CAM COLE: HOW IT CAN BE A ‘ CLASSIC’ WITH THE LEAFS?
U. S. sports fans aren’t interested in out- of- the- Cup- loop Toronto
The press release hasn’t come out yet, because the NHL all- star break is coming up and after that the Detroit Red Wings are on the road for a week, but when it does, here is what it will say ( certain terms and conditions may apply):
“On Jan. 1, 2013, one of the National Hockey League’s most traditional rivalries* will be renewed when the Detroit Red Wings play host** to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the next Bridgestone Winter Classic*** at fabled Michigan Stadium, known to college football fans**** everywhere as The Big House.
“The game is expected ***** to mark the culmination of another of HBO’S critically acclaimed “24/ 7: Road To The Winter Classic” series, featuring candid footage of the two teams on and off the ice in the weeks leading up to the New Year’s Day****** clash.
“Organizers expect the event to draw a world- record hockey crowd of close to 115,000 spectators*******, surpassing the existing mark of 113,411 fans who attended “The Big Chill at the Big House” between the University of Michigan Wolverines and Michigan State Spartans on Dec. 11, 2010.”
* Traditional, as in ending a half- century ago.
** Not exactly “host,” since the hockey will not actually be played in Hockeytown, but on a college campus, 45 minutes away.
*** No guarantee of quality is implied or should be inferred from the word “classic.”
**** Few of whom are hockey fans.
***** Unless HBO has looked at the ratings for this year’s show and decided the novelty of hearing coaches drop F- bombs has worn off.
****** It falls on a Tuesday next year, so NBC will have to pre- empt The Biggest Loser to air the game, but at least it won’t have to duck the NFL again.
******* Assuming the whole outdoor- game thing hasn’t grown stale and the market doesn’t go soft. Too harsh, you feel? Perhaps. But those asterisks make some valid points.
For all the good news the announcement will bring — like the victory it signals for Canada, whose teams up to now have been shunned by NBC for a nationally televised spectacle of such importance — there are a few nagging little points that deserve to be mentioned.
While it’s true that the Maple Leafs and Red Wings have met more times in the playoffs, 23, than any two teams except the Bruins and Canadiens ( 32), they haven’t faced one another in 18 years ( not the Red Wings’ fault), and 20 of those 23 playoff series happened prior to 1965.
Sure, there’s an undeniable charm in two Original Six teams playing on the grand stage, but does it crackle with anticipation the way a Habs- Bruins game would or even ( dismissing the Original Six part), a BruinsVancouver Canucks hatefest?
But Fenway’s been done in 2010, Montreal has no outdoor stadium with enough seats and Vancouver, though BC Place with the roof open would be a splendid venue, runs the considerable risk of a streak of warm weather ( see: 2010 Olympics) that could render temporary ice- making an adventure.
Then there’s the whole HBO question.
Two enormous hockey markets, New York and Philadelphia, couldn’t rescue the second 24/ 7 venture from sagging ratings, even as impressively as John Tortorella and Pete Laviolette tossed around the fourletter friend- getter. Maybe once you’ve seen Bruce Boudreau peeling the paint off the walls in Washington and sporting rib sauce on his chin, all else seems contrived, or maybe it’s that neither the Flyers nor Rangers had a Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin on whom to hang a narrative.
It’s hard to imagine HBO finding a real gripper on either Detroit’s side or Toronto’s, unless they turn the cameras on Brian Burke and push his buttons on the topic of the instigator rule, or the Toronto media, or Kevin Lowe, or Al Strachan or ... Okay, there’s enough for a couple of episodes.
The venue is a whole other issue.
The game ought to be played in somebody’s hometown, no?
But not only is it a hike to get to, Michigan Stadium is so vast and, like the Rose Bowl, its seats so gently canted that about half the fans — those in the upper reaches and particularly in the far end zone — will need high- powered binoculars to tell which of the insects flitting about on the distant white postage stamp are fruit flies and which are no- see- ums, let alone trying to find the invisible object they all seem to be chasing.
Wings owner Mike Ilitch, it is said, lobbied to have the game played at the Tigers’ lovely downtown Comerica Park, which he operates ( and largely funded), but the NHL apparently wants that attendance record, so Ilitch will settle for building a second rink at Comerica, and staging the alumni game there.
The whole Winter Classic thing is, it seems to me, starting to lose a lot of its lustre, anyway. It was charming the first time, when snow and Sidney Crosby made for a Currier& Ives greeting- card scene in Buffalo. It was still kind of cool in historic old relics like Fenway and Wrigley, and no doubt it would have a dollop of pizzazz if Yankee Stadium were to get it at some point in the future.
But there is nothing iconic about The Big House for most hockey fans, and not a lot of crossover audience, arguably, between those who do “get” the stadium’s aura — i. e. college football fans — and those who might reasonably be expected to seek out a televised hockey tilt that’s playing opposite a bowl game.
And let’s face it: the Leafs have been so long out of the loop as an actual hockey- playing force, it’s hard to imagine a large chunk of America’s sports viewing public turning eagerly to a match that features a team that last won the Cup when most TVS were still black and white.
Still, it’ll be big in Leaf Nation. If the Ann Arbor News is to be believed, the deal involving the NHL, the Red Wings and the U of Michigan is done, though the league, not wishing to have its thunder stolen, officially denies all.
But soon enough, the announcement will be made and Winter Classic merchandise can go on the shelves in Toronto, allowing Maple Leaf fans to start getting nostalgic about the old days when hockey was played outdoors.
Not by any player in the league today, or even by many in the generation before them, but you know, by the guys who won the ’ 67 Cup. When they were kids.