Were the NHL’s “Premier” Games in Europe Worth It?

October 9th, 2010 by Kyle W. Brown Leave a reply »
Today's game between the San Jose Sharks and Columbus Blue Jackets was brutal, and it even went to overtime.

Neither team seemed to be playing with much motivation or desire to win, and the crowd—or what was there of it—seemed distant. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

As blog co-author Harvey said to me earlier tonight, it felt like the 7,000 or so who filled half the seats at the Ericsson Globe were just being polite. They wanted to quietly file out of the arena, but were worried that they might upset the players on the ice.

The first 10 rows or so of the Globe looked deserted, and the question must be asked as to whether or not we can be surprised. The NHL is currently in a bit of a war over the European market with not just the domestic leagues in Sweden, Finland, and the Czech Republic, but also the ever-growing KHL from Russia.

So the NHL sets up a series between the Minnesota Wild and Carolina Hurricanes. Right. I'm not saying that these teams are not skilled or that they don't demonstrate the high level of play found in the NHL, but they aren't big selling point teams.

Both teams are relatively young to the league ...

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