Spectacles

In case you haven’t noticed, the NHL is putting on a lot of outdoor games this season. The Winter Classic and Heritage Classic have gained four brothers in the Stadium Series, with one game at Dodger Stadium, two at Yankee Stadium, and one more at Soldier Field in March. Some have said that this is overkill, and that by making these special events less rare, the NHL is making the Winter Classic less special. They may have a point. But that is not the NHL’s concern.

The NHL’s concern is television ratings, and right now the league is struggling to bring in television viewers south of the 49th parallel. Through 43 games on NBCSN this season, the NHL is averaging just 357,000 viewers per game, and even that’s misleading, skewed upwards by a handful of games that had more than 600,000 viewers. The median viewership for NHL on NBCSN  is 247,000 people. For comparison, the English Premier League, which plays on weekend mornings and weekday afternoons, is averaging 380,000 viewers through 97 games on NBCSN, with a median audience of 373,000.

That comparison is not flattering to the NHL. Hockey wants to think of itself as one of the “big 4” sports in America, but it’s hard to do that when a foreign soccer league draws more viewers. But there is a snowy bright spot to the numbers. The Winter Classic on New Year’s Day, which pitted the Detroit Red Wings against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Michigan Stadium, was watched by 4.4 million Americans, more than quadruple the audience of NBC’s best Premier League outing. 4.4 million is slightly smaller than the average audience for 2011’s Bruins-Canucks finals, which did have two games shown on NBCSN, and much bigger than 3.0 million averaged by the 2012 Kings-Devils series.

Sunday’s Devils-Rangers game, played at Yankee Stadium, drew an audience of 2.1 million, the largest regular season (non-Winter Classic) viewership that NBC’s ever had. Rangers-Islanders at Yankee Stadium and Ducks-Kings at Dodger Stadium each had more than 600,000 viewers on NBCSN, making them the third and sixth largest cable games so far this season.

That’s a lot of numbers, but their meaning is clear: people watch outdoor hockey more than comparable indoor games.

The challenge for the NHL now is finding a way to translate viewers of outdoor hockey into viewers of indoor hockey. Some, maybe even most of the people tuning in to outdoor games would call themselves hockey fans, and regularly watch games throughout the season. But the increase in viewers comes in part from casual fans, who may or may not watch hockey normally, but enjoy the spectacle of snow on television. (It’s a pity that forecasts for the Super Bowl expect weather in the 40s.) Or maybe they watch for the oddity of hockey being played in venues other sports made historic.

It’s not a coincidence that the number of outdoor games ballooned in an Olympics year. Americans will watch sports they otherwise wouldn’t when they are presented as international competition. 16 million people watched the gold medal game between the US and Canada in 2002, and 27.6 million watched the same gold medal match-up in 2010. But that hasn’t carried over to ratings success for NHL games, and there’s no guarantee of seeing a repeat run by the US in Russia. So while most outdoor games have been in January, when the weather is coldest, it’s notable that the Blackhawks and Penguins will be playing in Soldier Field on March 1st, after the league returns  from the Olympics. Expect NBC to promote that heavily during their Olympics coverage.

Expect the unexpected, indeed. Habs 4, Bruins 1.

18 goals in their previous three games, just one tonight. Peter Budaj started over Carey Price in goal for Montreal and made 35 saves on 36 shots. Instead, it was Tukka Rask who got the hook after Brian Gionta gave the Canadiens a 3-1 lead in the 2nd period. Less than two minutes later, Chad Johnson gave up a goal to Daniel Briere, and the scoring stopped there. Not pretty. 

The Buins next game is Saturday afternoon at home against the hapless Edmonton Oilers. 

Tim Thomas Returns

You need a short memory to be an NHL goaltender. It’s a profession where every mistake is highlighted and permanent, and dwelling on these will only hinder future performance. Tim Thomas will want amnesia after his return to Boston tonight.

On his on-ice return to Boston after last February’s trade ended his seven year career in black and gold, Thomas gave up six goals to an explosive Bruins offense. Thomas will take solace in the fact that he has company. In their previous two games, the Bruins put six behind Kevin Poulin of the Islanders and two Flyers goalies.

In the postgame, Thomas said that he “might have enjoyed myself more watching the State of the Union.” Worth remembering: Thomas skipped the Bruins’ trip to the White House after they won the Stanley Cup.

Looking Ahead

The Bruins have scored six goals in three straight games, and tomorrow night they welcome into Boston a Montreal Canadiens team that has given up at least four goals in six of their last seven games. But before you start blaring the goal horn, remember that this is Bruins vs. Canadiens, a rivalry that has always taught us to expect the unexpected.

