NHL in decline, Maple Leafs mistake, and more notes

Western Conference fans would like to see Sidney Crosby each season, and all NHL fans would probably like to see more scoring. AP

NHL owners are gathering in Pebble Beach, Calif., for two days of meetings designed largely around golf and an agenda that is largely media-inspired and often of no consequence.

That is the norm for "da Govs." A little debate, a bit of housekeeping, and, this time, perhaps a change in the scheduling scheme -- something that has been the subject of media debate for years and the victim of league flip-flopping for decades.

In this go-round, da Govs are expected to put a rubber stamp to the plan put fourth by commissioner-turned XM Radio host Gary Bettman that would see the NHL go back to the pre-lockout format, a time when teams played 18 out-of-conference games instead of 10. The change will come at the expense of interdivision games, a format that was exhumed after the 2005 lockout in an attempt to build "traditional rivalries" and (so the whisper went) to cut down on travel costs.

Those of you who have followed the game long enough to remember when the divisions were named after people like Adams, Norris and Smythe (instead of geographic regions) and featured teams like the Hartford Whalers, Winnipeg Jets and Quebec Nordiques will recall that playing a division rival eight or even nine times a season was not unusual. The NHL abandoned it a few seasons into the Bettman regime, returned to it, and now appears ready to abandon it again largely on the premise that fans get sick of seeing the Sabres play the Canadiens five times in a month and because teams in the West want to see Pittsburgh and Washington scoring phenoms Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin while teams in the East want to see the "evil" Stanley Cup champion Ducks with "mean" Chris Pronger and the West Coast-cool Sharks with their redesigned, almost teal-less uniforms.

It's a noteworthy premise and it's been touted for weeks by the few media organizations that still bother to cover the semi-annual Governors meetings. But for many fans and a great many general mangers, the schedule is not a primary concern. "The really pressing issue is the product," said one GM who insisted on anonymity in order to avoid being fined. "What they should be talking about is ways to make the on-ice product better."

That's not on the agenda. But some GMs and even a few owners would like to see a number of game-changing initiatives debated by the ownership group. The problem for the GMs is that they aren't invited to these affairs. Their voice has largely been muted (some say by a business-like castration by Bettman) and they resent the fact they can't speak out without incurring a) a fine and b) that subtle kind of intimidation that comes with incurring the wrath of the commish or his associates.

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