Choosing sides: Did the NHL rule changes work? NO

The NHL is back, or so they tell me. It's better than ever with the implementation of offense-friendly rules, they say.

I really wouldn't know.

Coming to such a judgement would require watching an entire game, something I haven't done since the lockout. Most of the hockey I've seen this season has come in the form of split-second blips as I search the dial for something worthwhile.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no hockey hater. It's a fine game to watch in person and an easy sport to fall in love with if you happened to grow up in an area where your snot freezes in the winter. But to most out west or along the Sun Belt, it will never be anything more than a novelty.

Gimmicks like shootouts and legal two-line passes won't change that.

These new rule changes are like special edition DVDs. There may be initial enthusiasm for "bonus" features, but at the end of the day, all you've really got is the complete second season of "Mama's Family."

As the NHL tells it, attendance is up from the pre-lockout season of 2003-04. But that says less about the overall health of the sport than it does about its disposability. An entire season went up in smoke as players and owners quibbled over how to split up a multimillion dollar pie … and nobody seems to have been too offended.

After baseball canceled the World Series with the 1994 players' strike, impassioned fans sought to make players and owners pay for their transgressions against the game. Attendance dipped dramatically and it took years -- and, evidently, modern chemistry -- for the game to recover.

The prevailing attitude at the conclusion of the NHL lockout was, "Hey look, there's a hockey game tonight. Let's go get a sixer of Molson."

It was said in the same vein as people might say, "Hey, there's an Eddie Money show at the fair this weekend." People inevitably go, but it's more for the kettle corn than the improvised jam session on "Take Me Home Tonight."

It seems only the fanatical fringe of sports nuts actually lives and dies with the NHL. They're the people (both of them) who listen to the Mighty Ducks on sports radio 1090.

Everyone else is merely at the games to do the wave and, if they're lucky, witness an on-ice assault.

You might even see me there with a Molson. Just don't expect me to care about hockey once I leave the arena.

Contact staff writer Michael Klitzing at .


