Tuesday, July 19, 2005

The End of the World Draws Near...

...it's the only way to explain the unheard of phenomenon of me agreeing with Al Strachan. Strachan has confirmed that the NHL will not be televising the draft lottery. This despite the fact that the 3 Canadian sports networks would absolutely love to cover this live and that many hockey fans would love to see this historic event.

"...the NHL, already overburdened with far too much publicity and an even greater amount of public goodwill, has imperiously rejected all of those pleas.

And who can blame them? It's far better to have these events conducted in secrecy. After all, a draft lottery which determines the future home of Sidney Crosby is none of the fans' business."

This decision is also adding fuel to the conspiracy theories of a fixed lottery, with the New York Rangers winning the Crosby sweapstakes. It's not a coincidence that the formula for allocating lottery balls resulted in the Rangers receiving the max number of balls. Of course, the idea of fixing the lottery is pretty ridiculous... but they're still setting themselves up for some controversy should the Rangers get Crosby

Anyway, whatever the NHL's reasoning, they are blowing an opportunity for some positive press. Something they desperately need. The NHL needs to send their "marketing team" back to school.

1 comment:

@TheCanuckFan said...

Well I entirely agree. I've been listening to the Vancouver sports radio stations and it's pretty much unanimous that the NHL should be broadcasting the actual lottery live.

TSN will be broadcasting the "results" what this means is anyone's guess at this point.