NHL—Changing The Way The Game Is Played—Page 2

1 | Page 2

It is somewhat ironic that "Oiler hockey" may have also been at the root of the plodding NHL of the later 1990s and beyond. In an effort to combat open ice hockey, the NHL’s defensive geniuses developed ways to slow the game.  This is unlike Glen Sather’s Oilers, who only wanted to open and speed up hockey. Coaches like Jacques Lemaire began employing a "trapping" style of play, which produced winning results, but was something akin to watching the proverbial paint dry. Lemaire’s New Jersey Devils won the Stanley Cup in 1994-95, again in 1999-2000 and then posted a runner-up finish the following year. Lemaire’s third-year expansion team, the Minnesota Wild, made a run to the semi-finals in the 2002-03 playoffs, which happened to culminate in another Devils victory (different coach, same style) over another defensive team, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

"The game’s changed an awful lot but the philosophy of winning a championship team hasn’t," says Simpson.

Edmonton is not able to play the same way they did in the 1980s, though they were ninth overall in team scoring in 2002-03, with 231 goals. Still, the organization remains a blueprint for other teams to copy. In the winter of 2003, ESPN The Magazine conducted a poll grading the major sports franchises in North America, using the following criterion: bang for the buck, fan relations, ownership, stadium experience, championships, players, coaches and affordability. In the "ultimate standings," the Oilers finished second among all NHL teams, behind only Detroit, while also placing ninth overall out of 121 franchises. Pleased General Manager Kevin Lowe compared Edmonton to Green Bay, Wisconsin, the home of the NFL Packers (who topped the "ultimate standings").

"Green Bay is the home of football and Edmonton is the home of hockey," said Lowe. "This is where it belongs."

"We’ve become a very good model operation to the league," says Edmonton Investors Group chairman Cal Nichols. "The performance and the results that we’ve achieved here is really a message to many of the partners in the league that it’s the little engine that could. It’s the smallest market in the league, the smallest economic base of any city in the league, and yet we run it prudently. We don’t have massive losses that you’re seeing in other places, we remain competitive on the ice and the building is largely sold out most of the time."

"It’s an exciting place to go watch hockey. It’s a standard bearer in a lot of ways, certainly for all the small markets in the league, but in some ways, some of the big markets."

[back] [top]