Hockey? Are you stilling thinking about that?

Ok, so I know that since the Sabres lost in Game 7 I have been quiet about the whole hockey aspect of professional sports. Why? Cause I don't have a lot of say. I was really routing for the Sabres, but unfortunately all their freak injuries (they had lost 4 starting defensemen by game 7), culminating in Jay McKee's really freaky leg infection, and a very good Carolina team pulled it off in the end. Suffice it to say, I'm routing for the Oilers for the cup. First and foremost, because the Oilers didn't eliminate the Sabres, so there is less animosity there and second, the Stanley Cup should be in the North...or at least north of the Mason-Dixon line!

This is the crux of the problem. North Carolina does not deserve to call itself the home of the Cup for the next year. Hockey has no business being in southern states. When I look at the Hurricanes, I don't hate them as a team. I kind of like Mike Commodore - he reminds me of Ogie Ogilthorpe with his bush of flaming red hair (yeah, I read that somewhere else, but it doesn't mean that I didn't think about it). Cam Ward has the makings of a terrific goalie ('course he's no Ryan Miller). Laviolette is a good coach. So, in summary, I don't have anything against the team. It's against where they are.

In an excellent article by Chris Shott in Slate, the author basically says that hockey should not attempt to expand their fan base. He argues that it's better to stick with the die-hard fans that they have, to become a sport with a cult following, nothing more. He advocates contraction (notably from those too-hot locales such as Florida and, yes, Raleigh, NC). To help back up his point he quotes the following figure:

During Carolina's semifinal matchup against the Buffalo Sabres, hockey ratings in western New York were between three and seven times greater than in Raleigh.

Not to say that NYers are better than those down south, but as hockey fans they surely are. It's commendable (to a point) that Gary Bettman et al have tried to expand hockey's reaches beyond the Northern US and Canada, but let's get real. It's time to make this league smaller, more efficient and not try to attract only fairweather fans for a couple of odd playoff runs. Go to Toronto or Boston or Montreal, all cities that have teams that missed the playoffs or got knocked out in the first rount (Montreal). Ask some people about hockey. They'll talk until blue in the face about hockey. Now go to Phoenix or Tampa or Atlanta and ask them. I've a pretty funny feeling that it will be different. Sure you'll find fans in the southern cities, just as you'll find non-fans in the North, but I'm pretty sure that the fan base is significantly stronger up North. Leave the South with NASCAR, football and spring training, we'll keep the Cup where it belongs: in a region that sees "snow" and "ice" that have naturally formed.