Were the NHL's "Premier" Games in Europe Worth It?

Today's game between the San Jose Sharks and Columbus Blue Jackets was brutal, and it even went to overtime.

Neither team seemed to be playing with much motivation or desire to win, and the crowd—or what was there of it—seemed distant. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

As blog co-author Harvey said to me earlier tonight, it felt like the 7,000 or so who filled half the seats at the Ericsson Globe were just being polite. They wanted to quietly file out of the arena, but were worried that they might upset the players on the ice.

The first 10 rows or so of the Globe looked deserted, and the question must be asked as to whether or not we can be surprised. The NHL is currently in a bit of a war over the European market with not just the domestic leagues in Sweden, Finland, and the Czech Republic, but also the ever-growing KHL from Russia.

So the NHL sets up a series between the Minnesota Wild and Carolina Hurricanes. Right. I'm not saying that these teams are not skilled or that they don't demonstrate the high level of play found in the NHL, but they aren't big selling point teams.

Both teams are relatively young to the league and have yet to expand a fan base well outside of their home geographic area, meaning that I don't many people in Europe would go to see these teams because they are actual fans.

Secondly, and this can be said for the Boston and Phoenix series, they play in different conferences. They will never play each other again this year, and in the screwy scheduling past since the lockout season haven't hardly played each other. There is no rivalry between these teams, no feeling of needing to defeat the other, and it showed on the ice.

It was boring, unmotivated play, much like the San Jose-Columbus game today.

But what really is the NHL to do?

Some might say go let Leafs and Habs play a home-and-home in Europe or send the Devils and Rangers to duke it out, then European fans could see the atmosphere of a true NHL game with meaning.

But, these options are unrealistic. There's way too much money in these markets. Could you imagine Toronto only getting to sell 18,800 seats 40 times instead of 41? The fans would go absolutely insane.

So instead, the NHL must send some of their smaller-market teams and pit them against teams that wouldn't be big draws at home, resulting in the pathetic atmosphere that I witnessed today.

I will admit that the Bruins-Coyotes series actually delivered some pretty good hockey, but if the NHL really wants to impress its European allegiance, then it's going to have to bite the bullet and send over a couple of rivalries and allow the fans to feel and understand the electricity of a meaningful game.

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