Rant: minor league hockey

[pioneer98]

Another head-scratcher - the Minnesota Wild are moving their AHL team from Houston to Des Moines. The team will be closer to MN and the lease will be a lot cheaper in Iowa...but still not what I'd call "cheap". They will be paying double for the lease what the last AHL team paid to play there (notice how they aren't playing there any more). The Wild could put their prospects on a direct flight out of Houston and have them anywhere in the country. Not the case in Des Moines. The Houston team also drew very well (almost 6,800 per game this year). This move might make more sense if Houston decides to pursue an NHL team.

If the Wild are content to subsidize the team in Des Moines, it could work. But notice that this is the same setup the Blues had in Peoria, and the Blues ultimately walked away from it. Also, Des Moines has 2 other sports tenants in the same building (an AFL team and an NBDL team). So now 3 teams competing for prime weekend dates. The arena is also unavailable during a prime chunk of the hockey season because they have a ton of high school state championship stuff there. If all that weren't enough, Des Moines also already has an established USHL junior team that plays in a smaller venue in town. The USHL team's attendance was barely impacted when the other 2 AHL franchises were there. So, we'll see how this goes. Seems like it will be a steep uphill climb to me.

[pioneer98]

LOL, what a complete train wreck. The talks broke down between the Canucks and Abbottsford to move their farm team there. The article outlines how the taxpayers have been directly funding the team (this doesn't count the subsidy to fund the arena itself, which is also losing money):
Money-losing Heat to remain in Abbottsford

This means that the Canucks may have to operate the franchise in Peoria for at least another season, which they really don't want to do. I can't imagine Peoria fans are excited to support a team that wants to leave town at their first good chance. I also can't imagine the people in Abbottsford are looking forward to supporting the Calgary Flames' farm team another season, when they thought they'd be getting the baby Canucks. And finally, the folks in upstate New York who thought they'd be getting the Flames AHL team are left high and dry, without any team at all. The NHL/AHL has once again found that sweet spot where they managed to disappoint everyone involved.

[pioneer98]

So Peoria really did get screwed. Looks like Vancouver just decided to not have an AHL team next season, so there will only be 29 AHL teams. The Canucks will just spread their prospects around to a few different AHL teams.

Peoria and Bloomington are going to have teams in the SPHL (a single-A league). I'm not a hockey snob, but it will be a rude awakening for Peoria fans used to watching the AHL. It will be a bit of a step down for Bloomington, too, but not as much. The SPHL is a well-run league, but the concerns would be travel (these two Illinois teams are far away from the others) and the fact the two teams have the same owners. Will one team be favored over the other?

The CHL lost 2 teams - Bloomington and Fort Worth, and also added 2 - the St. Charles, MO team, and one in Brampton, ON. It is rumored that the owners of the team in Independence, MO bought all or part of the St. Charles team. They need to tread carefully. I really hope they aren't just propping up the St. Charles team to use them as a punching bag.

As for our team here in QC..."the league" had taken over the team before last season. Turns out it is slightly different from that - the same guy who owns the league owns the team, but they are 2 separate entities. Attendance finished strong last year and the guy has decided to stick around. This is probably the best situation we've had in years. They did a great job the 2nd half of last year and fans responded.

The CHL nearly lost 2 more teams. There were all kinds of rumors 2 of the stronger teams were going to leave for the ECHL. Both leagues are considered 1 step below the AHL, but the ECHL is more stable and is more closely linked with affiliations. It now sounds like those 2 teams will have to stay in the CHL, for now. But this is the crap that pisses me off - these owners think they are a Steinbrenner or something and throw their weight around, to where if they don't get what they want they threaten to leave. I get that the CHL is not strong right now. But these teams have had success in this league. Both won championships recently. If I were them, I'd only mess with my successful formula if I had no other choice. Their ego is so large (yes, from AA hockey) that they think they can win in any league.

[pioneer98]

This could almost be a separate rant, but it has a lot to do with this.

The Mallards CHL team is doing pretty well this year. They are easily the 4th best out of 10 teams, and could possibly end up higher. More interesting is that attendance is up over 1,000/game, and about 400 of that are new season tickets that were sold. It's the biggest attendance increase (in both percentage and number) in all of minor league hockey.

The reason I came here to vent is that I still go on some minor league hockey message boards, and some of the QC fans still continually bash the team. Bashing was understandable when the team was down and nearly left town the past few years. The problem I have is that if you dare point out "Look, attendance is way up" they either a) nit pick the crap out of it ("Yeah, but...") or b) go ballistic for suggesting the team might be having some success.

Even more frustrating and mind-blowing is they do the same thing with the River Bandits. The River Bandits have not been through anything like the trauma the Mallards have been through lately. The River Bandits have had some of their best attendance seasons ever recently, they've won championships in 2 of the past 3 seasons, and have had rosters full of future MLB players. It's probably been the best stretch in decades for that franchise. But I guess because they aren't perfect, we're still supposed to [expletive] about them and belittle them? I just don't get it.

The mentality of these guys is that they think they are doing the Quad Cities this huge favor by always being negative about everything (yes, the bashing does extend beyond sports for some). They think if you [expletive] and moan on message boards, then maybe the owners and other powers that be will hear you and make some changes. What these changes should be, they never say. I agree that it is good to expose real problems sometimes, but in this case I feel the bashing does way more harm than good. Especially when they are spreading negative rumors that cannot be proven or disproven. When these guys have a specific gripe, like ticket prices, they never talk to anyone about it. At this level of sports, it is easy to approach even a team president and tell them you aren't happy with something. I've done it myself. They normally will do something nice for you to try to make up for it. I've told these guys to do that, over and over. They never, ever do. No, it's better to not give them that chance to do something nice, and to hold a grudge forever about it instead.

