This year fans from Montreal to Los Angeles were dangerously close to losing hockey to the Mayan “apocalypse.” Yet the rhetoric subsided, the players got back to playing, and fans around the league are still watching.
Students from Pace, whether they be fans of the New Jersey Devils or the New York Rangers, are tuning in despite almost losing the entire season. To them, hockey is a seasonal ritual that remains prominent in their lives.
For example sophomore communications major Samantha Clarke has been a fan of hockey since her early years.
“I originally watched hockey when I was much younger,” Clarke said. “My aunt worked at Madison Square Garden so we would go to games, but my most recent interest began about three years ago and I’ve been hooked ever since.”
According to espn.com, the New York Rangers draw 17,200 fans on a nightly basis. Even though the Rangers may not have gotten off to the start they were hoping for, fans will not be denied their hockey.
Pace alumni Shane Kravitz has been a lifelong fan of the Broadway Blueshirts. After months of heated negotiations between the players union and the owners, fans like Kravitz are the real winners of the talks.
“I’m happy to have hockey back because I love it, simple as that,” Kravitz said. “Most people are quick to say, ‘who cares, it’s just hockey’ but it’s a fast paced, physical sport; how can you not like that?”
Teams like the Rangers have more than just Kravitz to back them up. Clarke is also happy to see the return of hockey.
“I was so angry about the lockout, I was feeling deprived,” Clarke said. “I thought it was immature but, of course, since the other sport groups have requested more money, why wouldn’t they try? I understand it but it was annoying.”
Even with the fan support behind them, the Rangers have been shaky out of the gate. To date, the Rangers have only mustered eight points on the year and have a record of four and five. While right wing Marian Gaborik has tallied eight total points, the Blueshirts only have four players with more than five total points so far.
Although hockey has returned to Madison Square Garden, Kravitz is not penciling the Rangers into the Stanley Cup Finals yet.
“To be honest I have no idea how the Rangers will finish this year,” Kravitz said. “On paper they’re a great team, but the lockout didn’t allow much time for the new faces to adjust to the system and for everyone to mesh well,” he continued. “I still think the rangers will end up in the playoffs despite the slow start.”
Though in a 48 game regular season, a slow start does not bode well for any team. Since the lockout wiped out a total of 510 regular season games across the league (approximately 42 percent of the entire regular season games) a bad beginning of the year will lead to a slow and unsteady team losing out in the playoff race.
While NHL public relations officials would do their best to hype up every game, Pace hockey enthusiasts do not necessarily share that mentality.
“A shorter season doesn’t change the level of excitement but it makes every game matter more than in a full season,” Kravitz said. “And now since every game is within the conference it makes it that much more important to just win.”
When the collective bargaining agreement was reached the NHL decided to focus on conference matchups to draw the fans back. There are plenty of rivalry matchups like Bruins vs. Canadiens, Pengiuins vs. Flyers, and Rangers vs. Devils to reenergize fans interest.
While hockey may not immediately get the entire country to watch, fans like Clarke are making the best of the shortened season.
“I do feel that the shortened season makes each game more exciting,” Clarke said. “It’s quite fast but the competition is more intriguing since all of the games matter.”
Despite this being the third time in the past 20 years hockey fans have dealt with a lockout of players, the league always seems to bounce back on its feet. Kurt Badenhausen of Forbes.com reported that after the 2004-2005 lockout wiped out that entire NHL season, arenas across the NHL saw attendance numbers spike once play resumed.
Kravitz is one fan that took note of that particular trend and projects that one day the NHL will be able to better compete with the other big professional sports.
“Maybe [hockey can compete with] the NBA but definitely not the NFL,” Kravitz said. “Many people I’ve talked to recently about the NBA have said that it is not as exciting as it used to be, and maybe it’s the fact that each NFL team plays once a week but more people will watch football than hockey.”
Now that the Superbowl is over and reverend Ray Lewis has given his last sermon, hockey has to make a push in the ratings now. According to the Harris-Decima telephone poll that took place between Jan. 10 and Jan. 14, 67 percent of those polled said that they did not miss hockey during its long off-season. The study surveyed roughly one thousand people over a four-day span.
Yet that number did not discourage Clarke in the slightest. Her conviction remains that the NHL will rebound just fine after a four-month hiatus from the sporting world.
“I do believe that the casual fan will get back into it,” Clarke said. “I think people mostly watch hockey for the intenseness, it is a really difficult sport and people appreciate the talent.”
The Harris-Decima poll backs up Clarke’s beliefs. According to the survey, 66 percent of those who replied would watch the same amount of hockey as they did last year while only 23 percent said they would watch less.
While the NHL lockout was detested by everyone from Vancouver to Carolina, the Devils, Rangers, and Islanders still have fans at Pace who are willing to watch.