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Jason Reed NOVEMBER 2, 2005 -- “They won’t come back,” the critics taunted. As each day of the lockout passed this cry got louder and louder from my non-hockey-enjoying friends (but then again, if they don’t like hockey, are they really my friends?) Even after the lockout was over, sports talk hosts nation wide pondered what the fate of the NHL would be. Most agreed that it would suffer and that fans would not come back to the game. They argued that only the hardcore fans would return and that the casual fan would have to be wooed back to the game. I guess they were wrong. Let it be known and recorded in the history books that the month of October in the year of 2005 was a magical one for the NHL and hockey as a whole. According to a November 1 press release from the NHL, attendance at NHL rinks was at an all-time high for the month of October. Rinks were filled to 91.2% capacity and six of the ten biggest gains came not from the large hockey markets but rather from the “Sun Belt” teams of the league. Pittsburgh was up 31%, Tampa Bay 26%, Calgary 23%, Carolina 21%, Florida 19%, Atlanta and Boston were at 15%, Nashville 14% and San Jose and Chicago are up 13%. Why has there been an increased interest in the so-called Fourth Major Sport? There are several reasons actually but the main one is that scoring is up and we Americans love to see high scoring games in any sport. Hockey purists may enjoy the nuances of a 1-0 game and can appreciate the strong goaltending and defensive prowess of the teams, but lets face it, the Average Joe wants to see that lamp lit up as often as possible. During the first month no one scored more often than Jaromir Jagr of the New York Rangers. Jagr put the puck in the back of the net 12 times in only 13 games. But his is not the only great offensive feat of the young season—back on October 29 against the Toronto Maple Leafs the Senators Dany Heatley netted four goals in a 8-0 rout at Air Canada Centre. When it comes to excitement and keeping fans interested, two teams immediately come to mind. With their record of 8-1-1 in October the Nashville Predators are indeed the surprise thus far in the campaign. Led by Paul Kariya, Steve Sullivan and Yanic Perrault, they are reminding folks in the Volunteer state that there is more to life than football (really, there is). The other team on fire as of late is the San Jose Sharks. Over a four-day span at the end of the month, the Sharks got critical goals in the last thirty seconds of three games. On October 26 in Dallas, Marco Sturm scored with 20 seconds in regulation to send the game into overtime. (The Sharks won 5-4 in OT). In their next contest Jonathan Cheechoo scored with four seconds on the clock to give the Sharks the outright victory in LA and the following night they beat Calgary 3-2 in a shootout after Brad Stuart scored with 23 seconds remaining in regulation to tie the game. League wide teams are averaging 6.4 goals scored per game—a 27% increase over the first 174 games of the 2003-4 season. It is not just the fact that a lot of goals are getting scored, it is WHEN they are getting scored that is keeping people interested. Teams are coming from behind like never before. On October 27 the Penguins found themselves down 4-0 just 10 minutes into their game against Atlanta but came back to post a 7-5 victory. This was the second time this season that a team posted a victory after being down by four goals (Dallas beat LA 5-4 on October 5). Veterans are enjoying the freedom that the new rules are allowing. Besides Jagr, players like Anaheim’s Teemu Sellane, Philadelphia’s Simon Gagne and Eric Desjardins are also lighting the lamp like kids. Defenseman are also getting onto the score sheet. Colorado’s John-Michael Liles has already netted four goals and Bryan McCabe of Toronto and LA’s Lubomir Visnovsky are right behind him with three apiece. Keith Carney of the Ducks already has two goals—equaling his total from all of the 2003-4 season. Whether or not this continues throughout the season remains to be seen but if nothing else it has been a very warm welcome to fans throughout North America and should help draw in the casual fan. Come the end of the season we are not likely to see Gretzky-like numbers from the early 90’s but with any luck we will see a few players with more than 50 apiece.
2009 Western Hockey Network
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