Beginning of a New Age

Hockey Digest, Nov, 2000 by Scott Plagenhoef

FOR MUCH OF THE PAST FIVE years, the NHL has been attempting to arrest slumping TV ratings and fan interest without success. Yet, this season, reviving interest in the game may just begin to happen--thanks not a carefully orchestrated marketing plan, or the emergence of a dynamic, dominant individual player, but with a wide-open, European-style of hockey that most of North American hockey once derided.

The NHL returns after a summer break only to find itself--through no fault of its own--a little weary and a little battered. Ask the casual sports fan about the 1999-2000 hockey season, and the first thing that springs to mind, unfortunately, is likely to be Marty McSorley's egregious slash to the face of Donald Brashear, the lone time that the NHL commanded national headlines last year.

One of the more exciting playoff races in recent memory--which featured a five-overtime classic between the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins, and culminated in the crowning of a deserving champion, the New Jersey Devils--did little to slow a drop in television ratings or, worse, in the public perception of the sport.

A blind post-game hit that paralyzed a 16-year-old Illinois hockey player, and the beating death of a Massachusetts hockey coach by a fellow parent did further damage to the reputation of the sport, leaving the NHL to defend what critics can hockey's culture of violence.

For a league that changes rules at a pace that would make NASCAR blush, the NHL failed in its attempts to make its product attractive and thrilling ever since the Devils won the 1995 Stanley Cup thanks to the slow, grinding trapping defense. Soon after, the two-way, unselfish, no-stars approach favored by Scotty Bowman's Detroit Red Wings became the league's dominant style of play. Effective? Yes. Attractive? Not necessarily. Hand-wringing in the league office begat rule changes, but now it seems that the league will be bailed out organically--with help from overseas.

This offseason, the two most newsworthy transactions--and the two most telling--may have been the hirings of Alpo Suhonen and Ivan Hlinka, the first two European-born coaches in league history, by the Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins, respectively.

Twenty years ago, when the World Hockey Association embraced European players, the NHL scoffed, dismissing the overseas imports as soft. Now the flee-wheeling European style has been embraced by the champion Devils, as well as, by the Penguins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators, and Florida Panthers.

It was no surprise then when Czech native Hlinka was elevated from his position as Pens assistant to head coach. The head coach of the Czech Republic's gold-medal winning team at Nagano, Hlinka had a relationship with the many Czech natives on the team--including superstar Jaromir Jagr--and the Pens had already begun to adopt a more international style.

Suhonen's hiring is a bit more surprising. A former head coach in both Sweden and Finland--as well as a longtime NHL assistant--Suhonen has been charged with the task of kick-starting one of league's most notoriously grinding, blue-collar squads. The Blackhawks have also been, in recent years, one of the league's most anonymous teams, thanks to constant, largely fruitless front-office tinkering. Now, under Suhonen and manager of hockey operations Mike Smith, the Hawks appear as if they also will attempt to adopt a more European style.

So, speed and finesse are the new hallmarks of the NHL. Power-play quarterback Sandis Ozolinsh was the most sought-after free agent this offseason. Even non-Europeans are benefitting from the new trend--especially defense-man who can join the rush or lead a counterattack. The Colorado Avalanche are backing the ageless Ray Bourque to fit nicely their Stanley Cup plans; experienced so-called offensive blueliners such as Kevin Hatcher and Phil Housley have seen their careers revived; and the St. Louis Blues--led by league MVP Chris Pronger and Al MacInnis--and the Red Wings are winning games by finding that the best offense is one generated by the defense. Stricter positional play and the willingness to mix it up when necessary are still important, of course, but the teams that are succeeding, such as the Devils, are the ones that have adopted quickest to elements of the European game and blended them with the two-way games of Bowman's Red Wings.

As the trend continues, it should make for an enjoyable product, and downplay the physical element of hockey--and just may kickstart a renaissance in interest in the game.