Fortune or Foresight? The NHL’s Winning Formula

Leave a reply

By Jason Menard

The NHL not only managed to slip its head out of its self-imposed noose, but the league appears to have found a winning lottery ticket on the way down the ladder.

All the public hand-wringing and doomsday scenarios cooked up by the pundits have been put on ice, as the National Hockey League has rebounded nicely from its lockout to boast improved attendance numbers, a better product, and a future that’s so bright Gary Bettman’s gotta wear shades.

The league released its attendance figures, clocking in a 91.7 per cent capacity over the year, league-wide. Now, some may snicker at that number considering that some of those 20,854,169 reported attendees arrived dressed as empty seats. But regardless of how many fans walked through the turnstiles, a 2.4 per cent increase in tickets sold is nothing to sneeze at – especially in light of the potential damage the lockout could have caused.

Luckily for the NHL, common sense combined with serendipity to provide an exciting, dynamic year that gave the fans a reason to come back.

It’s not surprising that Montreal was able to set a team record for season attendance. They were able to sell out all 41 home games in the cavernous 21,273 Bell Centre. In fact, it’s no surprise that Canadian hockey fans were ready to come back in droves – the surprise was that there was no drop-off in U.S. fan support.

Realizing the precipice upon which they were perched, the league finally listened to its legion of constructive critics and implemented a host of rule and stylistic changes designed to speed up the game, let the skill players display their talents unimpeded by lumbering goons, and add goals to the game. Most importantly, they ensured that each game would end with a winner and a loser.

Part of the joy of being a hockey fan comes from experiencing the highs and lows of the season. However, it’s hard to ride that emotional rollercoaster when it’s stuck in neutral – and that’s what happened in the past as so many teams were playing not to lose and we more than content with a tie and the point it provided. The addition of the shootout, gimmicky as some may think it is, gets the butts out of the seats, brings back the breathless anticipation that hockey is known for, and gives fans back the opportunity to experience the depth of disappointment that accompanies a loss. However, that feeling also allows them enjoy the adrenaline rush that a win brings with even more passion.

That’s what common sense brought: the knowledge that hockey was a game with untapped potential that was being impeded through clutch-and-grab tactics. Desperation is the mother of invention and to reaffirm their place in the professional sporting mosaic, the NHL had to make changes.

The serendipity came with the fact that so many teams from non-traditional markets were in contention for playoffs right down to the wire. How much was fan interest buoyed in Atlanta thanks to the fact that the Ilya Kovalchuk-led Thrashers were in it right down to the final weekend? Did the Carolina Hurricanes’ success have anything to do with their 27 per cent increase in fan support? What about Nashville’s unexpected performance? Do you think that may have helped the team improve attendance by 10 per cent? Did Joe Thornton’s arrival and subsequent sparking of the San Jose Sharks playoff drive matter to the fans? A six per cent increase says yes.

Like the increase in fan support in Montreal, NHL markets are notorious for supporting their teams win or tie. The fact that so many non-traditional market teams were playing games that mattered only gave a bigger stage to display the changes that were made on the ice.

All the talk about fan revolt dissipated when we realized that it wasn’t just the NHL that was back – it was the NHL game of our youth that was resurrected. Just as Wayne Gretzky made his return to rinks behind the Phoenix Coyotes bench, the style of game that he enjoyed in his heyday was back in fashion.

While it’s hard to say that losing a season of one’s favourite sport is ever a worthwhile venture, the bitter pill fans were forced to swallow has gone down much easier with the sweet changes made to the current game. Now fans have to hope that the league has finally cured what ails it and commits to ensuring its long-term health.

Whether it was foresight, serendipity, plain dumb luck, or a combination of all three, the NHL has stumbled across a winning formula – and it’s the fans who are the biggest beneficiaries.

2006© Menard Communications – Jason Menard All Rights Reserved

MVP Debate’s True Value? It’s on the Front Page

Leave a reply

By Jason Menard

It’s the age-old debate that the leagues don’t want you to solve – what exactly does Most Valuable Player mean?

Every year around this same time, fans and pundits alike of both the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association bring up the same debate: is it best player or most valuable to his team? The wording of the award, Most Valuable Player, plays into that ambiguity itself. There’s no clear definition and the leagues like it that way.

After all, subjective post-season awards are almost as insignificant as all-star nominations. If it weren’t for this borderline-inane debate, we wouldn’t care half as much about these awards. And due to the vague nature of their criteria, any decision will be met with debate, discussion, and even derision.

