1:25 PM Tue, Jun 05, 2007 | Permalink
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News Item: Overnight ratings for the Stanley Cup are down from last year. Game four between the Ottawa Senators and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks garned a 2.3 rating and a 4 share on NBC, that's down from a 2.4 rating and a 5 share from last year's game 4.
There is no question there are a number of passionate Hockey fans in the United States, but the sport continues to fail to catch the imagination of the casual sports fan. Perhaps one big reason is the violence. Yes, I heard former Boston Bruins coach Don Cherry tell the American television audience the NHL needs more fighting because "We like to watch NASCAR crashes, and NFL football injuries." Well Mr. Cherry I don't think we like poor sportsmanship.
Oh yes we laugh at Lou Piniella when he loses it and kicks dirt on an umpires shoes. Or when Minor League Manager Phillip Wellman comes unglued even pretending to throw a hand grenade using a rosin bag. But no one in Canada, America or anywhere for that matter, can accept the deplorable unsportsmanlike activies witnessed in the last two Stanley Cup games.
First. in game three, we watched Ducks star Chris Pronger deck the Senators Dean McAmmond with an elbow to the head which sent him sprawling to the ice and helplessly into the boards. The referees missed the hit, but the league did not, suspending Pronger from game four.
But Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson countered in game four. With the clock winding down at the end of the second period, Alfredsson checked the time, reset his shot and then fired a blast into Scott Niedermayer. If you have ever been hit with a puck travelling better than 100 miles per hour you know it's more than just an ouch.
Alfredsson told the Toronto Star, "I didn't really mean to hit him. I looked at the clock, there were five or six seconds left, I raised my stick, the puck kind of stopped sliding, it's in my feet, I gotta change, I just want to get rid of it."
Niedermayer isn't buying any of it. "You can probably figure out what I thought after it happened," said Niedermayer. "I wasn't happy. No point to get hit with a puck at that point. So I'm not going to say anything more than that."
Hockey is a great sport, and it's especially exciting to watch live at an arena. It has never translated well on television, but now with high definition television and the wide screen, fans can enjoy the game at home. But the league has to come down hard on the cheap shots, and perhaps change the culture which encourages the players to "mix it up" in the minors.
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