Blues/Ducks a Thriller.... For the Handful in Attendance
October 31, 2006
By
James Meyerriecks
A few weeks ago, we targeted a couple of things that the NHL might need to improve upon if it hopes to move closer to the stature of baseball, football, or even basketball with its popularity in the U.S. Last night, I attended my first St. Louis Blues (my local team, but not my team) game of the season and got to see some of the problems first-hand. I also saw a fantastic exciting hockey game, where the Blues, who were severely outmanned and outplayed, managed a point with a pair of goals in the final five minutes.
Anaheim was clearly the better team, and they played like it in front of J.S. Giguere, who was more than just a little bit shaky last night. Though they had a defensive lapse just 30 seconds into the game that allowed Christian Backman to break in unmarked, Anaheim won just about every race to the puck and battle in the corners. To reference how much better they were at controlling the puck, all you really need to look at was the end of the second period.
With about five minutes to play in the second, the Blues cut the deficit to 3-2 when a deflection bounced right to the stick of Lee Stempniak in front of the net, which he promptly buried. Dennis Wideman added his first of the year just 93 seconds later when he buried a wrister from the slot over Giguere's left shoulder. However, with the momentum seeming to turn for St. Louis, the Ducks turned it on, keeping the puck in the Blues' zone for the final three minutes of the second period and keeping St. Louis from even having a chance to change lines for the rest of the period.
Most of the game worked this way, with Anaheim controlling the play in the Blues' zone in long, two minute spurts, while the Blues just looked to counter when they could finally get the puck away from the Ducks. Even in the waning minutes of the game, St. Louis had to scrap their way to get the puck down the ice in the Ducks' zone. They iced the puck four times in the first, six in the second, and another four in the third, and most of the infractions occurred because they were dumping the puck, rather than just missing an outlet pass.
The better team (Anaheim) ended up winning 6-5 in a shootout in what could only have been described as a thriller for the Blues' fans that they were even in this one. I have to give St. Louis a lot of credit for displaying the heart that they did in the game, and if they can bring that attitude to the rink every night, they're going to end up at least competing for a playoff spot (though they'll still fall short).
With that out of the way, it's time to discuss something that bugged me about the game. The listed (i.e., paid) attendance was 8,629, and as one of those in attendance, I'd say that there might have been a tad over half of that actually in attendance. Now... I'll admit there were certainly some factors going against the Blues' having a big draw in the game.
- It was a Monday night game. While drawing fans on any weeknight is certainly more difficult than drawing them on the weekend, Mondays are probably the worst, and we're all familiar with a couple of the reasons. The weekend just ended, which means that people have spent all of their money (and worn themselves out). There is that beast known as the NFL playing that lone Monday night game as well.
- The Cardinals just won the World Series (in fact, Jim Edmonds, who played the early part of his career for the Anaheim Angels and played on the Series' winning Cardinals, did the ceremonial pre-game puck drop), which hurts in a couple of ways as well. People just spent all of their sports dollars on the Redbirds and (again) this was perhaps the biggest party weekend this town has seen since 1982. Nobody had anything left!
Despite those two major factors going against the Blues, though, I was extremely disappointed. Considering that the Blues' former superstar, Chris Pronger, was in town to take them on, I'd have liked to think that they could have had a bigger turnout. There were a couple of anti-Pronger chants throughout the game (mainly coming from us, but a few others got involved!), but very little attention seemed to be paid to him in either a positive or negative fashion.
On the positive side, we were surrounded by plenty of fans who seemed to be new to the game. Those of you who are diehards know the type. They're the ones who scream "Shoot!" every time that the hometown team has the puck (particularly on the Power Play). While I'll admit, these people irritate the hell out of me (at least when they're screaming "Shoot!"), that's the target audience that the NHL needs to bring in. The diehards are there (and know the game) and will keep attending the games. The people who are new to the game are the only ones who are going to help boost attendance and popularity for the NHL. I just hope they try and learn something about hockey as their enthusiasm grows.
An aside: At one point, this genius who kept screaming for the Blues to shoot behind me was actually yelling for the Blues to shoot from their own defensive zone. Literally, I was baffled, turned back and gave a look of absolute horror, and almost missed a good scoring chance at the other end of the ice!
Here's a note to the new fans, who I hope will continue to come back. Call it a small tutorial. When your team is on the Power Play (i.e, they have five players and the opposition has three or four), there's more open space on the ice to work with. The theory is that the opposing defense will have a difficult time marking five players when they only have four on the ice themselves. At this point, your plan isn't to simply pepper the net with shots from the point, but to work the puck around, find an open man in space, and get a good shot. Screaming "Shoot!" doesn't imply that this is what you're looking for. It implies that you're just desperate to see your team take a point shot with no screen in front of the net that the opposing goalie will make an easy glove save on.
At any rate, it's early in the season, and hopefully attendance will kick up for the Blues. I realize that they did have the worst record in hockey last season and that they're still just a year removed from the lockout. However, it's kind of depressing to see a team that was generally in the top ten in attendance for the better part of two decades draw 8,000 (paid) fans. The tickets remain expensive ($54 for good, but not great seats) and the concessions are just as outrageous as they are for any other sporting event ($7.00 Chili Cheese Dog, $8.50 Beers), which makes it difficult to attend too many games with my income. That said, I'll be there for at least five or six more games this season.
Around the League
- Flyer fans should take Robert Esche's performance last night with a bit of a grain of salt. Esche looked good, turning away all 26 shots he faced in their 3-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. However, Chicago has now gone three games without scoring. The last time the Blackhawks were shut out in three straight games was in 1974-75. Peter Forsberg scored twice and Simon Gagne once for Philadelphia, which begs the question. Where are they going to get their scoring from when their first line has a bad game?
- Darcy Tucker scored twice and Mats Sundin had three assists as the Maple Leafs beat the Atlanta Thrashers 4-2. Tomas Kaberle also added a goal and an assist for Toronto, while Ilya Kovalchuk scored his ninth of the year in the loss.
- Richard Zednik and Dainius Zubrus each scored twice as the Washington Capitals kept Miikka Kiprusoff and the Flames cold. Zednik scored his first two goals of the year and added an assist on Zubrus' first goal in the second period to finally get himself going. Jarome Iginla scored his sixth of the year for the Flames in the loss.
- Brent Sopel continued to look like he's back on track to a successful career, scoring twice as the Kings beat the New York Rangers 4-1. Sopel, who disappeared a bit in New York after a couple of solid seasons leading into the lockout, now has four goals and five assists from the blue-line in just twelve games. Alexander Frolov added a goal and an assist for Los Angeles, while Brendan Shanahan scored his tenth in the loss. Mathieu Garon continues to stake his claim to the starter's role, and stopped 28 of 29 shots to improve to 3-2-1 on the year.
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Of course, I don't think it's hard to see that baseball and hockey's target markets are very different.