Despite all that, these guys claim to be fans of the team(s) still. They hate on the teams so much because they love them, I guess.

Maybe I shouldn't care that much. It's minor league sports. It's supposed to be a fun diversion. But the constant bashing is grating, especially when it is so far off base and has been going on for so long. Most people have left the message boards because of it. The boards used to be fun. Maybe it is time for me to finally throw in the towel, too. Haters gonna hate.

[pioneer98]

Just need to vent some...Our team this year got off to a great start this year. They were like #3 in terms of winning percentage as late as New Year's Day. Their schedule was so goofy they had 6, 7, 8 games in hand on some other teams. So lots of opportunity to move way up the standings. Since then it's been a perfect storm of crap.

Their best forward got called up to the AHL and hasn't been back since. Good for him, though. If that were the only thing that happened, they might have still been a decent team. Then their next best forward got a "lower body" injury and is likely out the rest of the season. Another forward on their second line got a concussion and has missed a month, and is likely out for the season. So 3 of the top 6 forwards, gone.

In January, our #1 goalie was the top goalie in the entire league. He was like 13-1-3 or something. He then got called up to the AHL, but he never even got into a game. He sat on the bench for like 3 weeks, and he got rusty. He got sent back to us and is no longer the same goalie. Since getting sent back he is like 0-7-1.

The best defenseman on the team has been called up 3 times, including just now. Our other goalie also just got called up. Again, I'm fine with these kind of callups, but it just makes a tough situation more difficult.

To try to get some help, they signed the brother of one of our players, who is actually a top player in a European league. But he could not leave until his Euro season was over. His team of course made it to the finals, and so it will be too late for him to get back and play in any games here to be playoff eligible.

Now they finally playing all those games in hand, but they could not have come at a worse time. Also, since they have to cram all of them in at the end, the travel is absolutely insane. I added it up - from March 12 to March 30, the team will have traveled 4,482 miles, all by bus, to play 12 games. They get 7 days off in there, but all of them are travel days.

I suspect salary cap and other shenanigans from some of the teams in this league. The top team in the league has an affiliation with the AHL Chicago Wolves. They haven't had a single player get called up. Another of our forwards though has been called up to Chicago, and we aren't even affiliated. This other team is the top scoring team in the league and is running away now with the #1 seed. I find it very hard to believe Chicago looked at their roster and couldn't find anyone worthy of a callup, and so instead poached off of our roster. Great for our player, but also a window into how things really work in this league?

[pioneer98]

I will say though that off the ice, things have been great. We have the #1 percentage increase in attendance in all of minor league hockey, and things are still looking up there. It is very nice for once for all the worries to be about stuff happening on the ice and not worrying about if the team will be around next year. I just wish there didn't have to be so many problems on the ice at the moment.

[pioneer98]

They just announced they signed a 3 year lease extension with our arena, so they will be sticking around. This is great news and a stark turnaround from where this franchise was at in Fall 2012.

http://www.myqcmallards.net/newsandinfo ... le_id=1266

[pioneer98]

The Mallards won their first playoff series in 11 years last night, on the road in a game 7. It was really big for this franchise to have some postseason success because it kind of validates the off-the-ice success. They are in the semi-finals now. I don't know if they will win this round but just getting this far is a nice accomplishment for this team.

[pioneer98]

Need to vent...The Mallards lost 4-2 to drop to being down 2-1 in a best of 7 in the semifinals. Our fans are all going ballistic about it. First they think coach started the wrong goalie. He started a guy under an AHL contract who has done well. The other goalie has been hotter lately but he did lose game 2. So I understand why coach did what he did. It is only a big deal because they lost and they believe 2 of the goals were soft (I think only 1 was, but whatever). I guess it is good they want to win so bad but geez. To go from being so terrible that the team dang near folded at the start of last season to beating one of the better teams and advancing to the semifinals...I just can't be that terribly disappointed myself. Oh, and they are only down 2-1 in this series. They haven't even lost yet.

Then people are whining because the team offered $3 tickets tonight but aren't offering them for Friday or Saturday's games. Good God people. They did that tonight because weeknight games on school nights don't draw for crap. Be happy you got the $3 deal for one night at least.

[pioneer98]

A hockey question...Whenever a team loses a hockey game so many people talk about "lack of effort". And this is not just in the minors, I hear it at the NHL level, too. They claim the team didn't hit hard enough, didn't play physical enough, didn't skate hard enough, whatever. You rarely ever hear this in any other sport. In baseball maybe we will talk about a guy not running out a hit or a grounder...but imagine someone saying "They would have won that playoff series if they had just run harder on the bases or thrown harder." We'd laugh at them. In basketball you hear about lack of defensive effort sometimes, but it is way less often. Football? Not even once. But in hockey it seems there is always this complaint about effort.

I have a theory: I believe that when a team loses it can often look like a lack of effort, but the real problem is that they were out of sync or did not play good team hockey. Hockey is unique in that spacing is so critical. You have to be in the right place at the right time in order to make that hit, or play that puck. So if they were not in the right place, or their teammate made a bad pass, or they got caught cheating too far, etc, it appears that they did not play as hard. It's not because they decided to lolligag.*

What do other hockey fans think?




* Two other factors I think are at work here, too: One is I think is that hockey players try to play through injuries way more often than players in other sports, too. If they are unable to go 100% it can look like lack of effort. Second, at the level I watch they sometimes play 3 games in 3 nights with bus trips in between. That 3rd game can be awfully rough due to fatigue.