There is mostly good news for the NHL as the Carolina Hurricanes and Edmonton Oilers prepare to battle in game one of the Stanley Cup finals tonight in Carolina.
The good news is on the ice where two teams that were definitely aided by the new post-lockout financial system have reached the finals. Both Carolina and Edmonton were considered small market teams who would face difficulty contending consistently under the old pre-salary cap system.
The Oilers in particular play in the league's smallest market and nearly left Alberta because they could not make enough money to compete with teams from New York, Detroit or Toronto for talent. It seemed that each year at the trading deadline, the Oilers were trading away top talent in a salary dump that seemingly began with Wayne Gretzky and continued with Mark Messier, Doug Weight and countless others.
This year, with the salary cap in place, Edmonton was able to sign defenseman Chris Pronger in the off-season and then make additions like goalie Dwayne Roloson and electric forward Sergei Samsonov at the trade deadline.
'In order for us to be the Oilers, we have to keep Oilers,' explained Edmonton GM Kevin Lowe. 'We can't trade Oilers. We've done that in the past, guys like Dougie (Weight) and Mike Grier. We had to.'
Carolina meanwhile, has a team that plays an up-tempo game much like the NHL wants to emphasize under the new rules. Coach Peter Laviolette does not play the neutral zone trap that helped put hockey fans to sleep for a decade before the lockout and kept the curious far away from NHL rinks. "If you're playing offense, you don't have to play defense," Laviolette told the New York "Daily News" in a one sentence summary of his coaching philosophy.
Ex-Oiler Doug Weight also thinks the product on the ice has improved. "I think the game has changed, obviously with the new rules, and it's gotten a lot more watchable, that's for sure," Weight said. "And I think you're going to see a lot of great plays and a lot of guys taking the puck to the net in this series and making plays in offensive zones rather than just neutral-zone death."
Off the ice, the league still has problems. Television ratings on NBC and OLN have remained extremely low and a series between the league's smallest market in Edmonton which isn't even in the United States and Carolina which lacks a hockey tradition is not going to draw in as many casual television watchers as say a Detroit-New York Rangers match up would. That being said, the NHL is just beginning after the lockout and has time to develop its product on OLN and get the new network available in more U.S. homes.
While the TV ratings may not be outstanding, the hockey should be. On the ice, look for Edmonton to prevail in a tough six-game series. The difference makers will be defenseman Chris Pronger who will help keep the Oilers from getting in close for shots and goalie Dwayne Roloson who will neutralize the high powered Carolina offense and win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP.
