The Game of NHL Realignment

Not to completely steal the topic of my fellow classmate Kevin, but with the NHL playoffs fast approaching, I knew I couldn't let the subject fly by without attaching it to this course on games. As a diehard hockey fan, I have always loved watching games where the fans are really into the action. Even though I am an American through and through, I have always had a love affair with Canadian hockey teams, because their fans are far more passionate than almost any you'll find in the United States. This is perhaps why the subject of NHL realignment is so fascinating to me, as I appreciate the idea of relocating struggling franchises to places where they will have a rabid fan base.

The most recent example of this is in Winnipeg, where the former Atlanta Thrashers moved at the end of last season due to financial difficulties, poor play on the ice, and ever-declining attendance in the stands. The Thrashers became the Jets, the same name that the current-Phoenix Coyotes had before they left the city in 1996. Throughout this past regular season, Winnipeg's MTS Centre was sold out for all 41 home games, and the crowd was known to be one of the best in the league. The new setting certainly had an effect on the players, as the Jets posted one of the best home records (23-13-5) for teams who did not end up in the playoffs, compared to the 17-17-7 record the Thrashers put up in Atlanta just a season earlier. The Jets greatly exceeded expectations and were just eight points out of the playoffs, and not mathematically eliminated until the final week. All of this information certainly supports NHL realignment to cities like Quebec City, who are certainly eager to do have what their counterparts in Winnipeg. But should the NHL go ahead with this "game" of shuffling franchises to cities with stronger fan bases?

In the early 1990s, the NHL took a chance by moving teams in dire financial straits to cities in the United States below the Mason-Dixon line. Raleigh, Atlanta, Phoenix, Dallas, Miami, Tampa Bay and Nashville all ended up with new or relocated NHL franchises, and the league hoped that they would help further the popularity of hockey in the South. Almost twenty years after this experiment began, the jury remains out as to whether or not this foray has worked. Dallas, Carolina and Tampa Bay have each won Stanley Cups in the past fifteen years, but in seasons where the teams aren't playing as well, ticket sales and attendance have plummeted. Gary Bettman, the commissioner of the NHL, has been around since the expansion/relocation movement began, and would not want to concede defeat by relocating teams to northern or Canadian locales. Still, many people see this whole process as a game, where one wrong step can result in a team being yanked from a city forever. Fans from Quebec have traveled to places like Phoenix and Long Island, New York at the first sign of a franchise's weakness, to show that their city is ready to support these struggling teams.

In a class where we have talked about how any industry, field or subject can be thought of as a game, it is interesting to see that in hockey, there is more than just the game that occurs on the ice. The entire National Hockey League is full of games within other games, and whether it is crowning another Stanley Cup champion (hopefully my New York Rangers) or pulling a team like the Phoenix Coyotes out of the desert and onto the frozen tundra of Quebec, every move made by the league is just another piece of the larger puzzle.


- Alex Jacobs