Editors, writers hurt hockey most
Sport suffers not because Americans don't like it, but because American sports editors and writers don't. It is the best sport, and few people watch it. No, I am not talking about the XFL, which would have been the best sport only if they eliminated all the others, including snooker and darts. I am talking about hockey, specifically Stanley Cup-playoff hockey.
IT HAS EVERYTHING a sport should have relatively simple rules, speed, collisions, skill, athleticism, strength, acrobatics, sticks, heroics, concussions, blood, broken bones, lost teeth, organ music, jumbo beers, raucous fans, body paint, hot dogs, nachos, and even the occasional fist-fight all wrapped around action that never seems to stop. And it lacks everything that drives you nuts about sports no scratching and spitting, no huddles, no plays drawn up on grease boards, only one time-out per team per game and that's almost never taken.
Then there's the power play, the single best way of dealing with rules infractions in sports. No free throws that make basketball games last longer than a ham in a bachelor's refrigerator. No walking off a few yards and doing everything again. No warning the pitcher not to throw that close to the hitter again. Just toss the miscreant off the ice for a couple of minutes and let his team get along without him for that time.
Maybe that's the problem. The game makes too much sense, the rules are too simple, the action too constant and furious.
Because I keep hearing that Americans don't like hockey, and the television ratings testify to that antipathy. For the life of me, I can't figure it out. We like speed and violence and toughness and skill, and hockey has all of those things. No athlete is tougher than a hockey player, who will lose three teeth, take 30 stitches, and barely miss a shift. Players hit speeds of 30 mph, and there's no out of bounds and no crash cages. You would think NASCAR fans would eat the sport up. Maybe if the NHL put little tanks of gasoline on the hops of the players so they'd explode when they get rammed into the wall, the ratings would go through the roof.
Maybe, but I doubt it. Because what I think is that hockey suffers not because Americans don't like it, but because American sports editors and writers don't. Look at the NBA. Ratings and attendance are down. Scoring is down. The games look like wrestling matches. But pick up your local paper and you'd swear basketball was the most popular sport in the universe.
In New York, the local tabloids send four and five writers to a mid-season Knicks game and commit six or more to a playoff game. That's more than go to a football game, and football actually is the nation's most popular sport. It doesn't matter, because the writers adore basketball. They grew up with Bird and Magic and Michael. They play the game in their off time. They hang out together and talk basketball, dream basketball, live the game.
Hockey they hate. Many of the most influential writers in America refuse to go to a hockey game unless they are under severe duress. The New York Daily News' Mike Lupica, who considers himself to be the lead columnist of New York, refuses let me repeat that, he refuses to go to a New Jersey Devils game, and will mention the Rangers only in the rare event that awful team gets deep into the playoffs. Even sports talk show hosts won't talk about the game, because they don't know it.
Women's basketball had a similar problem. No one would cover it. Then the NBA got involved and suddenly sports editors, anxious to please David Stern, started assigning writers to the games and playing the results on the front page. The WNBA is a growing as a result. I guess if the NBA bought out the NHL, then sports editors and writers would start caring.
In the meantime, hockey fans know what they have, which is the greatest spectator sport there is. It even has the best trophy in sports, the Stanley Cup, the only trophy you can't win, but only borrow. It belongs to the game, the same as the players. Win the Stanley Cup finals, and your name gets engraved on the trophy's steeple-like base, where it stays along with the names of all the others who have won the sport's ultimate game.
And then you get to take the Cup home with you for one day. It doesn't matter where you live, whether in Russia or Sweden or Alaska or New Jersey, the Cup is delivered to you late one afternoon and stays until two mornings later. You can take it anywhere you want, including your corner bar. Bathe the baby in it. Fill it with beer. Serve chips and dip from it. Take it to church and to the oil-change place. Take it to your kids' school for show-and-tell. Just sit with it and read all the names who have won it Howe, Gretzky, Messier, Bossy, Potvin, Clarke, Dryden, Lemieux, Roy, Brodeur, Shore, Orr, Richard and know that your name is among them, that 40 years from now some fuzzy-cheeked kid is going to take this trophy to his home, sit with it at night tracing the names with his fingers, and read your name.
