It was one year ago this week that the Stanley Cup playoffs began. Eight teams began the second season with diverse expectations. The Red Wings and Avalanche were looking for yet another title. The Canucks were trying to gain some playoff respect. The Flames and Predators were just happy to be there.

I had hoped to write a retrospective of the entire first round, but the “other three” series are a blur. I have vague recollections of the Predators putting a little scare into the Red Wings before Curtis Joseph came off the bench to push the Wings into the second round. I remember the Blues showing a distinct lack of discipline as they very quickly bowed out to the Sharks. I don’t even remember anything of the Dallas Stars. They were that unremarkable in their series against the Avs.

Truth be told, I couldn’t care less about those series. No, as a Flames fan there was only one playoff series that mattered. And it wouldn’t have mattered if we had lost the series in four games. All that mattered was that after seven agonizing seasons in the Western Conference basement, we were back.

While many in Vancouver were predicting the Canucks would easily go through to the second round in four or five games, we in Calgary were simply enjoying the moment. Just knowing that we were playing in April again put the city in heaven. Even losing the first game was a victory in its own way.

The first playoff game at the Saddledome was surreal. Fans were so excited that the team got a standing ovation when they came out for the warm-up. The zamboni driver received a giant cheer afterward. Simon nearly blew the lid off the building by scoring the first goal. The fans in the 300 sections beating their thunderstix in a cadence that sounded like a war drum.

We all forgot how extreme the emotions are in the playoffs. The elation as the Flames came back from 4-0 down to take game 6 to overtime. The dejection as Brendan Morrison scored in triple overtime to salvage the game for Vancouver. When Matt Cooke scored with 6 seconds left to tie game 7, the entire city just stopped.

Calgary, a city of 1 million people was just too stunned to move.

And then, Chris Cuthbert’s call:

“Here’s Yelle, a shot! Auld big. A rebound. Huge! Another! They score! A rebound. And its Martin Gelinas, the former Canuck, and the Calgary Flames will end the Cup curse, and move on to Detroit in round two!”

With those words, the Red Mile was born.

While I may be biassed, I’ve always considered Calgary and Edmonton to be the barometer of the NHL’s health. We are small markets, but small markets filled with some of hte most passionate hockey fans in the world.

This belief is supported by the attendance figures of many of our remaining teams.

The Edmonton Roadrunners are currently third in the AHL, averaging 8884, right behind Chicago (8999) and Manchester (8945).

The Calgary Hitmen obliterated the WHL and CHL attendance record by nearly 40,000 fans becomming the first team in CHL history to average over 10,000 fans. Also in the WHL, both Lethbridge and Red Deer set attendance records of their own, while Medicine Hat has sold out 90 straight games, prompting calls to replace their 4006 seat arena.

There is no doubt. Fans in this province eat, breathe and sleep hockey. It seems like a very logical place for a “goodwill tour” of prominent NHL players to start. Ryan Smyth thought so. He decided Red Deer, which is right in the middle of the province, and about 1 hour away from both Calgary and Edmonton would be a good spot for a game.

Afterall, they just packed 7200 fans into their 5800 seat arena on Saturday for a WHL game agaisnt their arch-rivals from Calgary. On Monday, 5700 showed up to watch oldtimers like Lanny McDonald and Tiger Williams face off against the local police/fire team. And Ryan Smyth’s expectations were modest. His hastily arranged tour only hoped to draw 1500 fans last night.

According to the Edmonton Sun, only 800 fans bothered to attend. 100 of those were only their because their children and grandchildren were participating in a mini-game of atom hockey players during the first intermission.

The NHLPA has long believed that the fans will flock to them because of who they are. The collosal failure that the OSHL was didnt break that belief, and I doubt this will either. In fact, Smyth already has his excuse for this failure:

“It was frustrating, but this has nothing to do with (the lockout),” Smyth said between periods. “Maybe we could have done a better job marketing, but I don’t think we had enough time.”

A couple of thoughts Ryan. You put this thing together. Why didnt you make the time? Blame marketing all you want, but people knew you were coming. Radio in both Calgary and Edmonton, of which Red Deer gets both made mention of it, and it has been mentioned in all of the papers.

No Ryan, people didnt go because people dont want to pay $25 (Red Deer Rebels ticket $20 or so) to watch a bunch of egotistical primadonnas play shinny for a couple hours. People didnt go because you did not offer a product worth watching. People didnt go because they are pissed off at what you have done to the game.

Smyth’s tour has three more stops to make. Prince Albert, Saskatchewan tonight. Saskatoon tomorrow and Winnipeg on Friday. We shall see if “poor marketing” leads to small crowds there as well. I am betting yes, as word out of Winnipeg is that they have already cut ticket prices in half because of poor sales. I hear sales are still poor.

