This year the NHL launched NHL GameCenter on their official website. GameCenter allows fans of the NHL to stay informed on the happenings of every team in the league, not only by simulcasting each teams games, but providing an interactive interface that displays each players game and season stats, upcoming opponents, standings and news and access to game highlights, all at the users fingertips. Years ago, long before the internet, cable television and ESPN, fans of teams not playing in their local market would have to wait until the morning paper to see what their favorite team did, but today anyone could be a fan of any team essentially and follow them with just as much coverage and information as local teams receive from regional sports networks. This has clearly helped tremendously in expanding the NHL brand.
As well as the expanding the visibility of the game and teams around the league, the emergence of the "blogosphere" has dramatically changed the way in which sports teams are covered in the media. The NHL is no different, with thousands upon thousands of internet blogs all commenting on the day to day occurrences around the league and individual teams. Professor John Pavlik opens chapter six of his book with the following quote:
"Since the dawn of modern mass communication, those who have controlled the means of distribution of the media have wielded enormous power. Distributors of media have often exerted significant influence over public opinion, reaped huge financial gain and often held the ear or eye of elected officials and other leaders whether locally, nationally or internationally."
This could not be any more true, especially within the blogging world. The advent of the blog has increased the spread of the media by infusing the sports world with thousands of amateur journalists, many of whom have grown quite large, with a significant amount of pull and influence. Just as groundswells can quickly grow and escalate when people become fed up with a politician in the news media, the same can now happen in sports within the large blogging communities that have developed. Fans have a venue to vent their frustration with a team, player or coach and can significantly influence the teams, the league itself and other fans, especially when in great numbers.
This could be seen in the recent firing of New York Rangers head coach Tom Renney. While Tom has had a fairly successful tenure as head coach of the New York Rangers, many Rangers bloggers and fans had been disappointed with his "soft" style since becoming Rangers coach. Many perceived him to be too easy on his players, and believed that a more stern voice in the locker room may lend itself to greater success. For the greater portion of this year bloggers have called for Renney's head, pointing at the teams shortcomings as a result of his coaching style, and eventually when the Rangers went on season worst skid, losing ten of twelve games, Renney found himself out as head coach. Now, I'm certainly not saying that the bloggers alone are responsible for Renney's firing, but what they do is provide a climate around the team. As if the New York media is not enough of a burden to the coach of a struggling team, the bloggers multiply it greatly, and have more of a direct relationship with the fans in the seats. This influences the fans perspective, leading to "Fire Renney" chants at Madison Square Garden, which of course is then picked up by the more conventional media, and soon you have a full blown movement put in motion to oust the coach. A truly remarkable underground force in sports. Ultimately it was the Ranger's poor play that led to Renney's firing, but you know what I'm getting at here. Just a few of the blogs covering the Rangers, aside from this one, could be found at Blueshirt Bulletin, The Dark Ranger, 5-Hole, Beyond the Blushirts, Blue Seat Blogs, Pucks on Broadway, The Ranger Pundit, and many many more.
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With regard to the Rangers play tonight against the Avalanche, what could you say? They score 28 seconds into the game on a beautiful rush up ice by the new first line of Dubinsky - Drury - Callahan (Callahan scored off a feed from Dubinsky on a 2 on 1), and 60 seconds later Zherdev iced the game on a ugly, crash the net style goal that deflected off the skate of an Avalanche defender. Shortly after the flood gates opened, seeing both a goal by Gomez and also a powerplay tally by Chris Drury. Markus Naslund and Petr Prucha also found the back of the net. While it's easy to get excited about the six goal explosion, perhaps what was more important and indicative of the success was the way the team came out of the gate following the heartbreaking loss to the Panthers on Thursday night. The team skated hard and fast throughout the game and the Garden buzzed with delight as if it was the opening night of the Conference Finals.
You have to also love the fight and grit the team showed, a complete fight fest emerged as if it was Rangers/Isles out there tonight. Would have been nice to see Shoenny and Granato grapple a little down the hall to the dressing rooms after the game, but NHL officials were quick to break that up. All in all, excellent game, and you have to say that each of the last three games could have easily been Ranger wins. With four days off before they lace them up again on the island next Thursday against the Islanders, you know Tortorella will further instill his philosophy and work ethic on the team, desperately needing to string a few together here down the stretch.
The Rangers also got help today by the New York Islanders and Atlanta Thrashers, as both teams won their games against the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Panthers, leaving the Sabres and Panthers at 8th and 9th respectively in the Eastern Conference. With the win tonight the Rangers have moved into the 6th position with 72 points, three behind the Montreal Canadiens.
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