November 28, 2005 -- IF sports fans across the continent are asking, "Did you see that?" in response to the theatrical, 15-round Shootout at the OK Corral on Saturday that ended with Marek Malik's dazzling between-the-legs move that flummoxed not only Olaf Kolzig but everyone else in the joint, you can bet the executives at the TV networks can't be too far behind.
Which means — and you can take this to the bank right along with the owners' share of the players' escrow fund — that it is only a matter of time before, a) NBC and whoever has the NHL's cable rights in a couple of years insist that the shootout become part of the Stanley Cup playoffs; and, b) the league acquiesces in exchange for reasonable rights fees.
Honestly, it's the next logical step in the progression, isn't it?
Why would networks want to be stuck televising multiple overtime playoff games lasting into the wee hours to dwindling audiences when matches can be settled by immediate, dramatic, must-see TV competitions that are as reality-based as it gets?
Those in favor will make the argument, difficult to counter in this age of bastardization of the sport, that if the shootout is legitimate enough to decide Olympic Gold, as it did in Lilllehammer in 1994 when Sweden's Peter Forsberg scored a memorialized goal against Canada's Corey Hirsch and as it essentially did in Nagano in 1998 when the Czech Republic's Dom Hasek frustrated the Canadians in the semifinal game, that it should be legitimate enough to decide the Stanley Cup Championship.
Once there was a time when tennis' grand-slam matches were of unlimited length, when in the prehistoric times of 1969 Pancho Gonzales could beat Chuck Pasarell in a 22-24, 1-6, 16-14, 6-3, 11-9 first-round match at Wimbledon. That's no more. Now, it's the time of the John McEnroe 18-16 fourth-set tiebreak against eventual champ Bjorn Borg in 1980, only one of the most famous duels in grand-slam history.
Let's put aside the politically correct. Let's forget about who is and who isn't a member of the hockey purity police. Pro sports isn't about that, anymore.
Here, ultimately, is the question: Is the potential for heightened climactic moments following a single 20-minute overtime period worth the trade-off of, say, Matteau! Matteau! Matteau!?
Would the epochal 1994 conference finals between the Rangers and Devils be better remembered for that Game 7 double-overtime or for a shootout competition that would have seen Mark Messier one-on-one against Martin Brodeur and Stephane Richer mano a mano against Mike Richter?
What if Game 7 of the 2004 Cup Finals had gone into overtime? Would the interest have been greater, would the audience have been greater, if the Flames and Lightning had played multiple overtimes, or would it have been more riveting had Martin St. Louis come in on Mikka Kiprusoff with everything on line, needed a goal to match Jarome Iginla's score against Nikolai Khabibulin?
Let's not fool ourselves. We know what NBC will think. We know what ESPN will think when it wants back in. We have little doubt how the NHL and NHLPA competition committee will respond to the, um, requests.
Thanks to Jason Strudwick and Marek Malik, of all people, and thanks to an unlikely November drama on the Broadway stage, we have seen the future of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
It's only a matter of time.
http://www.nypost.com/sports/58178.htm
Which means — and you can take this to the bank right along with the owners' share of the players' escrow fund — that it is only a matter of time before, a) NBC and whoever has the NHL's cable rights in a couple of years insist that the shootout become part of the Stanley Cup playoffs; and, b) the league acquiesces in exchange for reasonable rights fees.
Honestly, it's the next logical step in the progression, isn't it?
Why would networks want to be stuck televising multiple overtime playoff games lasting into the wee hours to dwindling audiences when matches can be settled by immediate, dramatic, must-see TV competitions that are as reality-based as it gets?
Those in favor will make the argument, difficult to counter in this age of bastardization of the sport, that if the shootout is legitimate enough to decide Olympic Gold, as it did in Lilllehammer in 1994 when Sweden's Peter Forsberg scored a memorialized goal against Canada's Corey Hirsch and as it essentially did in Nagano in 1998 when the Czech Republic's Dom Hasek frustrated the Canadians in the semifinal game, that it should be legitimate enough to decide the Stanley Cup Championship.
Once there was a time when tennis' grand-slam matches were of unlimited length, when in the prehistoric times of 1969 Pancho Gonzales could beat Chuck Pasarell in a 22-24, 1-6, 16-14, 6-3, 11-9 first-round match at Wimbledon. That's no more. Now, it's the time of the John McEnroe 18-16 fourth-set tiebreak against eventual champ Bjorn Borg in 1980, only one of the most famous duels in grand-slam history.
Let's put aside the politically correct. Let's forget about who is and who isn't a member of the hockey purity police. Pro sports isn't about that, anymore.
Here, ultimately, is the question: Is the potential for heightened climactic moments following a single 20-minute overtime period worth the trade-off of, say, Matteau! Matteau! Matteau!?
Would the epochal 1994 conference finals between the Rangers and Devils be better remembered for that Game 7 double-overtime or for a shootout competition that would have seen Mark Messier one-on-one against Martin Brodeur and Stephane Richer mano a mano against Mike Richter?
What if Game 7 of the 2004 Cup Finals had gone into overtime? Would the interest have been greater, would the audience have been greater, if the Flames and Lightning had played multiple overtimes, or would it have been more riveting had Martin St. Louis come in on Mikka Kiprusoff with everything on line, needed a goal to match Jarome Iginla's score against Nikolai Khabibulin?
Let's not fool ourselves. We know what NBC will think. We know what ESPN will think when it wants back in. We have little doubt how the NHL and NHLPA competition committee will respond to the, um, requests.
Thanks to Jason Strudwick and Marek Malik, of all people, and thanks to an unlikely November drama on the Broadway stage, we have seen the future of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
It's only a matter of time.
http://www.nypost.com/sports/58178.htm
