Faceoff Factor

Lacing Up with Ash and Stoosh - 08.29.08

Ashley Gallant | National Hockey League

Aug 29, 10:24 AM | Hype this story!

Stoosh: The Penguins open the 2008-09 season on October 4, 2008 in Stockhold, Sweden against the Ottawa Senators. That means exactly four months will have passed from the time the Detroit Red Wings skated the Cup around Mellon Arena ice following Game Six until the start of the 2008-09 hockey season, less when you consider that teams report for training camps in appoximately four weeks. It feels like just yesterday that we were anticipating the next Stanley Cup Finals game, and now the team is just days away from re-opening training camp. I love the fact that hockey has such a short off-season, but is the season too long?

Ash: Is the season too long…that’s a tough question. The fan in me jumps up and says, “Heck no!” If you’re like me and don’t particularly care for baseball, the summer months can be long. It’s not like there are new episodes of ‘The Office’ to look forward to every week.

If you’re looking at it from the NHL’s point of view, the season is not too long – it just may be too short. That’s what happens when you’re looking to make money from your product and there’s little money to collect from fans when the players are relaxing at the beach with cold drinks in their hands.

From the players’ point of view, however, I think that the season just may be too long. Never mind the Columbus Blue Jackets of the NHL, who enjoy a five-and-a-half month vacation. The players you think of are the ones who play deep into the playoffs. For instance, the Pens will have the shortest off-season of any team in the NHL, with about three-and-a-half months between the Stanley Cup Finals and the start of the pre-season training camp. Most of the players are young enough and healthy enough that this short off-season will not mean anything, but it is harder for veteran players and those who have suffered injuries in the playoffs to be ready for the upcoming season when there is so little time.

You can also look at it from another angle. Hockey is definitely one of the most physical sports out there, and players are subjected to 82+ games of abuse every season. They have to deal with the nagging injuries that don’t have a chance to fully heal, and it can also be tiring to play that many games in such a short time period. If you’re looking at the long-term health of these players, long seasons like those in the NHL are not ideal.

Stoosh: The length of the season is definitely a matter of perspective.

As a fan, there’s a big part of me that would love to see hockey just never go away for the summer. Summers in Pittsburgh can be a little tough. It’s tough being a Pirates fan because the last time they finished with a winning season, Jaromir Jagr was just starting his third NHL season and the Pens were coming off of Cup #2.

But I’ll be a little bit honest here. I never thought I’d say this, but in the days immediately after Game Six of the Cup Finals, I needed a little bit of a break from hockey. Maybe just a week…maybe two weeks. But I think after you consider the emotion you end up investing as the playoffs move along, a week or two away from it was good to kind of recharge the batteries a little.

I can’t imagine, then, the toll this grind takes on the players. The Penguins played 102 games this past season. I’m sure depositing a five-figure paycheck once every two weeks sure helps makes it easier to get up in the morning, but there’s no question that these guys throw everything they have into this sport and there’s no way they can’t be exhausted at the end of all that. In a sense, I suppose a shorter season helps protect the integrity of the playoffs because the players are less worn out when they get there.

I remember the rumors flying during the lockout that the league was considering dropping all the way down to a junior hockey-like schedule in the 68-72 game range. The rationale for a move like that was that the intensity and meaning of each game gets ratcheted up significantly and the margin of error shrinks. I can’t envision a scenario, though, where the NHL reduces the schedule much, if at all. I just can’t see the owners making the decision to forego the revenue generated by, say, six games, let alone more. The dollar amounts that these owners would have to relinquish – not to mention the issues of getting the arena staffers to work 10-15 fewer games a year – would be astronomical.

Ash: I think it would be great to have an October-April season, like now, but with fewer games. That way the off-season isn’t unbearably long, the integrity of the playoffs is protected, and the players wouldn’t have the grind of an 82-game season. Then again, the owners would solve their own problems by increasing ticket prices, which would not sit well with fans. Would you be happy to see your ticket prices increase by $20/game?

Didn’t think so.

It looks to me as though there is no way to shorten the season. It would be better for the health of the players, but I seriously doubt that they would vote to approve such a move. After all, less profit for the team translates to smaller paychecks for the players.

Bottom line = money.

And that is why I believe that we will see the NHL’s season increase in length within the next few years. The only question is by how much.