Olympics make a case for NHL contraction

There are two sides to every story. And as enthralling as most of the action has been in the men’s hockey tournament at these Olympics—equal parts passion, emotion, speed, and skill—it also serves to demonstrate how many of those elements are in short supply in an average NHL regular-season game.

Now, understandably, the Olympics are the biggest stage in sport, and they bring together the best of the best at what they do. And because the hockey tournament is relatively short, players are given no choice but to jump right in, raise their games in a hurry, and compete at the highest level possible. However, watching the sport the way it should be played allows the mind to wonder about what the NHL would look like if it could shed about a half-dozen teams and redistribute the skilled players among the remaining organizations.

Watching Canada play the United States on February 21 was captivating. Oh, sure, the end result—a 5-3 loss—was hardly what Canadians wanted to see. (Although we must be getting used to it now, when the Americans skate into our rinks and keep beating us at our own game: the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in December, the IHF World Junior Championship in January, and now this final game of the preliminary round at the Olympics.) But with the assembled talent, it was like watching a souped-up NHL all-star game where the outcome actually mattered to those involved. The pace was frantic and the entertainment value was off the charts as the two teams went back and forth in a dizzying display of action. There was intensity without stupidity, and because of the increased skill level, almost every shift produced a scoring chance.

The NHL could never come close to matching that in a regular-season game, but closing shop on six franchises that are no longer relevant would surely make a huge difference in terms of the on-ice product the league could showcase on a regular basis.

It wouldn’t completely eliminate the duds that are served up far too frequently right now. But the bad teams would get better in a hurry, the good teams would be able to add to their depth, and the league as a whole would see a drastic improvement.

Simple math tells you that shutting down six franchises would free up about 140 players. Obviously, not all of those would find jobs at the NHL level. But even if you took the top 10 players on each of the six defunct teams (six forwards and four defencemen), you’d have 60 players to redistribute among the remaining 24 clubs. A dozen of them would be impact players, while the rest would be legitimate NHLers who could help whatever team they wound up with.

In an instant, the league would rid itself of fringe players who can’t keep up, because the speed of the game would simply render them obsolete. That would also be the end of one-dimensional tough guys (who are being phased out anyhow) and sluggish, stay-at-home defencemen. There will always be room in the NHL for physical players as long as they can skate well. And every team will always have room for an additional puck-moving defenceman.

In the case of the Vancouver Canucks, imagine them with two additional offensive-minded forwards. Kyle Wellwood would immediately be out of work and Steve Bernier would be relegated to fourth-line duty. The club’s skill level would improve with an ability to ice three scoring lines, and the addition of Bernier would give the fourth line considerably more skill than it has right now. There’s a chance a revamped fourth line might actually score the odd goal.

On too many nights this season, NHL fans flocking to GM Place have been forced to sit through games involving two teams seemingly going through the motions. There is no question the NHL’s expansion from 21 to 30 teams over the past 20 years has placed a drain on the talent pool and its feeder systems. Some think expanding again—this time to Europe—is the
answer, opening doors to more markets and more players. And the Olympics have shown that hockey is a truly global sport and the gap between the good and the great is narrowing. (Any team with elite goaltending has a chance to win, and almost every hockey-playing nation seems to have at least one very good, if not great, goalie.)

But more teams is hardly what the NHL needs right now.

Reducing the size of the league probably won’t happen, because that never happens. No professional sports league relishes the thought of writing massive cheques to owners so that it can just turn out the lights on a franchise or franchises. So when the Olympic flame is extinguished, it will be business as usual for the NHL, with a handful of teams at any given time struggling to make a go of it.

The marathon regular season will continue, eventually giving way to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Fans will think they’re seeing hockey at its highest level. But that won’t be the case.

These past few weeks in Vancouver have shown what an amazing sport hockey can be when played by the best players in the world laying it all on the line for their countries. Unfortunately, they’ve also provided that once-every-four-years glimpse of what’s missing from so many of the games fans see when the NHL is all they’ve got.

The NHL product isn’t bad. But from what’s been on display during the Olympics, it’s easy to see that it could be so much better.

Jeff Paterson is a talk-show host on Vancouver’s all-sports radio, Team 1040. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/patersonjeff.