All of which is good for the ol’ ratings and keeping the sport on the front pages of the newspapers, even when the on-ice or on-court action is a little thin.

However, at the end of the day few remember who or how many, they remember generalities and classifications. Few sports fans would be able to accurately tell you how many individual awards Wayne Gretzky walked away with during his career – but they’d, to a person, be able to identify that he was one of the game’s greats. Same goes for Michael Jordon on the hard court. The image of both is not one of them holding their individual awards aloft – it’s them holding the symbols of team supremacy above their heads.

And there, despite the desires of the professional sports leagues to suppress the answer, is the truth. Sports, despite their focus on individual accomplishments, are in their truest form a team game. Thereby, when we’re looking at a true definition of what most valuable truly means, it has to be done within a team context.

Of course, solving that debate only leads to more discussion. After all, can a player be considered the league’s most valuable player even if his team doesn’t make the playoffs? Conversely, is it easier for a player to dominate when surrounded by a stronger supporting cast, which would make the need for team success secondary to the overall dynamic?

Look no further than Canada’s NBA franchise for direction. While the pundits bandy about names like Steve Nash, LeBron James, and Chauncey Billups in terms of who will appear at the top of their ballot, the Toronto Raptors’ Chris Bosh’s name hasn’t even received a whisper of support. But, in the overall scheme of things, does any player mean more to his team than Bosh? The Raptors, with Bosh in the line-up, are a below-average team that’s capable of competing on a nightly basis. Take the lanky forward out of the line-up and what do you get? The recent multi-game losing streak and poor performances are indicators of that.

Billups, whose team’s starting line-up appeared in the All-Star Game, has the support of solid role players. He fits the role of best player on the best team, but the Detroit Pistons arguably could enjoy significant success without him. Nash? James? Dwayne Wade? All of them are on stronger rosters than Bosh.

The problem’s magnified to a greater degree when we look at the NHL. NBA players often play significant minutes in their games. Even the top NHL forwards will play just over a third of each game. The top defencemen may see half-a-game’s worth of action. Hockey’s team approach almost precludes the concept of one player – save for a goaltender – being considered a difference-maker of the nature that basketball provides. While a Joe Thornton has almost single-handedly revitalized the San Jose Sharks, one would be hard-pressed to say that removing him from the line-up would find his squad scraping the bottom of the NHL’s barrel. Teams like Carolina, Detroit, and Calgary show that the entire roster plays a role in the team’s success? So how does one define the most valuable in this race?

In the end, the most value that the Most Valuable Player debate has is the fact that it gets people talking and invested in the league. As the games get fewer and farther between and golf season looms for a handful of clubs in both leagues, the Most Valuable Player race keeps these sports on the front pages of the sports sections and foremost in the minds of the sporting public.

To the league, it really doesn’t matter who wins. All that matters is you care and you’re talking about it.

2006© Menard Communications – Jason Menard All Rights Reserved

Don’t Give Bikers Ticket to Ride

1 Reply

By Jason Menard

Remember this name: Daniel Desrochers. By remembering little Daniel today and maybe we won’t have to remember another name closer to home in the near future.

The recent massacre in the Shedden area points to an escalation of biker gang violence in the area. And while many will point to the fact that it appears to be nothing more than bikers killing other bikers so why not leave well enough alone, I again turn to little Daniel.

On Aug. 9, 1995, Daniel was riding his bike in the Hochelaga-Maissoneuve area of Montreal, in the city’s east-end, shortly after noon. As he was riding, a curbside Jeep exploded. The driver, Marc Dubé, a presumed drug runner, was killed instantly.

If it was just Dubé, the story would have died. But Desrochers was riddled with shrapnel from the explosion. He lay in a coma for four days, finally succumbing to his injuries. Almost 10 years later, his mother, Josée-Anne passed away from pneumonia, having fought against bikers since her son’s death. She went to her grave never knowing the identity of her son’s killers.

Until that point Montrealers passed off the not-so-random violence as an accepted part of the Biker War. As long as the Hell’s Angels and the Rock Machine (the two dominant biker gangs at the time) were content to restrict their battles to their own turf, it was nothing more than tabloid fodder for the population at large. Certain publications made their living on the salacious activities that these bikers engaged in. Maurice “Mom” Boucher, the Hell’s leader, became a celebrity in his own right during the time.

That was until Daniel Desrochers.

