This past weekend marked the fourth and fifth games in the 2014 International Ice Hockey Exhibition Series.
After two games in Perth at the 13,000-seat Perth Arena two weeks ago, another ‘house full’ game in Brisbane last weekend and back-to-back nights in Melbourne at Rod Laver Arena and Sydney’s Allphones Arena, it’s safe to say that the series, for a second consecutive year, was a giant success.
Say what you will about the style of play – being an exhibition and particularly one involving professional players from North America who have donated their time for this event, it was unlikely that there would ever be the sort of intensity you might find in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals, and anyone who expected something other than the All Star-type game of minimal defense and maximum scoring and showmanship was at the wrong event.
Even say what you will about the way the series was promoted – the event Facebook page and website didn’t exactly claim that a full roster of NHL talent would tour Australia, though they didn’t exactly say that most of the players would be from the East Coast Hockey League, either.
My one complaint would be that fans paying NHL prices need to know beforehand that it won’t be an all-NHL line-up, but you have to understand the enormous costs of setting up rinks and the infrastructure for same, and that’s what influences the high ticket prices.
The fact remains that, despite the lineup, at five games across four different Australian cities, arenas were sold out and people were coming to watch hockey in huge numbers – numbers never seen in Australia before. And the crowds weren’t exclusively made up of just expat Canadians or Americans or the relatively small community of Australian hockey fans, but people who have never seen a game before.
We must face facts: despite the loose style of play and the rosters not being stacked with the Sidney Crosby’s and Patrick Kane’s of the hockey world, those players who did make the trek are easily the most talented to ever lace up and take the ice in Australia. NHL guys, AHL stars and even the hopefuls from the third-tier ECHL put on one hell of a show, even if it might not be at 100% with all the physical confrontation we’re used to seeing on TV.
Let’s face it, these players are out here for a charity series, and to sustain a major injury here would endanger their livelihood in North America. Pro hockey doesn’t exactly come with sustained job stability. That these players come out at all is fantastic, and spreading the message for StopConcussions.com is hugely important. After all, concussions are an ugly part of any contact sport, and the more money raised for research, the better.
However you look at it, there was some serous talent on the ice. The AHL is the second-best pro league in the world, and the ECHL would easily be in the top five. The players we saw on the ice over five games in Australia are guys who would, and you’ll pardon the pun, would skate rings around the amateur Australian Ice Hockey League players.
That’s not to say that the AIHL isn’t a solid league, because it is – their games are full of passion, but they aren’t playing to the giant arena-sized crowds that these North American pros have been throughout these exhibition series’ over the last two years. Crowd numbers don’t lie: the product works.
Sure, the fights are a little campy, and at times you saw players trying to keep the game close by not capitalising on a golden scoring opportunity, but the overall spectacle, complete with fireworks and confetti, goal songs and player introductions, gouts of flame and national anthems, is unrivalled. In fact, it was like being inside an NHL arena.
Most importantly, it was good fun, even for those of us who’ve seen dozens of NHL games. There’s nothing like that big-time American sporting experience, which was faithfully recreated in our own arenas – it’s a giant production and an exciting spectacle , not just a game – and there’s something so amazing about seeing tens of thousands of hockey fans wearing different NHL and international jerseys in Australia, packing out arenas to see this game we all love so much.
Does it bring fans to the AIHL games? Well, franchise owners are saying ‘yes’ – published reports say that ticket and merchandise sales are trending solidly upwards thanks to the exposure the AIHL gets at these games, particularly in Perth – and, if nothing else, these contests will at least encourage a few people to check out NHL games on FOX Sports or online.
You only need to scroll through the Facebook page the series set up and read some of the posts and comments from first-time fans who talk about how the entire night was excellent and how it’s, for some, the best sporting event they’ve ever been to. That’s high praise indeed.
Importantly, the promoters from the Douglas Webber Group, were sure to promote the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) wherever they could, including having one of the AIHL commentators working these games, and the logo was prominent on the rink signage and in the program.
One hopes that the NHL is paying attention. A combined crowd of more than sixty thousand Australians – including more than 20,000 on Saturday night at Allphones Arena in Sydney alone – came to arenas to watch an exhibition hockey game. Imagine what sort of crowds and demand there’d be if the League decided to copy Major League Baseball and bring a regular season contest down here.
In the meantime, the International Ice Hockey Series will be enough for those of us missing the buzz of big-time North American sport. Kudos to organisers and promoters, it was a great series.
If it happened to be your first ever experience of hockey, chances are, you’d probably go again.
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