Let me say this first: No, I’m not over it yet. Not even close. It’s only been about 19 hours since the Capitals’ stunning collapse in the East quarters. Blowing a 2-0 lead in the East semis to your archrival is bad enough. Blowing a 3-1 lead in the first round against a team that shouldn’t even have been in the playoffs in the first place the following spring makes you wonder if Harry Reid & Co. haven’t secretly repealed the Eighth Amendment.
With that said, this column represents the views of a hockey fan who wants to see the game grow, not a hockey fan who can’t find enough Bacardi to make him forget about three straight early-round collapses. In the spirit of graciousness in defeat, I’ll let a Habs fan make my point for me:
“While I’m thrilled my team is advancing, the NHL is probably worse off for it.”
That comment, posted by a Canadians fan during a Thursday morning chat with Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell, perfectly epitomizes the paradox of the NHL playoffs. Most casual fans don’t care about teams in Phoenix, Nashville, or Miami. Actually, most casual fans probably don’t even know there are as many teams in Florida (two) as in Ontario. It’s well known teams with (inter)national followings like Montreal and Detroit that put people in front of the TVs. As more people get drawn into an exciting playoff run, the legions of fans grow, and the game’s foothold south of the border becomes more solid.
Some of you may recall that I wrote last fall on the shortsightedness of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman’s plan to “grow the game” in “non-traditional markets.” Certainly, I still believe that there are a number of markets that simply aren’t viable in the long run—Tampa and Miami come to mind. And for that matter, it’s worth pointing out that the Coyotes, who were the subject of that column, finished dead last in the League in regular-season attendance, averaging fewer than 12,000 fans for its 41 home dates. But as the San Jose Sharks have shown us, a scintillating playoff run or two—recall that the Sharks toppled the top-seeded Red Wings in seven games in their first-ever playoff appearance—can do wonders for establishing fan support for a new franchise.
Let’s be clear here. When it comes to sports, Washington, D.C. isn’t exactly Boston. There will certainly be some who choose to argue that the Caps’ newfound fan support is largely thanks to the struggles of the Nationals, Redskins, and Wizards. While that argument has merit, I suggest that anyone who thinks the abysmal D.C. sports scene is the biggest factor in the District’s love affair with the Caps look up the Beltway to Baltimore. The Orioles have been the laughingstock of Major League Baseball for the better part of the last 13 seasons, while the Ravens seem to set a new attendance record every week. So has the Orioles’ awfulness driven the Ravens’ ascension into fans’ hearts? If that was the case, I somehow doubt the talk of the town would have been the countdown to the opening of Ravens training camp back in the summer of ’05, when the Orioles spent 62 days in first place in the AL East. There’s no law saying fans can only support one team in their home city.
But nothing brings a city together like a title-winning team. I still have fond memories of January ’01, after the Ravens won Super Bowl XXXV. Ravens Fever, already in full force throughout the city and suburbs, rose to a new level. Every storefront had a Ravens flag in its front window, Ray Lewis and Jonathan Ogden ascended from local celebrities to local deities, and purple hair replaced beehives as hons’ hairdo of choice. There were questions about Baltimore’s ability to support an NFL team following the Ravens’ move from Cleveland, but the aftermath of that Super Bowl win put to rest any lingering doubts.
Now, let’s return to D.C. Winning three straight division titles and the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s top team in 2009-10 are all well and good, but when they just serve as buildup to another embarrassing playoff shortfall, it does make you wonder whether the emotional investment from October through April is worth it. What if the newfound affinity for the boys in red really is simply because of the Redskins’ struggles? What if the soon-to-again-be Bullets shock the world next season and supplant Orlando as the class of the NBA’s East? Will the bandwagon steadily shrink until it’s small enough that there isn’t even enough room for George McPhee’s smart acquisitions?
If the Capitals can exorcise two and a half decades’ worth of playoff demons, perhaps we won’t have to worry about that. No one wants to suffer the embarrassment of admitting they don’t particularly care about their hometown yearly title contender. But until that day comes, there will always be the question of whether the apparent foothold the game has taken in our nation’s capital is truly a sign of the game’s growth, or merely the flavor of the month.
And thanks to Wednesday’s shocker, the doubts in the back of our collective minds just got a little bit bigger.
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