Pierre Puck says: may the ratings be with you

Sporting News, The, Jan 29, 1996 by Larry Wigge

Psst! Over here."

I look around but see no one at Boston's FleetCenter.

"Larry, over here," the voice says. "Remember me? It's Pierre. Pierre Puck. I'm Peter Puck's grandson. We met a long time ago."

Of course, the similarities are unmistakable - down to the squeaky voice.

Peter Puck was television's talking puck of the 1970s who was used to explain the game. The new-generation puck - actually called Fox Trax - was such a success at the NHL All-Star Game last Saturday that Pierre's grandfather would be proud.

Hockey is not an easy sea. It is played on skates, and most fans have never skated. The puck moves too fast for the average fan to follow - until Fox TV, inventor of the score inset and battling robots, came up with a futuristic approach to highlight the puck and to emphasize the speed of the puck with a red comet-sell laser trail when it travels 75 mph or more.

Fox Sports chief David Hill says he got the idea from "Star Wars."

"I saw Luke Skywalker duel Darth Vader and thought if we could use this technology for hockey it would be cool," Hill says.

Fox cut the puck in half, inserted 12 dots around the perimeter and four on each side, then glued it back together. Sensors atop the plexiglass track the puck, receiving signals 30 times a second from the infrared emitters in the puck.

Each puck costs about $100.

"I saw a video of the display on TV," Blues right wing Brett Hull says. "I think it's awesome. We've always got to be thinking about the future - and trying to do things that will catch the interest of the casual fan.

"The biggest complaint I hear from those fans is they can't follow the puck."

It was clearly a success in the All-Star Game. Usually it takes a slow-motion replay to show where the puck is, but this innovation emphasizes deflections, glove saves and anything else that was previously too fast to see with the naked eye. It isolated the speed of Eric Lindros' wrist shot on the first goal and emphasized the velocity of Ray Bourque's backhanded shot for the winner.

Nothing can normally slow down this fast-paced game, but Fox Trax underscored the speed and talent we sometimes take for granted.

Hockey has entered a new technology age under Commissioner Gary Bettman. Purists can complain about some of the gimmicks, but they are a part of the grand plan to get more people interested in the game - and it's working.

"You've got to try new things," Bettman says. We have a fast-paced, hard-hitting, exciting game. If people give us a chance, then chances are good we can turn them into fans - and that's the way we will grow."

Oilers General Manager Glen Sather says the players have improved, and the game is headed in the same direction. "I remember when Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier came into the league, Marcel Dionne was one of the existing stars," Sather says. "Nothing again Marcel Dione, but Eric Lindros and all of the young European talent like Teemu Selanne and Jaromir Jagr are better than what Dionne and players of the late 1970s were. And Gretzky and Messier are still stars."

The NHL's attempt to emphasize the skills of those players by reducing obstruction is the best thing it has done ill a long time. But if Bettman listens, to Sather and Red Wings Coach Scotty Bowman, more can be done to enhance the game on the ice.

Here are a couple of suggestions from these two experts:

* "The obstruction rules have definitely opened up the game, but they don't go far enough," Sather says. "We can enforce those rules more by reducing the number of dump-ins we have.

"I was at the Boston University game Friday night, and it was just like our game - dump it in and dump it out. You don't see the defensemen in the kids' games on up carrying the puck like they should be - and that need to be fixed.

"We need to slow down the forecheckers enable the defensemen to be more a part of the transition game. That's what really triggers the speed in the offensive game."

* "The officiating has gotten better and better since I started coaching in St. Louis in 1967-68," Bowman says. "But the players are bigger and stronger and faster (so) that the game is too fast for one set of eyes to see everything. I'm not advocating two referees, but I've seen too many players hacked across the wrists or injured behind the play that perhaps if s time for the league to let the senior linesman call some penalties."

With the futuristic look provided at the All-Star Game, the laser trail shows how far hockey has come and how much better it can become.

The best player

We've talked a lot about whether the game's premier player is Mario Lemieux, Mark Messier or Eric Lindros. But Red Wings Coach Scotty Bowman has another thought.

"The late (Blues G.M.) Lynn Patrick once said the schedule can be your best player - and every team in the West has found that out with the travel we face," he says. The fact that we no longer have as much to say about the schedule makes it really difficult to compete some nights.

"What we really need is to have a few more teams in the Midwest. But I don't know where you're going to find them."