Slate.com's Daniel Engber penned a fascinating story the other day which highlights the ne'er-do-well atmosphere that seems to permeate the NHL's landscape. According to the article, the NHL's All-Star voting for this year's game turned into a complete debacle, when a grass-roots write-in campaign for little known Vancouver defenseman Rory Fitzpatrick turned into a war between self-proclaimed computer geeks trying to rig the system and the NHL offices, who risked the embarrassment of a nondescript player gaining a spot in one of the league's showcase events.
Meanwhile, the league's most marketable young star, forward Sidney Crosby, is stuck on a financially decrepit team that can't get an arena deal done and is in constant danger of moving to parts unknown --- whether it's Hamilton, Kansas City, or Sheboygan. While franchise instability is hardly limited to the NHL, no other league seems to be as distracted by the financial health of its franchises. Heck, the Colts were in real danger of moving to Los Angeles for the first part of this decade, yet the story was effectively kept on the back burner until Indianapolis announced a new stadium deal.
And, as ESPN.com's Damien Cox pointed out recently, the Penguins aren't the only team in sport purgatory. Cox's living autopsy on the Florida Panthers contained this sad (yet accurate) portrayal of the team:
This is, arguably, the NHL's weakest link, a team that was once very popular playing out of the bandbox Miami Arena when a hail of plastic rats meant the home team had scored but now lives in virtual seclusion somewhere near, but not too near, Fort Lauderdale.
Despite all the bad press, the biggest tragedy for the NHL in all of this is that very few people seem to care. That, more than franchise instability or All-Star voting problems, is the largest hurdle the NHL has to overcome.
