I was at the Flyers last game. Very little hitting, even less emotion. Fans too. The building has been getting quieter over the last year or so but it is downright quiet there these days. Hockey brass say fans love the new NHL? I guess it’s the strong silent type of love.

To me, pro hockey on the NHL level is boring these days and expensive as hell. Bettman is a wimp. Just look at the guy. Wimp. Worm. And the game is beginning to resemble his frail, chicken ass more than ever.

Read this is Canada’s National Post today and it illustrates yet another lost part of the game:

Why are players and fans bored of seeing the same divisional opponent eight times per season? It’s simple: familiarity no longer breeds contempt the way it used to. Teams used to brawl, which carried the excitement into the next game, and the next one. And, in the old divisional playoff system, rivals met each other every other spring like clockwork, intensifying the relationship.

Today, it’s just the same two teams playing hockey eight times a year — plus, often, a couple of times in pre-season — at the expense of seeing stars from the other conference only once every three years. The payoff isn’t there any more, nor are the playoff series that forge a rivalry.

You could argue that a good rivalry should not need any fighting, and you can believe that if it makes you feel better about yourself. But it’s a straight fact that as the fighting has declined between heated hockey rivals, so too has the emotion, the passion, the pre-game hype and the in-game noise at the arenas.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 1st, 2006 at 8:29 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.