Reports of the Shedden massacre have included commentary from the locals about how pleasant and well-mannered the bikers in the area were. It’s the same refrain we hear over and over from people living in these areas. And then we wonder why some children grow up to emulate these larger-than-life individuals whose legal transgressions seem only to be an extra bit of flavour on their persona. In less-than-affluent areas, joining these gangs appears to be an accepted way to immediately command respect, earn money, and live above the law.

The fact is bikers are well mannered. Early on, my wife and I lived in an area of Montreal that was just a couple of blocks north of the Rock Machine headquarters. We would walk past their bunker on our way to catching the weekly fireworks at the bank of the St. Lawrence. We drove past their businesses on our way to work. And we never saw hide nor hair of a biker in the year that we were there. The bunker, with its fortifications in front and array of strategically positioned video cameras, was more of a conversation piece than anything else.

That is, until that morning when we were awakened by helicopters and police cars racing down our narrow street to raid the headquarters as part of Quebec’s Operation Wolverine. And turning on the TV that night we heard the same comments from our neighbours: “they were so polite, they never caused any trouble in this area.” Now, driving past the old homestead, the entire area has been demolished, leaving an empty lot. The death and destruction perpetrated by these bikers has given way for a new future. The presence of the Rock Machine in that area is left only in the memories of those who lived there. But still the battle rages on, in Montreal, in Toronto, and right here in Southwestern Ontario.

Turning a blind eye doesn’t work. The fact is that drugs do exist. There is prostitution, there are illegal guns being traded, and someone is looking to make a profit. In this country, the biker gangs are the ones at the forefront of these black-market industries. And, occasionally, there will be turf wars as greed and lust for power grow.

Generally, they keep their battles to themselves. But are we willing to sacrifice our own Daniel Desrochers to the cause before we act? What will it take for us to raise our voices and demand our government and police act against these outlaw gangs?

Bikers may be respectful, they may be polite, they may be fine members of your community, but in the end some bikers are simply criminals whose concern for your well-being extends only as far as their wallet. They’ve proven that if your child can be sacrificed for a greater stake in the lucrative drug trade, then it’s a trade-off they’re willing to make.

The question is, are you?

2006© Menard Communications – Jason Menard All Rights Reserved

Ottawa’s Irreconcilable Differences

Leave a reply

By Jason Menard

Just when you thought it was safe to be a CFL fan. Where’s Paul McCartney and Brigitte Bardot when you need them? After all, each time a Canadian feels it’s safe to poke their head out and be proud of our national league, someone comes along and Gliebermans the fan.

It’s truly cruel and unusual punishment – especially for those long-suffering folk in our nation’s capital and it must stop.

Whether it’s the Roughriders or the Renegades, Ottawa fans have now twice faced a divorce from their beloved team. Sure, the first marriage lasted a heck of a long time, until 1996, which made the hurt all the more painful. And then, just when the old fans were feeling comfortable about expressing their love for the new arrival, they get left at the altar 10 years later.

And the league thinks the fans are going to welcome the team back after one year off?

Take one year, take 10 years, take however long you want. If once bitten, twice shy is the old adage, what’s the formula when you’ve had two chunks taken out of you? Oh yeah, it starts fool me once…

The league has to be insane if they think that the fans are just going to walk back into Frank Clair Stadium and pick up where they left off. There’s too much mistrust to get personally involved.

Look at the example set by the Montreal Alouettes. Despite a team that was consistently able to beat the bushes and find superlative talent, Montrealers refused to support the team in any substantive way and ended up losing Nos Amours to Washington. However, it wasn’t for a lack of passion in baseball or a lack of enjoyment of the spectacle – opening day crowds can attest to that. It’s just that fans were tired of being told that their team was going to leave.

The situation denigrated into a constant cacophony of how terrible the stadium was, how the team couldn’t compete in the fiscal environment, and how the players were just going to end up leaving anyway. Montreal’s own Gleibermanesque Jeff Loria promised the moon – a downtown stadium on land whose lease he allowed to lapse – before delivering the knockout blow and putting Montreal baseball to sleep for good.

While sports is a business, there’s so much more to it than just that. To run a successful sports franchise you need not only savvy business and personnel people in place, you need a fan base that feels attached to the team, feels a sense of ownership and pride in the organization, and feels invested in the product on the field. It’s hard to get the fans to stand firm when you keep pulling the rug out from under their feet.

