…. but maybe it was worth a shot.

Just read in the Philly Inquirer somethat that made very little sense from Tim Panaccio, who could be looking for a front office job under Zack Hill or something.

He wrote:

“Finally, St. Louis Blues owner Dave Checketts was among the NFL’s final cut on replacements for commissioner Paul Tagliabue, according to the New York Daily News. That was a painful reminder to us that had a visionary Ed Snider, instead of the obstinate John Ziegler, overseen the NHL during the critical 1980s in which the league’s offensive magic and marketing potential was wasted among a group of narrow-minded, old guard Board of Governors, hockey would undoubtedly prospered and challenged the NBA’s domain. Instead, pro basketball won the cold war.”

Ah Tim, you actually think Snider would divest himself of Flyers ownership to run the NHL? Simple economics. Would not happen and didn’t. Ed is smarter than that.

I wouldn’t worry about the 80s Tim, I’d concentrate on the clowns running the league now. What the NHL needs is more old guard guys that could help reinstate tradition back into the game and get rid of the annual gimmicks. The league started going down hill and losing fan appeal in the 1990s after Bettman took over and touted the instigator rule among other debacles too long to list.

Teams made plenty of money in the 1980s, fans were happy, and TV ratings were respectable.

The only thing holding the NHL back is not the NBA, NFL and MLB — but it is the NHL itself.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 19th, 2006 at 11:23 am and is filed under Bully's Perspective. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.