Win the Super Bowl or any other championship, and your team puts its own name on the trophy not yours and locks it in a trophy case in the front office. Win the Stanley Cup, and you get to take it home and show it to your friends. Win the Stanley Cup, and you are part of it, part of the sport, forever.
Is that great, or what?
MALLARDS WIN THE 2001 UHL COLONIAL CUP!
Colonial Cup Celebration Tuesday, 7 p.m. at The MARK!
Event Free To The Public For Team's Last Official Appearance
Moline, IL The Quad City Mallards will celebrate their 2001 Colonial Cup Championship at The MARK of the Quad Cities on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The event is free to the public. The celebration will be the last official group appearance for the Colonial Cup Champion Mallards. The Mallards captured the United Hockey League championship on Saturday at Asheville, North Carolina winning the best-of-seven Colonial Cup Finals 4 games to 1.
MALLARDS TO MAKE FIFTH STRAIGHT TRIP TO COLONIAL CUP FINALS
Moline, IL The Tarry Cup Champion Quad City Mallards advanced to the Colonial Cup Finals completing a 3-0 series sweep of the Fort Wayne Komets in the United Hockey League Playoffs.
The Mallards beat the Komets 5-2 in Game Three of the Western Conference Finals on Monday night in Fort Wayne, Indiana to advance to the best-of-seven UHL championship series.
By advancing to the Colonial Cup Finals, the Mallards became the fifth team in professional hockey history to advance to a league championship series for the fifth year in a row and the first team to accomplish the feat in 17 years. They are also only the second team in minor league hockey history to land in the finals for five years in a row. The Cincinnati Mohawks of the International Hockey League made five straight trips in the league finals from 1953-57 winning the title all five years.
Three teams in the National Hockey League made it to the Stanley Cup Finals for five straight seasons. The Montreal Canadiens appeared in 10 straight finals from 1951-60 and appeared in five straight finals again from 1965-69. The Mallards are the first team to make the finals five years in a row in any professional league since the NHLs New York Islanders appeared in the Stanley Cup Finals from 1980-84.
The Mallards will be gunning for their third Colonial Cup in the six-year history of the team. Quad City won the UHL crown in 1997 and 1998. The Mallards lost in the finals to Muskegon in 1999 and to Flint in 2000.
Quad City, who finished the UHL regular season with the best record in the league at 55-12-7 and a league record 117 points, are 6-1 in the playoffs. They own a 3-1 series win over Muskegon in the Western Conference quarterfinals and a 3-0 series sweep of Fort Wayne.
Tickets for the Colonial Cup Finals are on sale now at The MARK box office and can be ordered by calling TicketMaster at (319) 326-1111.
Craig Cooper--the man!! ENJOY!!
by RyeZingSon
Fort Wayne toying with Mallards
By Craig Cooper/ QUAD-CITY TIMES
Woody, Buzz Lightyear and their friends are creating problems with the United Hockey League playoff schedule.
In what is becoming an annual sideshow, a team in the UHL playoffs has arena scheduling problems. This time it is the Quad-City Mallards next opponent, the Fort Wayne Komets.
The Walt Disney skating show Toy Story On Ice is booked in Fort Waynes Allen County War Memorial Coliseum from Wednesday through Sunday next week. The show will take over the building Tuesday for setup.
Games 1 and 2 of the Western Conference championship series between the Mallards and Komets have been set for Saturday and Sunday at The Mark of the Quad-Cities. Games 3 and 4, to be hosted by Fort Wayne, remained unscheduled Thursday.
By league rule, the series must be completed by Sunday, April 22, but that appears unlikely unless Fort Wayne finds a replacement rink or agrees to give up one home game to the Mallards.
UHL media director Will Wolper said a news release would be sent to media outlets when the dates are set.
The league passed a rule that I was dead set against for exactly these reasons, Mallards vice president Howard Cornfield said Thursday. The league decided to set definite start and finish dates for each round and condensed the schedule.
I thought that the schedule was too condensed and that there were always scheduling problems with buildings at this time of year.
I was against it, but it passed. Now we think we should follow the rules the league passed. Last year when this happened it was our problem. Its Fort Waynes problem now and they are going to have to deal with it.
