Now that the NHL has left its indelible mark on the Olympics with a thrilling spectacle, what next?
Did the NHL-Olympic tournament convert the always coveted “casual” sports fan into an NHL fan?
Will someone whose only experience with hockey came last weekend now decide to venture out to an Atlanta Thrashers, Tampa Bay Lightning or Chicago Blackhawks game, or at least watch one on TV?
“I’d like to think so,” said Hawks general manager Mike Smith.
“I’d like to think that it would help a team like ours since we had a significant number of players (six) competing.”
If the NHL doesn’t get a “bounce” from the Olympics, however, then its decision to shut down for two weeks and have its regular season overshadowed by participating in Salt Lake City can be questioned.
Hawks owner Bill Wirtz, who was not in favor of shutting down the league to begin with, believes the league will get some sort of added publicity from the Olympics.
“If the U.S. would have been able to win, that would have been icing on the cake,” Wirtz said.
“I don’t want to take anything away from the what the Canadians and U.S. did, but I still believe in what [former commissioner] Clarence Campbell said: `If it’s not good for the NHL, then I’m not in favor of it.’
“And I don’t think interrupting our season is good for the NHL.”
The danger is that new fans might feel as if they were the victims of a bait-and-switch after seeing Pavel Bure and Tony Amonte in the display window only to find Peter Worrell and Bob Probert in the store.
