Of all the fallout and opinions from the NHL’s trading deadline day, the one
that stuck with me the most had nothing to do with who was traded by whom and
who may have gotten the better end of a particular deal. A few days after the
deadline, a co-worker happened to stop by to talk about the various trades
around the league and asked me why the NHL doesn’t just suspend all games that
day.
Doh.
Why in the world wouldn’t the league give every team that day off? All the
NHL has to do is make sure the trading deadline falls on a weekday (preferably
Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday) and just let the sheer power of the anticipation
and reality surrounding all those trades serve as the focal point for fans and
media for the whole day. There are plenty of media outlets giving the rumors
leading up to the trades and the trades themselves wall-to-wall coverage (trust
me, you can find them). That coverage could easily be extended several hours;
there truly is that much interest among real hockey fans. Plus – and I don’t
mean to sound like Dr. Phil here – wouldn’t it be good for teams that are either
losing or gaining players, or both, to have an extra day to absorb it all?
Chemistry is a huge intangible for any hockey team and trades always impact
chemistry, sometimes profoundly.
But those aren’t the best reasons to fade the games to black for that one
day. As it stands now, the games themselves can become anticlimactic to the
trades, particularly since players traded to teams playing that same night
almost inevitably cannot join their new teams because of travel issues. That in
itself is reason enough to suspend games. You think, for example, the Thrashers
wouldn’t have liked to have Colby Armstrong and Erik Christensen in the lineup
against Montreal right after the trade? Atlanta, like most teams that time of
the season, was playing a critical game, and it certainly would have been a plus
to have its full NHL roster available. On the other side of that trade, I’m
pretty sure the Penguins would have loved to write Marian Hossa’s and Pascal
Dupuis’ name into the lineup card when they visited the Islanders a few hours
after the trading deadline. Instead, Hossa and Dupuis were dealing with media in
Montreal and planning their trip to Pittsburgh for a game two nights later.
There will always be a couple of dozen moves or so and a handful of
blockbuster deals made on NHL trading deadline day. It’s time for teams to have
the opportunity to put those players they’ve acquired in the lineup the very
next game, not a game later. And it’s time for fans to expect no less.
