There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to come out and say it.

I watchThe Good Wife.

I’m not going to make excuses. I’m not going to justify it by mentioning the quality writing or the amazing performances.

I’ve never written aboutThe Good Wifehere because it’s never intersected with hockey before.

This week it did.

This week’s episode featured a case about an NHL enforcer whose wife was killed while the enforcer was driving what might have been a defective snow mobile. The episode spiraled into a debate about if the player’s mental faculties were impaired due to his time in hockey, and then slid into the role the fictional hockey league might have played in the accident.

What really matters is that the episode was basically a one-hour indictment of fighting in hockey. Viewers were treated to an overview of the issues. The concussions. The enforcers fighting (literally) to hold onto their jobs, even when they’re hurting themselves. And the tacit approval the league gives to this behavior, even as it talks about protecting its players.

The episode was a huge black eye for the NHL. Instead of an hour of prime time devoted to the beauty of the sport, it made hockey seem like wrestling on ice.

The NHL could write off this episode as meaningless. They could say scripted TV has nothing to do with hockey and ratings.But NBC is promoting the NHL through its sitcoms. So obviously, somewhere there’s data showing that this kind of synergy is effective. If cross-promotion might bring in viewers, whose to say something likeThe Good Wifewon’t cost the NHL viewers?

Of course, without the fighting/concussion angle,The Good Wifeprobably wouldn’t have done an episode around hockey (noted Canadian Michael J. Fox’s presence in that particular episode notwithstanding), but the league probably would have been better off without the negative attention.

Slap Shot picked up that one night after thatGood Wifeepisode,the Rangers and Devils organized a synchronized fight to start their game.

Stu Hackel followed up with a great post about what a joke those kinds of stage fights are for the NHL.

The frustrating thing is that these kinds of staged fights are allowed to go on, yet players are routinely penalized for clean checks. It’s almost like the league wants to remove all physicality out of the game, except for fights, which more and more have nothing to do with the game being played in the moments leading up to the fight.

The wake up call to just how lost the NHL has become should not come from a legal procedural. But for whatever reason it has.Over 11 million viewerssaw an episode portraying the NHL as a bunch of fights punctuated with some skating. Over 11 million people didn’t see breath-taking breakaways or courageous shot blocks, or saves so magnificent, you think they might be CGI.

Instead, over 11 million people saw grown men fighting for dubious reasons.

The league has an image problem. How many millions of people will the league allow to see these negative images before it decides to do something to fix its fighting problem?

Of course the New York Rangerswere supposedly looking into adding Ryan Smyth as a top-six forward(maybe…). The Rangers need scoring, especially given Brad Richards recent cooldown that some might call positively Drury-esque.

Smyth is more than just offense, though. His strong play in both ends would let him slide right into this current Rangers team.

Too bad Smyth is going to be 36 in a few weeks.

Although, to be fair, Smyth’s advanced age hasn’t hurt his production for a defense-oriented Oilers team. He has 16 goals in 52 games this season. And Smyth would just be a rental, as I don’t think he has any long-term desire to live on the east coast, nor do the Rangers have extended plans to retain a player drafted the same year as their last Stanley Cup win.

Any why wouldn’t Rangers GM Glen Sather want Smyth? He’s the perfect example of a Sather acquisition:

