25 June 2008

The Continental

So, I'm intrigued by the new Continental Hockey League.

It is in my humble, semi-professional opinion that both the NHL and CHL (KHL in Russia) stand to gain a lot of fame and make a lot of money if they have NHL-CHL Super Series matches. Granted, I certainly wouldn't pit the CHL against the Canadiens for 7 games, but I might pit the Stanley Cup winner against their own Champion.

There'd be a lot of kinks to work out, such as where to play the series (maybe home advantage goes for the team who had the best playoff record -- the team who went 16 - 2 in the playoffs would have home advantage over the team with a 16 - 6 record, for example), how many teams would be involved initially (at the beginning of the playoffs -- maybe have a worldwide playoff with a mix of teams from the CHL and the NHL?), and would they be better to simply have two of our all-star teams versus two of theirs in a round robin? 

It's all very interesting to speculate about, but I know, as I'm sure everyone else does, that nothing so cool will ever work out: Bettman will do everything he can to discredit the CHL, and so far alienate them that there will never be good relations between the two leagues.

And this has the potential to be so, so fun, too. I would love to see the best team(s) in Europe/Asia take on the best team(s) in the NHL.

That'd be good hockey.