Oh good, this jersey on NBC again!
According to multiple reports, Gary Bettman is going to announce today that the 2011 Winter Classic will be played at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh between the Penguins and the Capitals. It’s been rumored that this would be the sight and matchup since 10 minutes after this year’s Winter Classic ended and the US Olympic Hockey team was announced by racially diverse children wearing oversized jerseys. I personally remember saying that they’d fashion a network ratings wet dream: Crosby vs. Ovechkin vs. The Snow.
I’m a fan of great hockey, regardless of who’s playing. Regardless of who’s playing, I can enjoy the game that I love, even if it’s a bitter rival of my Devils (i.e. the Stanley Cup Finals this year). But the fact of the matter is that the NHL has been billing itself as a league with 2 superstars, and the rest of the players are just a bunch of ragtag guys who beat each other about the face and head until their teeth fly out, and I’ve just about had enough.
For the record, Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin are without a doubt two of the best players in the league. I highly doubt any sane and rational person can dispute that fact; they’ve put up stellar numbers in the regular seasons and demonstrated tremendous individual skill for the past few years. This fact, along with the history of general discontent with one another, should not be a justifiable reason enough to put the Pens back in the Winter Classic. In 2008, the Pens beat the Sabres in a shootout in the inaugural Winter Classic with Crosby potting the final goal. Having the Winter Classic in Pittsburgh puts the Penguins in 2 of the first 4 nationally televised outdoor games, and I don’t see that it’s fair at all.
I’m sure the league office can justify why they’re choosing Pittsburgh to play again: Heinz Field was available and seats 65,000+, weather in Pittsburgh in January is conducive to a quality game atmosphere, etc. Most of all, it comes down to exposure for the league. Crosby and Ovechkin will draw a large audience because they’re easy to hype. Show each of them scoring some absurd goals, then the two of them jarring from the 2009 Playoffs, splice in a couple shots of each of them standing in a poorly lit hallway with spotlights on them and a bad voice over, “The NHL on NBC,” date and time of the game, and onto the next commercial.
What irritates me most is how much thought must have gone into this decision with only regards to how profitable the entire endeavor would be. The league office doesn’t seem to care that there’s other marquee players they could be promoting with such a great platform. Take a look at what Joe Pavelski did in this year’s playoffs and tell me they couldn’t turn that into a viable ratings success. Tell me that there’s no players that come close to the level of excitement of the two men I’ve mentioned so many times, I refuse to do it again here. Parise, Stamkos, Sedin, Kovalchuk (wherever he may land), Gaborik, Heatley, nothing? Maybe the NHL could have played off the success of NBC’s Olympic Hockey coverage and put two teams chock full of US and Canadian Olympians, like the Devils with Zach and Jamie, or the Sharks with their entire top line.
The bottom line is I’ll watch the game, and I’ll almost certainly enjoy it. I’ve watched every Winter Classic game from beginning to end like a giddy schoolgirl, loving every second of it. However, I promise that I’ll watch the game under protest with a distant hope that the 2012 Winter Classic will see the Devils take on the Rangers in Yankee Stadium. Make it happen, Bettman. If that’s not an option, don’t put a repeat team in this once-a-year masterpiece. Maybe you could get really crazy and put a Western Conference team in there that wasn’t an Original Six, perish the thought of me.