We Got Next: How the NHL Can Use the Olympics to Repair Their Image

Unless you’ve recently taken up a habit of sticking your fingers in your ears and shouting “lalalalalalalala,” you’ve probably heard about Canada’s victory over the United States in Sunday’s gold medal game for men’s hockey. Zach Parise scored a goal with 24 seconds to go in the third period to force overtime, after which Sidney Crosby slid the puck past goalie Ryan Miller to win the game for Canada in front of a delirious crowd. An estimated 34.8 million Americans tuned in to cheer their team on, the most to watch any hockey game since the gold medal game in 1980.

For at least one night, America was passionate – passionate! – about hockey.

This should be a gigantic opportunity for the NHL, a league with sagging attendance, a limited fan base, and a badly damaged public image after the 2004-2005 lockout that saw the disappearance of an entire season. For the first time in a long time, people were excited about hockey. Shouldn’t the league be all over this? Shouldn’t they be herding us toward exciting games like last night’s Red Wings-Avalanche tilt?

No, of course not. The marketing geniuses that brought you the cancellation of an entire season and prevented the Stanley Cup from being awarded for the first time since 1919 (when an outbreak of influenza forced an early end to the finals after five games) not only aren’t promoting their product, they’re actively destroying their brand’s image. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is still debating whether or not he wants his players competing in the 2014 Olympics. Since the overwhelming majority of Olympic men’s hockey players also play in the NHL, prohibiting them from competing would effectively kill any chance of seeing a game with the level of talent we saw on Sunday ever again in the Olympics.

Canada's Sidney Crosby - "The Next One" - could be the key to bringing the NHL back from the brink.

Now, I understand Bettman’s point. In order to allow NHL players to compete in the Olympics, the league has to take an extended break. Without any games, there aren’t any ticket sales, which is tough to stomach for a team already hurting for revenue. I get that. But couldn’t he have chosen a different time to say this? Following up one of the greatest hockey games of all time with hand-wringing over finances doesn’t come off seeming prudent. It feels miserly.

It doesn’t help that the league, though having incredibly talented players, is at its most diluted in years. Years of expansion have turned a competitive league into an afterthought, featuring new teams in warm-weather markets like Phoenix, Atlanta, Carolina, and Nashville. Team names like the Coyotes, Thrashers, Hurricanes, and Predators don’t exactly make one think of hockey.

So if you want to save the NHL, I say trim the fat away. Warm-weather teams? You’re gone. That means San Jose, Anaheim, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas, Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, Tampa, and Miami bringing us down to a manageable 20 teams. That leaves us with more talented teams that people can actually get behind. It also almost guarantees a big-name player on each team, which brings me to my second point: the NHL needs to promote its stars. Crosby is already one of the league’s biggest names, but what about Ryan Miller? I actively follow most sports so I can write articles here, and I hadn’t heard of him before last week. In fact, I didn’t know what team he played for until I looked it up just now. (Fact: Miller plays for the Buffalo Sabres.)

On top of Crosby and Miller, the NHL has a huge star in Alex Ovechkin, the two-time defending MVP. Ovechkin and Crosby already have a rivalry building, having met in last year’s Eastern Conference playoffs (featuring the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals) and in the Canada-Russia game last week. It’s hockey’s equivalent of Kobe-LeBron or Federer-Nadal. Promoting that rivalry is key to restoring the NHL brand; it worked for the NBA with Magic-Bird.

But even if you do all of that, the fact is that most Americans just aren’t interested in hockey. It still has a reputation as a Canadian or European sport. That’s fair, considering a significant amount of the players are Canadian, Russia, Ukranian, Swedish, and so on. So how do you solve that problem? I say send four teams up north, giving us an even split of 10-10 between the U.S. and Canada, and make those the two conferences. That way, every Stanley Cup final turns into a grudge match between the two countries. Players will be fighting for national honor. Wouldn’t you think more Americans could get behind that?

It’s unlikely that any of these changes will actually be made, I admit. But the fact is that the NHL needs to do something. The league is hurting. I have a friend in Phoenix who is a huge fan of any and all professional Arizona teams. He loves the Suns. He loves the Cardinals. He even loves the Phoenix Mercury, the current WNBA champions. But when I asked him if he could name a single player for the Coyotes, not only did he say no, but he told me, unsolicited, that he despises hockey.

When loathing is the first emotion your league inspires, you know you have a serious image problem.

But the league has just been handed a golden opportunity to step back into the national spotlight. This is their big chance to do something. If they don’t, we might not hear from Miller and Crosby again until the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, if even then.