AHL

Ontario vs. Berlin Shows the Need for More Transcontinental Games

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The International Frozen Friendly (Photo Courtesy of the Ontario Reign)

On February 13th, the Ontario Reign will host Eisbaren Berlin in what is being called the International Frozen Friendly. The German Elite squad will be the first European team to play an AHL team since 2014 when Farjestad BK played the Toronto Marlies and the AHL All-Stars. Both Eisbaren and Ontario are owned by the Anschutz Entertainment Group.

This is a concept that is needed more when it comes to minor league hockey. Granted, this is something that a team in the Pacific Division can afford to do since they play eight less games; but that notwithstanding, the idea is something more teams should do. It has gone the other way with the Rochester Americans going to participate in the Spengler Cup in 2013, but it seems like it’s something few and far between– especially during in-season play.

Whether or not Berlin will bring their top squad remains to be seen, but it should lay the groundwork for the AHL to maybe explore something with other European teams. If hockey is truly universal, then this is something that would be great as a yearly exhibition between the AHL side and a European squad. Sure, if the European teams lose a lot to the “AAA” pro squads, they may be a little hesitant, but it’s something that needs to be drifted.

That, or the AHL tries to get into that Champions’ League thing that the European leagues have every season. Sure– it’s a pipe dream to make that logistically work in terms of travel and scheduling, but it would be a fun sight to see and maybe actually get more eyes on leagues that fans may not be totally accustomed to.

There’s no losers in all of this– this helps out the AHL get attention on a semi-global scale with the Europeans looking at this game as a nice little gimmick, Berlin gets help with a North American tour of sort, and the game wins when you have a clashing of ideas and cultures when it comes to how teams are coached and how players are developed. More leagues need to look into it and if they can make it work with travel and money– why not have that?? It’s something that helps the sport overall and I think in the end– that’s the goal of everyone in the game of hockey.

That’s Enough, AHL; Even It Out

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With the reveal of the AHL schedule today, it shows that the league which is the top developmental league in North American hockey is still keeping the schedule for six of the eight Pacific Division teams at eight games below everyone else.

That’s quite enough of that then.

Sure, it hasn’t benefited the Pacific Division when it comes to the playoffs as none of the teams have made it to the Calder Cup Finals by having fresher legs, but if that’s the case– why keep kowtowing to the NHL teams and actually have a business plan to keep all the teams at 76 games or all of them at 68. To have a different schedule for six of the teams is completely bush-league for a league that’s trying to be the top developmental league for the NHL.

I’m a broken record on this, mostly because I say it every year they come out. The ECHL doesn’t give a different schedule to Utah or Colorado or Rapid City– they didn’t give a different schedule to Alaska when they were in the league and they’re almost in Russia. So why, in their infinite wisdom, is the AHL doing this for a third straight year??

Look, I get it– the NHL teams moved their AHL teams so that the proximity was closer– great. However, shouldn’t they be worried more about actually game-play rather than having more practice time?? Hell, why even have games at all and just have controlled scrimmages. It seems to defeat the purpose if you’re going to have only one division in the entire league rely on points percentage (as the other divisions have an equal amount of games).

It’s almost as if the AHL should have called the original five teams’ bluff and let them break away and start their own league to see how much that could stayed afloat and how much that would have helped. The AHL was smart enough to allow the teams to move out west, but at the same time– they should have put their foot down and say, “Sure, you can move the markets who have been good to us over to the left coast, but you have to play the same amount of games as the rest of the league to make us not look stupid or walked over.”

As much as I love the AHL and all the things they have done, it just seems stupid that they’re still allowing six teams to rewrite the rules on how a schedule should be presented and how many games they should be playing versus the rest of the league.

I’ll leave with this– if the proposed move of the Colorado Eagles to the AHL happens, will they still stick with those seven teams playing a 68-game schedule?? Will that whole division be an island onto themselves?? Does that make them more or less prepared for the NHL because they don’t bother themselves with long road trips??

We’ll have to wait another 365 days or so for that to all play out.

Putting the Minor Leagues Into the Mainstream

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During the Memorial Cup Final on Sunday, NHL.com’s AHL writer Patrick Williams brought up an interesting concept when it came to the AHL’s Calder Cup Finals coming up and how to get some buzz to those casual minor league hockey fans.

Williams is not wrong. The AHL putting their games out there for free on AHLLive.com, but even with that, people need to have a purpose to go to that site and put in all the things in order to watch the game. It’s not like the CHL had in the US and Canada where you could be flipping around the channels and find themselves watching the game because it caught there attraction. Yes, you can make the argument that the NHL is not in and around many prime channels and you may need a reason to turn to that channel– but it’s still on TV is the point.

However, for the production value of the games will have to be better by ten-fold. On the AHL Live feed, all the things that are shown on the jumbotron are shown on the broadcast, including in-game graphics and promotions, are shown during the broadcast with the radio play-by-play being over top of the action. It’s not like you can see replay and have those plays broken down, so it’s a real disadvantage. Though, there are times AHL Live simulcasts TV broadcasts, but it’s few and far between.

At this point in the season, you would think that both the AHL and the ECHL would want to show off their product in the best of lights. The member teams, you would hope, would find a way to get a local TV station to help with the production of their game film and make it very presentable for a championship series and not grainy quality you’d expect to see in archival footage from the 1970s.

Of course, a budget factor would come into play. You wouldn’t think teams would have much money earmarked for the TV side of things, though at this point in the season– you could splurgs for something like this. Plus, you’d have to imagine that if they got on regular TV, the NHL Network would be able to grab that satellite feed and broadcast it on their airwaves because, well, they don’t have anything else going on right now with the Cup Finals being the story of the next two weeks or so. Why not put the AHL or ECHL playoffs onto the channel to give hockey fans even more hockey that matters on the air.

I’ll always advocate for minor league hockey and to get minor league hockey out into the mainstream for people to not only check-up on their team’s prospects, but to learn about new players, areas, teams, league, and whatever else they can take away from watching the games. Making them watchable has to be the first step for minor leagues– first on a production level and next to get it out to the masses.

If there’s anything I missed with what the AHL and ECHL could do to improve upon their broadcasts, hit up the comment section.