1. Smyth is a big name
   Sather really has two preferred kinds of transactions: big names and fourth liners (that’s why Sather must have loved signings like Mike Rupp and Donald Brashear, as it gave him the chance to sign big-name fourth-liners). There’s really no in-between for him unless he’s trying to dump a big name himself. What is it about stars that gets Sather so excited? It could go back to his time in Edmonton, when Sather couldn’t afford to sign or retain well-known players. Players like Smyth (and Drury and Richards and Gomez…) could be Sather’s Rosebud. Or Sather could understand that in New York City the only way for an NHL team to grab media attention is through flashy trades and signings. The media doesn’t get excited about NHL prospects or potential, no matter how much upside they possess. Plus, Sather’s boss, Jim Dolan loves big-name signings/acquisitions, no matter how ill-conceived or inane they are. The fact that landing Smyth might actually improve the Rangers would just be icing on the cake for Dolan.
2. Smyth is a big name past his prime
   Because Sather gravitates toward big names, he’s always landing players once they’re past their prime. There’s a certain logic to it. Most teams will do whatever it takes to retain a player who’s still developing. But once that development stops, for most teams that means it’s time to part ways. For the Rangers, that means it’s time to break out the checkbook. Big-name players like Smyth are high-risk (although perhaps not even very high risk; I can’t imagine Edmonton will demand much for him)/high-reward.
3. Smyth’s an Oiler
   Even before Sather came to New York, there was always a strong trade pipeline between the Rangers and Oilers. While recently it seems the pipeline has shifted southwest to Phoenix, Sather does seem to enjoy turning to Edmonton as a trade partner. Plus, Sather drafted Smyth, so there’s a shared Oilers history between the two men.
4. Smyth’s a great storyline
   The Stanley Cup playoffs are about storylines as much as hockey. GMs and coaches know you need to keep your team psyched for a grueling post-season. Smyth as a Ranger would be a great story. He would be the grizzled NHL veteran looking to leave his beloved team to make one final run at a Cup. Think Ray Bourque with a mullet. Or an elderly Marian Hossa. Obviously, Smyth still has some offensive skills, but trading for him would be as much for narrative purposes as for on-ice ones. This isn’t so much a Sather move so much as it’s a common NHL GM one.
5. Smyth takes the spotlight off of the Rangers’ youth movement
   For all the talk about this season being the year the Rangers’ homegrown youth take ownership of the team, that hasn’t really been the case. Derek Stepan is having a tremendous sophomore year and Carl Hagelin has been a great surprise, but Brandon Dubinsky and Artem Anisimov, two Ranger second-round draft picks, have been tremendous disappointments this season. If either player had lived up to expectations, the Rangers probably would not be interested in renting Smyth. Sather needs Smyth to erase the failures of Dubinsky and Anisimov.
6. Smyth has the element of surprise
   Sather loves surprise moves. He’s managed to move unmovable players, from Erik Christensen to Scott Gomez to Christopher Higgins, without giving anyone a clue anything might be going on. He’s also managed to acquire players no one thought the Rangers could afford, like Marian Gaborik, when Gaborik hit free agency.Smyth is saying no one’s talked to him about a trade to New York. What would be more surprising than getting Smyth to waive a no-trade without Smyth realizing it?

Smyth needs to come to New York if for no other reasons than to give historians an example of the perfect Sather transaction.

History needs Smyth as a Ranger.

Sports Illustrated‘s Michael Farberhad an interesting look at John Collins, the NHL’s chief operating officer.

Collins came from the NFL and is credited with making the NHL more event-driven, coming up with ideas like hyping the annual outdoor game, starting the season in Europe, and making the All-Star game a sort of real-life fantasy draft.

The article is largely complimentary, but Farber does take issue with aspects of Collins’ philosophy:

You probably don’t know his name, but you do know his signature as the NHL’s P.T. Barnum. While the lawyerly [NHL Commissioner Gary] Bettman generally is about taking things step by step, Collins, the business guy, breathlessly rushes to the next thing, pushing, mining for opportunity and never having a bad hair day. The NHL’s 1,230 regular season games— OK, 1,229, after the Winter Classic— seem to have become an interregnum connecting the new narrative as the league lurches from one special event to the next.

I too have some concerns about what Collins is doing to the league. More and more, mainstream media NHL news seems to be about either one-off special events, like the Winter Classic and the All-Star draft, or horrible violence associated with the game. But the regular season, for the most part, is completely ignored, left for the fans to discuss amongst themselves.

Part of that is because the NHL season is so long and grueling. It’s hard for fans to sustain a level of excitement for 82 games; I’m not sure it’s fair or realistic to expect the local media to maintain it.

The regular season is also often ignored because the post-season is considered to be hockey’s real season. After all, more than half of the league’s teams make it into the playoffs. That’s where the games really begin to count.

But the disappointing thing is that Collins comes from the NFL, where the regular season games are incredibly important (I’m assuming no one from Indianapolis is reading this…). Obviously, that’s because of the much shorter season, but not entirely (team parity is also probably a factor,and that’s something else the NHL is struggling to successfully accomplish). Just about every regular season NFL game is an event, enjoyed by fans of the teams playing, but also non-fans.

The NHL can create that kind of excitement around regular season games. They can do it by building schedules with more rivalries. They can do it by taking serious steps to curb violence in the game, rather than using PowerPoint to craft circular excuses for player misbehavior. They can allow skill to flourish in front of goaltenders, rather than to allow it to be constantly pinned against the boards.

Collins has non-fans talking about the NHL. He deserves credit for that. But he’s doing so at the expense of the regular season. He’s turning the regular season into some European games, followed by the Winter Classic, followed by the All-Star game, followed by the trade deadline, followed by the post-season. The regular season may as well be a montage.

Is Collins creating hockey fans or is he tricking people into watching a few select games, only to return to their non-hockey ways? The NFL season culminates in the Super Bowl, and while a lot of non-football fans watch the final game of the season, the Super Bowl really is about a journey that started in the regular season.

It would be great if Collins could try and do that for the NHL, also.

You know. Rather than trying to talk the league into a regular season game played on roller skating donkeys.