And Winnipeg is a city full of people who would kill to get the Jets back. If Winnipeg turns it’s back on you Ryan, will you and your union bretheren still be making excuses?

Something tells me they will.

Up here in Canada especially, NHL fans are lamenting the fact that there will be no hockey this spring. People, just arent looking hard enough.

I write this having just gotten back from an Alberta Junior Hockey League playoff game between Brooks and the Calgary Canucks, and am caught in a quandry, as there are three games I wish to attend tomorrow.

The Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League are playing their home finale, trying to break a WHL attendance record currently held by Portland at 19,103, while my alma-matter, SAIT is facing cross town rival Mount Royal College in the deciding game of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference South final. Across town, the Calgary Flames will face the UFA Bisons in the Alberta Midget Hockey League semifinal.

There is also the Heritage Junior “B” playoffs, where the Airdrie Thunder shocked a championship contender to advance to the second round, while the WHL’s playoffs are less than a week away, where all four Alberta based teams have qualified for the second season. Three hours north, in Edmonton, the American Hockey League’s Roadrunners are fighting for their playoff lives.

Apparently there is no hockey being played right now. My bank account disagrees.

However, while one would expect numerous options in a large Canadian city, there is still plenty of hockey being played in Florida as well. In the ECHL, the Pensacola Ice Pilots lead the Southern Division, with the Florida Everblades safely in second place. In the Southern Professional Hockey League, Jacksonville will sadly miss the playoffs, as they stand in last place. In the SouthEast Junior Hockey League, the Tampa/Oldsmar Sandsharks lead the league with a 13-4 record.

No NHL? No problem.

Much has been made of the $6.5 million bridge that could not be gapped yesterday, leading to the cancellation of the NHL season. People on all sides are angry that such a small difference could not be made up.

Was it really a small difference, however?

Bob Goodenow’s angry reply to Gary Bettman’s ultimatum on Monday suggested that the commissioner’s comments about the difference actually totaling $200 million ($6.5 million x 30 teams) was out of line. Bob stated that only nine teams even spent up to $42.5 million, so it was ridiculous to argue that all teams would spend up to that limit.

Bob is correct when he suggests only a handful of teams would be able to spend up to that cap. However, Bob ignores the trickle down effect that this would cause. The NHL would be facing the exact same situation that killed the league in the last CBA, albeit on a smaller scale.

Toronto (as an example) will be spending up to the cap, no matter what the cap. They will be spending it on just 23 players. The end result is that those 23 players would be worth $6.5 million more in the NHLPA’s proposal than it would the NHL’s. Actually, they would be worth as much as $11.9 million more if you count the provision allowing teams to surpass the cap by 10%.

While the Hurricanes (as an example) will never spend up to the cap, they will be adversely affected by any extra spending the top teams are allowed. For as player x on the Maple Leafs gets paid more in a higher cap, the union will argue that player y on the Hurricanes with similar stats should make more as well. The continued presence of arbitration will work to cement this belief, and the Hurricanes are stuck with a contract that would make sense in Toronto, but not Carolina.

Bob Goodenow knows this, and this is why he has spent the entire lockout trying to play to the rich team’s abilities. The rollback benefits the rich teams more than any other group. The luxury tax benefits the rich teams more than any other group. The higher cap benefits the rich teams more than any other group. The provision to go 10% above the cap benefits the rich teams only.

Bob Goodenow does this because he knows that the rich teams will set the market for all teams. So while only the likes of the Maple Leafs will spend that extra $6.5 million up to the salary cap, it will force the likes of the Hurricanes to spend up from $30 to $36.5 million.

Bettman was dead on when he called the cap a magnet. It is magnet that pulls everybody higher.

Bettman was also correct when he characterized the difference between the two offers as being $195 million.

Except that it is worse than you think. Over the course of a six year deal, that difference works out to nearly $1.2 billion.

And that is without touching all of the loopholes the union wrote into it’s cap offer designed to inflate the salary cap itself as fast as possible - including, ironically, linking the cap’s upward movement to league revenues - while offering no possibility of lowering the cap for any reason.

While one might think they were close to a deal, the reality is that well over $1 billion stood between us and a hockey season.

It all started with a simple radio interview. Fan960 radio in Calgary interviewed Mike Commodore yesterday. They talked about Commodore’s time in Lowell of the AHL, and about Ville Niemenen’s injury. Then, the radio host asked him “Would you support a salary cap?” The answer has spurred a great deal of talk, even in the US.

“I’ll risk the slap on the wrist, I don’t want to spend however long my career lasts playing here in the American Hockey League (with Lowell), so I think whatever it takes.

