, I think it's fair to say that the league is losing ground.

Michael, of Army of the Ohio, has already addressed these issues somewhat, but I'd like to post my take on them too.

First and foremost, the lockout was devastating to the fans. Quite clearly, a league that doesn't play any games can't be watched. During the lockout, I'm sure a lot of would-be hockey fans found other places to get their sports fix. The NBA is as popular as ever, and the winter is saturated with college basketball- and this was also the beginnings of ESPN broadcasting the World Series of Poker. When the NHL came back, so many players had moved and so much time had passed that fewer fans were willing to just pick up where they left off. Despite being a CBJ fan since the Jackets were just a twinkle in McConnells' eye, I too had difficulty getting back into the swing of things. Players I had watched prior to the lockout were relocated, or in a few cases, missing entirely. Casual fans don't tolerate strikes and lockouts. They just find somewhere else to spend their time. I sure developed more of an interest in college football, NCAA basketball and baseball during this time. Today, hockey isn't so much national, as it is popular only in small pockets surrounding the teams.

The TV contract is a serious killer. If a fan wants to catch a game, but doesn't want to shell out $50 for tickets, their only choice is to catch it on tv. Granted, fox sports does a great job of covering just about every Jackets game, home and away, but what about non-hometown teams? And does Fox cover all of the NHL's games in their respective markets, or only a few? (If you have any insight, let me know in the comments.) I seldom tune into Versus to see who's playing on any given night. And to my experience, they don't advertise much on other channels, so I don't get drawn to Vs. unless the Jackets will be on. Essentially, I've watched one, maybe two, non-CBJ hockey games this season. It's hard to stay in tune with the league as a whole when it's not very convenient to catch out of market games. Compare that to NCAA or NFL football- a huge percentage of the games are broadcast nationwide.

The NHL needs to get back on ESPN at some level. Maybe not every game, but at least a few per season, and hopefully the All-Star game, maybe some playoffs. ESPN is de facto the television leader in sports. They not only air just about every sport, but cover it on SportsCenter, PTI, Around the Horn, and other sports pundit programs. You can be damn sure that the ESPN execs air a lot less coverage of NHL highlights, news, and events because they don't carry the league. Generating any sort of interest in hockey is of no benefit to ESPN- they stand to gain nothing by encouraging viewership of any means. It's far more valuable to them to cover stories of sports they air. The NHL needs to find a way back to ESPN. Even if it meant taking a less valuable deal, it may very well be worth it in the long run as more potential fans are exposed to the sport.

The NHL needs to start a big PR campaign to revitalize its fan base. I'm no PR guru, so I'm not going to illustrate a whole campaign, but I do think it needs to involve advertising on more popular channels. The NHL needs to do whatever it takes to regain viewers before the situation gets any more dire. I'm not sure Gary Bettman is up to the task of fixing the NHL. He's been the NHL commissioner since 1993. Since that time, the league may have expanded, teams have moved, and four clubs have filed for bankruptcy- but the last few years have brought some of the most trying times for hockey fans. Maybe its time to give someone else a chance. The NHL needs a different kind of leader to recover from the turmoil of the lockout and the poor ratings of recent years. I know that changing a few faces won't instantly fix the league, but I'm not sure what else to do. What's being done now isn't working. Beyond that, I'm already a hockey fan, so it can be hard to see what's not to like about the league.

In years past, it's been hard enough to watch my beloved Jackets, just one team, struggle for so many years. Now we're watching the whole league struggle.

Pens talking with KC (the sunshine band was not invited)

Hot off the wire today (ok, so it's not so much a wire. it's a computer... but it's connected by wires, right?) comes a story from Pennsylvania's more fledgling hockey franchise. Owners of the Pittsburgh Penguins franchise are in serious talks about moving the team.

The Pens have struggled financially for a while now, and they haven't been as skilled of a team since the departure of Jaromir Jagr and now part-owner Mario Limieux. The team has a couple young stars though, including Malkin and some guy named Sidney Crosby, who has already racked up over 60(!) points this season.

Kansas City is one of several cities that will be considered for Penguin relocation. Also on the docket are Winnipeg, Portland, and Oklahoma City. KC is already nearing construction on the nearly $300 million Sprint Center, which has not yet signed an anchor franchise of any kind. The arena should be up and running by Fall 07.

If the Pens move west, it is highly likely that they will need to switch conferences. The NHL will need to move a western conference team to the east in order to keep balanced. Columbus would be a prime candidate for such a change, and if the team that switches takes Pittsburgh's spot directly, (without other divisional shifts) they would compete most closely with Philadelphia, New Jersey, and both New York teams.

I would support a change of this nature for the Jackets. The competition is a little lighter in the eastern conference, road trips would be shorter, and there wouldn't be much jet lag or time changes to deal with. In any case, it would be nice to not have to play Nashville and Detroit so many times a season.