This is the second game this season between the old rivals; in early December the Bruins (34-15-3) lost 2-1 in Montreal. Carey Price made 32 saves as the Habs came back from a 1-0 deficit on second period goals by Thomas Plekanec and Max Pacioretty. Johnny Boychuk had to be stretchered off the ice after a first period hit by Pacioretty, who was penalized for boarding.

That December result propelled Montreal into first place in the Atlantic division. Since then, Montreal is 9-10-2, while the Bruins are 16-7-1. So the B’s enter tomorrow night’s game in first place by four points over the Tampa Bay Lightning, while the Canadiens are in fourth by the same margin. 10 points separate the rivals in the standings.

The Bruins are in the midst of a four-game winning streak, which has seen the returns of Dougie Hamilton and Chris Kelly from injury. The Habs snapped a four-game losing streak with last night’s 3-0 home win against the Carolina Hurricanes.

For the Bruins, the story of late has been an explosive offense, which every night seems to feature a new set of weapons. The line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and Reilly Smith had been on a tear that culminated in a combined nine points in Monday night’s 6-3 win over the New York Islanders. Last night, however, it was the line of Milan Lucic, David Krejci, and Jarome Iginla that provided the Bruins’ firepower, as they combined for seven points in a 6-2 win over the Florida Panthers.

Things have not gone as smoothly in Montreal. On Saturday night, the Habs were booed off the ice after a 5-0 home loss to the Washington Capitals. That was part of a four game skid during which the Canadiens were outscored 19-5. Even in Tuesday’s victory, they were outshot by the Hurricanes, and Carey Price had to make 36 saves for his third shutout of the season. The three goals Montreal scored against Carolina were more than the two they had scored in their previous three games.

The Bruins improved to 20-5-2 at home with Tuesday’s victory, while the Canadiens are 13-11-2 on the road. The numbers and trends would seem to all favor Boston heading into Thursday night, but the Habs have won four straight against Boston going back to last season.

The Bruins power play has scored five goals during the four game winning streak, but Montreal boasts the fourth-best penalty kill in the NHL, at 85.7%. On the other side, both teams are middling. Montreal’s power play is 16th, and the Bruins penalty kill is 13th. Both teams are in the bottom third in the league in penalty minutes, and in a rivalry such as this one it certainly wouldn’t be a surprise to see things get chippy.

For the Bruins, Thursday night’s contest will be the fourth game in six days, as the NHL attempts to cram as much hockey as possible into this stretch before players depart for the Olympics. The Habs will have another six games before the Olympic break begins on Feb. 9th, while the Bruins will play four over the same nine-day span.

Bruins 6, Flyers 1

The opening 10 minutes of the game belonged to the Bruins, and they rarely looked threatened during the remaining 50.

The Flyers commit more penalties than any other team in the NHL, and the Bruins had two power plays early. On the second, Zdeno Chara was the benefactor of a lucky bounce off a Flyer’s skate, and was credited for a goal when the puck ended up in Steve Mason’s net. During an even strength stretch of the first period, the Bruins held the puck in Philadelphia’s zone for a minute and 11 seconds. But the dominance did not produce a second goal, and the Flyers found their skates as the first period went on.

During the second half of the first period, the Flyers produced more chances and shots, but Tukka Rask stopped them all. Jarome Iginla scored with less than 20 seconds remaining to double the Bruins’ lead.

“It wouldn’t be a Bruins-Flyers game without fisticuffs.” – Dale Arnold, during the first intermission.

After Reilly Smith’s backhand made the game 3-0, Arnold’s prediction came true. Johnny Boychuk exchanged blows with Scott Hartnell, and Gregory Campbell, for reasons only he knows, picked a fight with the larger and more experienced Brayden Schenn.

Ray Emery relieved Mason in the Flyers’ net after Patrice Bergeron gave the Bruins a fourth goal on a tight-angle rebound.

The third period was academic, but did feature three more goals.

Assorted notes:

20 year-old Dougie Hamilton returned to the ice after missing four games with a concussion. Hamilton believes that he suffered the concussion during the 4-2 loss to the Kings on the ninth. The fact that he then played in San Jose on the 11th is concerning. Today, Hamilton committed a tripping penalty in the second period and had a breakaway immediately after his time in the box. Ray Emery stopped his attempt to make the game 5-0.

The Bruins shaky penalty kill reared its ugly head again in the third period, ad Claude Giroux broke the shutout.

Iginla’s first period goal was his first in nine games. He added a second on a power play in the third. He also had two assists to Zdeno Chara.