Look at how Montreal has rebounded since the return of the Alouettes. When the Concorde left, the thought was that football was gone from that town for good. But with the failed American expansion behind them and the absorption of the former Baltimore franchise, Montreal’s CFL brass made all the right moves. They embraced the history of the team by reverting to the Alouettes name, instead of choosing the failed Concordes moniker or an all-new title. They moved to the cozy confines of McGill’s football stadium to turn a night at the football game into an event. And they encouraged their players to go out into the community and be a part of life in the city.

The Renegades? They should have Horned Mr. Chen and obtained the rights to the Roughriders title. And the last thing they should have done is shelved the team for the year.

The league’s commitment to finding solid, long-term local ownership is admirable. However, the decision to suspend operations and disperse the players through the league (and the unemployment line) is short-sighted at best. Like Toronto and Hamilton in the recent past, the league should have ponied up the dough to maintain operations.

Who’s to say that after a year off, the fans are going to want to come back? What will they be coming back to? Nothing more than an expansion team with new, poorer-quality players, and an immediate future that looks bleak. Why are they going to invest their time, money, and – most importantly – passion in a situation that’s proven to be folly in the past?

Like in any marriage, it’s easier to work things out together than to come back after a separation. Unfortunately for the Ottawa fans, this marriage appears to be going down the road to divorce because of irreconcilable differences.

2006© Menard Communications – Jason Menard All Rights Reserved

Political Strength is Home Grown

Leave a reply

By Jason Menard

Is it any shock that Belinda Stronach has decided not to run for the federal Liberal leadership? After all, to do so at this juncture would have been committing political suicide.

Regardless of Ms. Stronach’s qualifications – and one would think having been in a management role in the multi-billion dollar Magna International would lend itself well to the managing of a country – she’s been caught up in the groundswell of anger over David Emerson’s defection to the Conservative party for a cabinet seat.

The fact of the matter is that the only difference between Stronach and Emerson’s respective party flopping is in the degree of brazenness that both parties displayed. Stronach, at least, put in a solid tenure with the Conservatives and was known as a Red Tory before she made the jump. Emerson’s defection reeked of opportunism. And while Stronach’s decision was validated in the recent federal election by her constituency, it’s hard to even suggest that Emerson’s electorate would afford him the same vote of confidence.

But, overall, the two politicians made similar moves, which not only have been met with disapproval within their own ranks, but they’ve served to cast doubt on the candidates’ very integrity and loyalty. Essentially, they’re not home-grown candidates and for that reason Stronach would be a liability in a leadership role – despite her qualifications.

And it’s for that same reason that Bob Rae should be pulling his hat tighter around his head instead of considering throwing it into the ring. Rae will always be NDP. His legacy will be that of a promising Ontario leadership bid that quickly descended into the land of mockery.

One of the things that Canadians look for in their leaders is fidelity. We want to believe that our leaders have bled the party colours, that their ideals and beliefs are ingrained – not buffeted and shaped by the winds of popular opinion. That’s why Stephen Harper can come across as a credible Conservative, while Jean Charest continues to see his True Grit tainted by Tory Blue.

It’s somewhat ironic that we want our politicians to be flexible, understanding of the differing opinions of the Canadian populace, and willing to change with the times – yet we vilify those who switch parties simply because we look at them as traitors to the cause.

That’s what sets apart the Pat O’Briens of the country from the Emersons, the Stronachs, and – potentially – the Raes: the decision to switch affiliation based upon strongly held personal beliefs as opposed to simply peddling their fidelity for a Cabinet position or a shot at a premium job.

Rae will never been convincing as a Liberal – not when he spent so many years in the NDP camp taking shots at the opposition. In essence, are we to believe that the Liberal Party has undergone such a philosophical shift to the point where Rae has not had to compromise his ideals? Or, more likely, will we believe that this is just another indication that everyone has his or her own price – and for our politicians influence outweighs integrity.

That’s why Stronach can’t run – at least not for the next couple of elections. Until she’s been accepted as a long-standing Liberal and not just a recent convert, she’ll be tainted with the stain of opportunism. A few years of being the good soldier and adhering to the Grit cause should make that year in the Conservative camp just a distant memory.

And that’s why the current Liberals need to either find someone from within, such as Gerald Kennedy, or someone with no prior political affiliation, like Michael Ignatieff, to lead their ranks into the next federal battle. In a country where our confidence in the political system has been shaken, voters need to feel that their potential leaders are committed to the cause and faithful to their party.

After all, we need to know that our leaders will work with our own best interests — not their own personal goals – at heart.

2006© Menard Communications – Jason Menard All Rights Reserved