“There’s different kinds of caps and it’s got to be a realistic one. You can’t cap it up at $30 million, we’re over that. It’s got to be realistic so both sides are making money.”

Commodore didnt just state he was willing to accept a cap, he took a shot at the union leadership:

“I don’t think it’s being handled well at all,” he said. “The thing is, you look at the PA and who’s in charge … it’s all the guys that have made $30 million playing this game. If there’s never another game of hockey … and they don’t make another cent playing in the NHL, they’re gonna be all right.

“There’s lots of guys in my shoes that if we miss a couple of years, that’s a huge deal.”

Mike Commodore came out and said what many fans have thought all along: The NHLPA isnt out to support the fringe players like Mike Commodore. They havent talked to him much, they just dont care about him.

What is most amazing about Commodore’s comments is that they even caused a Toronto based hockey writer to pen a quality column. Damien Cox used Commodore’s comments as a springboard for a columng for ESPN detailing the litany of contradictions between the union leadership, and union membership. Bob Mackenzie wrote an article for TSN.ca wondering if Commodore speaks for players at the lower end of the pay scale.

In case the NHLPA was hoping they could argue that Commodore was taken out of context despite it was a live interview, that plan was nixed when Commodore said the exact same words to the Calgary Herald later that day.

Maybe the union will tell him to state that, like Mike Ribiero, he didnt say what he said he did.

More likely, expect to see another $6 million + player, with $30 million in the bank to come out in support of the union within the next day or two.

Then consider who the union really supports.

Lasted as long as this entry.

My god is that trophy ugly.

When the World Cup started, everybody on this side of the pond was salivating over the possibility of a Canada - USA matchup for the Gold Medal game. Who forgot to tell the Finns the plan?

While many Canadians were disapointed that we didnt get to knock off the Yanks a second time in this tournament, I, for one, was very happy with the matchup. And not just because that meant that five Calgary Flame players were on the rosters.

I was elated by this matchup because it was a battle of nations who live, breathe and die hockey. While 2 million people watched poker on ESPN in the states, a paltry 350,000 watched the Finland-USA semifinal on ESPN2. Compare that to over 700,000 watching in the middle of the night in Finland - a nation of about 5 million people.

In the United States, this gold medal game would have been just another hockey game nobody cares much about. In Finland, it was the biggest game in that nation’s history.

How can you be disapointed with that kind of reaction?

Riding the stellar goaltending of Miikka Kiprusoff, and the same committment to defense that wins Stanley Cups, the Finns got through a relatively mediocre European pool, and past the rapidly aging Americans, only to fall in the final to the Canadians 3-2. It was exciting, high flying hockey, and the perfect lead into the NHL season.

Whoops… forget I said that.

Vinny Lecavalier was named tournament MVP, and while not a bad choice, I do not believe he was the best choice. I suspect Lecavalier won mainly as a result of his overtime goal in the semifinal against the Czechs. While an argument can definitely be made that Lecavalier was the top forward in the tournament, IMO, Martin Brodeur was far and away the Canadian - and Tournament - most valuable player. Though Brodeur should be getting used to being passed over, as he lost the Conn Smythe to JS Giguere two years ago, even though he was the better goaltender.

And while this tournament will be labelled a success by all, one cannot overlook that Helsinki, St. Paul and Toronto all struggled, and failed, to sell out games - victims of overpriced tickets for a tournament lacking in prestige after an eight year hiatus. Even in the land where kids learn to skate before they learn to walk, Canadians werent enthralled by this tournament like they were in 1996 or in the Salt Lake Olympics. the NHL and IIHF have a lot of work to do before the next World Cup - which will hopefully be held before 2012.

However, much of this may have to do with NHL arenas going dark tomorrow at midnight, as it is hard to get up for such a tournament on the eve of doomsday.

Regardless, Congratulations to team Canada, champions of the world once again.

Disney has been trying to sell the Mighty Ducks for years now, with absolutely no success. Afterall, who wants a mediocre franchise with a lukewarm fanbase and revenues comparable to the smallest Canadian markets, according to Forbes?

According to TSN.ca, A former owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Hartford Whalers, Howard Baldwin, has made an offer on the franchise.

It was slightly less than Disney is looking for.

Baldwin has offered $50 million. That is what Disney paid in expansion fees to get into the NHL. While Disney has been desperate to get out of the sports ownership buisness for years now, it is debatable if Disney would sell the franchise at that price.

However, it offers those of us who hate the Mickey Mouse image (pardon the pun) that a franchise named “Mighty Ducks” projects as Baldwin would likely move the team to Kansas City in 2007 when that city’s new arena is completed.

