The NHL's Stanley Cup Playoffs is the best postseason in pro sports, but hockey can't go it alone on TV.
Hockey needs butts in seats more than any other sport.
One, for the money. The NHL relies gate revenue more than a basketball, baseball or football.
Two, for the scene. The atmosphere for a NHL Stanley Cup Playoff game tops a postseason basketball, baseball, or even a football game.
Fans banging on the glass, and the pendulous "ohhhhhhs" and "aaaaaaaahs" of the crowd are an essential part of the fabric of a Stanley Cup playoff game.
"The reason everyone goes gaga over playoff hockey is the intensity, the quality of the games, and the environment. The environment is a major, major portion of the appeal of a playoff game," said long time Dallas Stars color announcer Daryl Reaugh.
"It really does just suck that we won't have that. It's being a part of that roller coaster with 18,000 people living on every play and we won't have that. We all cross our fingers that this is a one off, and we're not doing this again next year. But (this year's format) is so unique and different I am excited about it."
The Dallas Stars begin their portion of the NHL's restart at 5 p.m. on Monday against the Vegas Golden Knights in the first of their three round-robin seeding games. The NHL selected two regional sites in Canada where all play will take place. Edmonton, the site of Monday's game, and Toronto will be bubble cities. Fans will not be able to attend.
Not having fans in the stands will affect an NHL playoff game more than any other.
Having attended and covered countless pro sporting events that have maybe 7,000 to 8,000 fans in large venues, even a small number creates some atmosphere, and effect. Zero creates zero.
By now we have grown semi accustomed to watching a sporting event without fans. The PGA Tour and auto racing are both "fine."
The NBA has done a decent job of delivering a good product on TV without fans from its bubble outside of Orlando, although it is weird to hear the basketball echo when guys are at the foul line.
What viewers see when they watch an MLB game with no fans on TV is far different than how it feels, and sounds, in person. In person, an MLB game feels like batting practice.
In the few games the NHL has played in its restart, this is a different product. You can feel absence of fans in a way you can't at the others.
"It was forever ago but when I played the environments were so great, but really once the game starts things just narrow," Reaugh said. "You're just focused on the game, and the two benches. It's below the glass, or the boards, and that is your focus.
"That's the same thing for those guys, it's just going to be so quiet. The difference is, without any other noise, you can hear everything the team is saying. All of that sound that even some small crowd would create is gone. So you can hear what the guys on the other bench are saying, what the refs are saying. Guys have to watch it."
Like everyone else on the planet these days, the NHL is trying to act like everything is normal when nothing is.
Like Razor said, hopefully this is just a one off and the sight of players celebrating the Stanley Cup trophy in an empty arena will only happen once every 100 years.
