If I was commissioner of the NHL

I originally posted this as a comment in response to an entry at LucasOnSports.com asking what people would do if they were commissioner of the NHL. With the regular season coming to an end this week and most Canadians focused on the playoffs (except for Leaf fans, as usual!) I thought I’d post this here as my Watercooler Wednesday entry. PS Dear Americans, NHL stands for National Hockey League. Hockey is a game they play on ice. They were skates and chase a piece of black rubber called a puck – the idea is to put the “puck” in the “net” and score a “goal”. You’re welcome :)

What would I do? Ready?

1. Fold: Florida, Carolina, Atlanta, Nashville, Phoenix, Tampa Bay, New York Islanders, Anaheim. Grant expansion franchises to Ballsillie in southern Ontario and another in Winnipeg. Divide expansion fees (approx $300 million per expansion team) – 50% to owners of folded teams, 50% to remaining owners.

2. Cut the regular season schedule from 82 to 70 or 74 games. Begin the season on the 3rd Saturday of September with all 24 teams in action including either 3 Original 6 match-ups or 4 All-Canadian games – ie. 1:00 Ottawa vs. Hamilton, 4:00 Winnipeg vs. Vancouver, 7:00 Montreal vs. Toronto, 10:00 Edmonton vs. Calgary.

3. Give teams 4 pre-season games and close the pre-season on the Tuesday night before the season kicks off with an All-Star game – the previous year’s Stanley Cup winners vs. league All-Stars as voted by the fans at the end of the previous regular season. This would happen at the arena of the Stanley Cup winner and the pre-game ceremony would include the raising of the championship banner and parading the Cup around the arena one last time before it goes back to the Hall of Fame for the year.

4. With 24 teams there would be two 12-team conferences – East & West – that would each have two 6-team divisions. The divisions would go back to their old names – Adams, Norris, Patrick and Smythe. Division winners would be seeded #1 and #2 in the playoffs and would get a first-round bye. The next four best teams in each conference would be seeded #3-6 and would play each other in a best of 5 first round – 3 vs. 6, 4 vs. 5. The teams are then re-seeded and the conference semi-final and final rounds and the Stanley Cup final is best of 7. Stanley Cup final guaranteed to be over by Memorial Day (Victoria Day in Canada).

5. 4-on-4 overtime would be eliminated in the regular season. Games tied at the end of 60 minutes would go to a shootout and the winning team would get 2 points, losing team would get 0 points. The first round of the shootout would be best of 5 (not best of 3) and then sudden death if tied after that.

6. “Game of the Week” featured on a major US network (NBC, ESPN, etc) every Saturday afternoon during the regular season and Hockey Night In Canada simulcast in the US on Versus, ESPN2, etc on Saturday night.

7. No mid-season All Star Game. One weekend taken in the middle of the year in every NHL city to run a fan appreciation event – meet the players, skate with the team, tour the dressing room, team skill competition, etc. Local affiliate of the TV network that normally shows Saturday afternoon game shows skill competition instead.

8. Every coach, goalie and “personality” player mic’d during every game. Goalie-cams, interviews during stoppages in play, camera in the dressing during intermissions, etc.

9. Every NHL game broadcast live on NHL.com with live stat tracking, chat, player profile links, etc.

10. Remove regional blackouts – in Canada, for example, I can only watch Toronto Maple Leaf games because I live in their TV region. Even though my cable package includes local broadcasts for every other Canadian team and some US teams, they are blacked out in my region. The system should be set up so that if a game is on TV and I can get that channel, I can watch it.

There’s 10 ideas, just off the top of my head