Column:

Resurgent hockey offers diversion

By John Hunt

Published Oct. 9, 2009

Call me a Doubting Thomas, but I thought hockey was dead. In fact, I was sure no one in America cared about the obscure sport our northern neighbors showed us.

Not with our ranked football team playing a formidable opponent on the national stage in our backyard.

Not with the MLB playoffs upon us and our midterms and second wave of tests right around the corner. I was 101 percent positive.

Then, just as the weather began to signal its arrival, the NHL regular season started. People started devoting their Facebook statuses, wishing their home teams good luck in their opener.

"A fluke!" I swore.

Then I walked onto campus Friday morning and I saw more St. Louis Blues shirts and jerseys than I knew existed. It was all a coincidence. There must have been some sale. The tempestuous troubled sport with a high concentration of hard-to-pronounce foreign names and goofy team names simply doesn't have two legs to stand on in the football-crazed Midwest. Right?

If there is this much support for a hockey team that didn't make it out of the first round of the playoffs last year on a university campus that doesn't have a club competing in the NCAA, what is it like in other cities north of here that offer an NHL or Division 1 team, where ice isn't just what you add to a beverage?

Hockey boasts an interesting history and offers something completely different than other sports but, then again, so does competitive eating.

Rare are the franchise players of old, perpetual saviors who stayed on a certain team their entire career, through the thick and thin.

These staples like Mike Modano and Joe Sakic seemed to single-handedly drive their club further and further into the post-season each year, accumulating an enormous regional (not to mention national) fan-base in the process.

It is as if today's superstars bounce from team to team yearly. Although hockey is certainly a business, it's difficult to build connections with rent-a-players who might be playing for your rival next year.

At the same time, this shuffle allows for different fans across the nation to see a diverse selection of players that they perhaps wouldn't see regularly otherwise. Fans follow their favorites, allowing for a greater knowledge of the game in general and an increased familiarity across the league.

Although we can't stick a fork in hockey yet, it is still far from thriving, at least in the United States. The perennial major sport's struggles with attendance and revenue are certainly still in transition but slowly on the rise.

The NHL is far removed from years past and has yet to recover from the lockout of the 2004 to 2005 season. The subsequent rule changes and switch from ESPN to Versus didn't exactly cure the ailment either.

Yet, with that signature grit demonstrated by the players on the ice, the NHL plows on. Young prodigies such as Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Patrick Kane and John Tavares continue to try and bring fans and excitement to cities not under the maple leaf, with their talent, speed and passion.

Things change at a high speed in this unique game. Something that seemed so permanent could change in an instant. No one knows what the season will bring, but as of right now, hockey is definitely alive and well.