The Superiority Business

photo credit: clydeorama via photopin cc

Mario Balotelli was born in Italy. He became a citizen at the age of 18, as soon as he was able to do so. He plays soccer for AC Milan and the Italian national team, and is damn good. But because he is the son of Ghanaian immigrants, occasionally his countrymen chant monkey noises at him.

Closer to home, Joel Ward is a right winger for the Washington Capitals. Bruins fans know him all too well. On the ice, Ward stands out as one of the few black players in hockey. In 2012, his goal won Game 7 of a first-round playoff series against the Bruins. On Twitter, Ward’s reward was a lot of angry Bruin fans directing the N-word towards him.

Richard Sherman is probably the best cornerback in the NFL, and certainly not afraid to let you know this. The Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl in part because Sherman knocked away a pass that resulted in a game-ending interception in the NFC Championship game. He gave a very excitable and perhaps untactful interview immediately following the final whistle. It wasn’t long before his picture on Wikipedia was replaced with a picture of a monkey. On Twitter he was barraged with the same sort of abuse that Ward received, namely the N-word and words that essentially mean the N-word.  That was the day before Martin Luther King Day.

Racism isn’t new, of course. And it’s easy to mark the latter two examples under the ever-growing category of “idiots being stupid on the internet.” But what is it about sports that has this unique ability to cajole bigotry out into plain sight?

Sports and racism intersect because they are both, in one way or another, about superiority. Among popular forms of entertainment, sports are uniquely meritocratic; in theory, success and skill on the field of play are perfectly correlated. No retail expert touts Walmart’s profit margins as evidence of high quality products and service. Music lovers can argue for days about the respective merits of their favorite bands, but quality in art is more or less a subjective matter on which there are are few right or wrong answers. Sports, meanwhile, exist to (make lots of money, and) answer the question of “who is better?” Baseball integrated before society because owners (even, eventually, Tom Yawkey) realized that black players could help them win games. You would think this fat left the bigots speechless. But Bill Russell won handfuls of rings in Boston before the busing crisis.

This meritocracy of sports doesn’t extend to being a fan. In no other field are people expected to remain loyal to a clearly inferior product. But here, loyalty and the fear of being labeled a bandwagoner chain fans to their teams, for better or worse. So as sports fans, people who don’t care for feeling inferior are made to create ways to excuse or deny bad games and bad seasons. Even Yankees fans are now familiar with rebuilding years. Bitter fans will spit out the notion that “the better team lost,” and while that isn’t always wrong, it serves as an invitation for mockery. And sometimes even the most delusional of fans have trouble denying what they saw, and can’t in good conscience blame bad luck or biased officiating for their team’s failures.

If you are of the bizarre and unsubstantiated opinion that races other than your own are inherently inferior, then you have an out. While you cannot have eyes and reject the athletic superiority of a Richard Sherman or Mario Balotelli, being a racist affords fans, in a perverse, intellectually bankrupt way, a superiority that can’t be trumped. Star athletes will grow old, and one day lack the ability to compete professionally. It’s possible that misfortune and poor decisions could leave them without their wealth. But they will always be black. In comparison to that fact, athletic success can be made to look small and fleeting. And—never mind the mental contortions required to ignore the existence of black players on their own teams—this gives some fans the superiority they’re seeking.

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Morning Skate, January 22nd

photo credit: bridgetds via photopin cc

The theme of the day, after the Bruins took 5 points from games against the Stars, Blackhawks, and Kings, is “things are looking up.”

Barry Melrose has a video on ESPNBoston.com about the Bruins’ success against the Western Conference, highlighted by Monday’s win against the Kings.

If words are more your thing, Joe Haggerty explores the same subject in text on CSNNE.com. His weekly power rankings have the B’s as the 6th best team in the league.

For the Herald, Stephen Harris joins the list of impressed voices.

On Bruins Daily, Chris Chirichiello has yet more on the Bruins’ impressive recent form.

26 year-old rookie Kevan Miller signed a two-year contract extension worth $1.6 million. Fluto Shinzawa has all the details on Boston.com, and on Bruins Daily, Tim Rosenthal delves a bit deeper into Miller’s rise from the minors.

Zack Trotman, who made his second start of the season on Monday, has been sent back down to Providence. Zack Cox has the story on NESN.com.

Around the league: The Islanders put a damper on the Rangers’ recent hot run with a 5-3 win at Madison Square Garden last night. The Devils dropped a shocking 7 on the Blues, with former Bruin Jaromir Jagr scoring one of three first period goals for New Jersey. Out west, the Ducks suffered their first home regulation loss of the season to the Winnipeg Jets, 3-2. The Bruins’ next game is Saturday afternoon in Philly.