Hockey's lack of respect

Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals was an example of hockey at it's finest. Great back and forth action, exciting scoring chances and great work in goal at both ends of the ice.

Now the NHL in it's infinite wisdom, or lack thereof, gives us a two day layoff. I presume this is to get a primetime shot on NBC on Saturday night and bump up the already enhanced viewing numbers for the series thus far. Let's hope that gamble works and viewership of the league in general is enhanced. The league needs this series to be heavily viewed so that they can get a better TV contract when the current one expires. Hockey is a tremendous game, and it has always mystified me as to why it doesn't enjoy better fan support and respect in the media than it does.

Hockey coverage is often relegated to the back pages of most sports sections in papers, and actually sneered at in local TV news segments and on radio. All this while football, basketball , and God help us (yawn) baseball are fawned on. Golf and tennis garner more respect than hockey, and I won't touch on the endlessly annoying coverage of NASCAR ( I did kind of touch it there didn't I, that's gonna leave a stain)

A fast moving game with plenty of hitting should be right up America's alley, yet often there is just passing interest. More people should open their minds to this great game and give it a chance. The league has taken steps to make it's product fan friendly, and for the most part ticket prices for games aren't completely heinous. That may change somewhat as we have to pay the cost of free agency, but we'll see. Anyway, tune in Saturday night and watch the Penguins and Red Wings, in what surely should be a highly entertaining contest. Give the game a chance, you'll probably find you like it.

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Welcome to baldhedhockey. Here we celebrate the best, bash the worst, and revel in all things the greatest team game has to offer.

The Stanley Cup Finals started the other night with a dominating performance by the Red Wings. Most of that I'm chalking up to opening night jitters on behalf of a much less experienced Penguin team. The opening twenty treated us to the solid hockey we were promised in the run up to the initial puck drop, but then the Wings just shut everything down and totally frustrated Pittsburgh.

The Penguins have made some line adjustments for tonights game. How could they not. They need to generate some offense. They only got a total of four shots from Crosby and Malkin combined. According to what I have been reading online they seem to be gearing up to play dump and chase with the Wings. I'm not sure this is the best strategy for them.

The Wings are a shot blocking team. Trying to fling the puck into the corners to get it deep may well not work for the Penguins. It may simply result in the Detroit transition game starting from a little deeper than their defensive blue line. I would rather see the Penguins try to create more passing lanes through the neutral zone for at least the first half of the game before going into the dump and chase mode. Dump and chase is always a fall back position. They also need to tighten up on their forecheck when Detroit does have the puck and try to create a transition game of their own. Hopefully this will be easier for them with Roberts back in the lineup tonight.

The Penguins are a talented team, and while game one made it clear that they needed to make some adjustments, and show the Wings a little less respect, I hate to see them abandon the formula that got them this deep into the playoffs so soon. I definately want this to become a more competetive series. I think this is what hockey needs at this point. They need a well watched (not that that is totally possible on the Versus network) exiting series to broaden the fan base. These two teams are capable of putting that series on the ice.