Of course, it should not come down to this. Metropolitan Los Angeles has a population base of over 20 million people. How can someone come into the NHL’s second largest market with what would usually be considered a lowball offer and be taken seriously - by major media outlets at least?

I would suggest the NHLPA watch this situation closely. That offers like this can be made for teams in a market like Los Angeles shows that the owners are not bluffing. Franchise values are mostly stagnant or declining because NHL hockey is not a good investment right now. Baldwin is trying to take advantage of the situation. What concessions the union ultimately agrees to will determine if it is a reasonable risk.

The WHA has many skeptics, myself chief among them. Joseph at Tasca’s Take feels I am being a little hasty in proclaiming the WHA to be dead on arrival. While he is also skeptical about the WHA’s potential for success, Joseph believes the potential reward is worth the risk. I would tend to agree, but the risk is threatening to magnify beyond it’s worth.

I suppose I would find the WHA a little more worthwhile if those running it didnt appear like chickens with their heads cut off. There is a lot of activity, but no thinking.

I used the XFL as an example simply because Americans would understand the reference. The WHA seems more like the Canadian Baseball League to me. The CBL was a league that ended up being started up last year in a big rush, put teams in markets that made no sense, grabbed some relatively big names but overall very little talent, did no marketing, and was run by people so arrogant they figured Canadians would support the league simply because it was Canadian. The CBL lasted barely half a season before falling to dust.

I see all of these factors in the WHA. The rush is on to try and get teams into buildings, players signed, tickets sold. The lack of preparation will cause a world of problems.

Halifax has no lease, and will be lucky to end up in a substandard arena as the Mooseheads wont be likely to share the Metro Centre. Their owners say they need 7000 fans on average to succeed, and are ignoring that Halifax has already failed numerous times as a pro hockey market. Not to mention that the prices will be $50-80 per ticket, when there already exists a QMJHL team that has a great product and costs less than $20 to attend.

Toronto and Hamilton still dont have leases, and really, there arent any decent arenas available.

Florida doesnt have a home yet, and is in a market that isnt known for financially sucessful hockey teams. Meanwhile, the “Founders Franchise” doesnt have a home because nobody actually wants to own the team. I did notice that the FF mainly drafted players that nobody will care about or miss if it should find no home. Planning for the inevitible.

The WHA buisness plan consists of exactly two things: The NHL remaining dormant, and people remembering the “glory days” of the original WHA, while forgetting that the original league was a financial disaster featuring an unending merry-go-round of franchise relocations, contraction and broken dreams. That WHA actually had real talent. This WHA will be very lucky to match the AHL.

The biggest obstacle will be a lack of financial stability. As Joseph noted, there is no real TV deal. No season tickets are being sold yet, which means that the WHA will have to rely almost exclusively on walk up ticket sales. When the WHA proves to be a minor league, it will draw minor league crowds. And minor league crowds are not enough to survive.

Like the CBL and the XFL, the WHA will end up being just another interesting idea poorly executed. The true winners in all of this will be the established organizations: the AHL, ECHL and Canadian Major Junior, all of which will benifit greatly from a dormant NHL.

Did you know?

Did you care?

If you do, Brad Richards was taken by the mysterious “Florida” franchise in the first round, 8th overall. They also took Ben Clymer in the 5th round.

Today the WHA is holding its amateur draft, trying to poach exceptionally talented juniors like Sydney Crosby and Dion Phaneuf away from the CHA and NHL

Yes, Florida, you have a team. It doesn’t have a name. It doesnt have a home - we know it wont be Orlando or Jacksonville, it doesnt have a lease, and it doesnt have a season ticket base. But it has Brad Richards. And Martin St. Louis. Assuming, of course, they choose to play in this league.

And while it seems the Florida franchise is in a state of disarray, it is still better off than the “Founders Franchise”, which also drafted players this weekend, but doesnt even know what country it will play in. The WHA says the team will play in either Cincinatti or Vancouver - assuming anyone is willing to own the team. My bet is Cincinatti, as GM place is leased to the Canucks, and the old PNE is leased to the WHL’s Giants. Not to mention that Victoria has an ECHL franchise, and half of the BCJHL Jr ‘A’ league is based in greater Vancouver. We Canucks love our hockey, but there are limits to how many teams we will support.

The other six teams are a little better off. Four have names, but only three have actually signed leases. To the best of my knowledge, only two season tickets have been handed out - in Detroit via raffle. No TV deals yet, and perhaps a handful of carreer minor leaguer’s signed, if that.

And only three months until puck drop to get all of this organized.

I’d like to think of the WHA as being little better than the XFL, but in doing so, I’d be insulting Vince McMahon, who managed to get one full season out of his league. One season more than I expect of the WHA.