World Hockey Summit

i was going to great you with a witty hockey pun, but decided against it since i really don't care enough to think of one. this week is the World Hockey Summit in Toronto, and today (well technically yesterday...or Tuesday, depending on when you read this), there was discussion of the NHL branching out into Europe. uhhh.....why?

The NHL has trouble keeping domestic teams afloat, so why on earth would they take on the added financial risk of creating either a second league in europe, or a european division. Logistically how on earth would this work? Having a home and home series with a team that's 6000 miles away just doesn't seem logical. or if every team plays in europe once, and the european teams come over and do a road trip. what kind of team would approve of having an empty arena for a month or more? That's just money being pissed away. Also there are several world class leagues already operating in europe, so why try to crowd the market? I get the publicity angle and marketing ploy of having teams open their seasons abroad. It creates interest in our game here. Bottom line is european teams/leagues play on olympic ice. Are we going to be so bold as to force every rink in europe to conform to NHL size, or will this super league have two different official ice surfaces?
I know that the NFL, a much more profitable league, plays games in europe and has/had what amounts to a developmental league there, but they are essentially kept completely seperate. the NFL is a much larger league in terms of revenue, so they can actually afford this. The NHL, while hardly destitute, certainly has its own precarious situations with teams being successful both on and off the ice. So again I ask, why do this?!
If the league is truly that hard pressed to get into europe, why not discuss using their leagues and teams official developmental leagues? Well for one thing, that would imply that their hockey is inferior to ours here in the states (and canada too....i guess). Please keep your eyes on the prize here NHL bigwigs. Create and properly maintain a league that is perpetually successful and relevant in the world of sports. Ratings are consistently improving over the last few seasons. build on it. make more people actually give half a fuck about watching it. There are far too many things to be done at home before you can even think about going abroad.

In other news around the league, the Aaron Asham Atlantic Division Express has made its forth stop. In Shittsburgh. I have no problem with him going to another team, especially when it was clear that we wasn't going to re-sign with the Flyers. it's the nature of the game. But Pittsburgh? OOF! Well it's only a one year deal, and then off to NY. The Rangers will be someone to play for Boogaard, once they realize they pissed away a few more million. Oh Rangers, you make me laugh sometimes.