Both teams were having difficulty resolving the conflict.
Cornfield was resolute about not giving up either of the first two home dates, or a potential April 21 Game 5 at home.
Fort Waynes ownership would not agree Thursday to search for an alternate site for a game or to play one as a home game in Moline. It has been suggested by Steve Hyman, executive director of The Mark of the Quad-Cities, that Game 4 be played at The Mark with the Komets getting gate receipts after costs.
Its their problem, but they are trying to make it our problem, Cornfield said. Last year when we had a similar problem I scouted around about the availability of other buildings to play a game at. Ive suggested that the people in Fort Wayne look at Indianapolis to see if their building was available.
This was a rule everyone wanted except me and I think we should live with it.
Another possibility is that after the Mallards host Game 1 and Game 2 this weekend, there would be a break of a week or more in the series before the Fort Wayne venue is available again. That would mean changing the rule that requires the series to be completed by April 22.
That would not sit well with Cornfield and Hyman, who took some heat last year when a Disney show had been booked at The Mark during the playoffs.
Richard Brosal (UHL commissioner) had better not allow an extension, because when I was getting beat up on exactly the same issue last year he would not extend the end of the series one day for us, Hyman said.
The rule is there and it is hard and fast. That was what I was told last year.
Cornfield said it would not be a simple matter to change the rule to extend the series. He says a change would require a unanimous vote of team presidents, which would be virtually impossible because United Sports Venture franchises Quad-Cities, Rockford and Missouri likely would oppose the move.
Last year, Cornfield checked out buildings in Cedar Rapids, Rockford and Peoria to host one or two playoff games because The Mark was booked. He was prepared to make that move, but instead approved starting the best-of-seven series with two games on the road, even though the Mallards had home-ice advantage.
The Mallards ended up winning that semifinals series with Fort Wayne 4-1.
In a shorter series, Cornfield said he will not budge on where to open the series. Protecting home ice over the weekend would mean that the Mallards would have the Komets on the brink of elimination.
Those first two games are too important in a shorter series, Cornfield said. We worked all season to have the advantage of starting at home. We will not give that up.
Two years ago, the Muskegon Fury successfully manipulated and extended the scheduling of the Colonial Cup finals with the Mallards by claiming that a sports card show was scheduled in L.C. Walker Arena when weekday games were scheduled. There was no card show, but the Fury got prime weekend dates
Lights Out, Literally, In Muskegon; Mallards Advance to Western Conference Finals With 3-1 Win Over Muskegon!
Muskegon, MI The Quad City Mallards defeated the Muskegon Fury in a thrilling 3-1 game to advance to the Western Conference Finals on Wednesday evening. After losing the lights in the arena due to a storm mid-way through the first period the Mallards were able to hold onto a one goal lead until the final minute of the game when Harold Hersh scored an empty netter to seal the victory for the Mallards. The Mallards will take on either Fort Wayne or Missouri on Saturday in game 1 of the Western Conference Finals at The MARK of the Quad Cities.
The Mallards used the power outage to spark them to an early 1-0 lead after one period of play. Jason Ulmer, the UHL rookie of the year, continued his hot play as he scored his 4th goal of the playoffs 15:14 into the 1st period.
The Mallards would escape the second period with a 2 goal lead when Vlad Serov scored his 3rd of the season 7:21 into the period.
The Fury would not go out without a fight as Robin Bouchard scored with 2:42 remaining in the third period to cut the Mallards lead to one. The Fury got a late power play with 2:54 left in the game, and the Mallards were able to hold off Muskegon's fury of shots on goal to win the game when Harold Hersh was able to score an empty netter with 29 seconds left to play.
"My heart goes out to Muskegon and Richard Kromm they were very prepared and they played hard the whole series," said Mallards Head Coach Paul MacLean.
The Mallards and Muskegon played a tough well fought series that the Mallards were able to eventually win 3 games to 1.
The Mallards will take on Fort Wayne on Saturday and Sunday for games 1 and 2 of the Western Conference Finals at The MARK of the Quad Cities.
Playoff tickets are currently on sale at The MARK box office and can be ordered by phone by calling TicketMaster at (319) 326-1111.
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