October 17, 2006
The Hockey Team With A Split Personality
Yesterday, On Frozen Blog walked through the downside of the NHL realignment that created the Southeast Division, a move that forced Caps into a box with four teams they shared no common history with.
What's worse, the move cut Washington off from rivals in the Northeast corridor (Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey) that shared division rivals across several sports. All of those areas are within easy driving distance, which meant lots of out of town fans would make trips to Washington several times per year, filling a good portion of the seats at the old Capitol Centre in Landover.
So if anyone asks you why there have been so many empty seats at Verizon Center the past few years, the reason is pretty clear: Fewer visits from the Rangers, Flyers, Penguins, Islanders and Devils.
In reality, the Caps are almost two different franchises, with the demarcation line between the two coming in 1997-1998 time frame.
Before then, we have the ex-doormat that gradually transformed itself into a scrappy contender in the Patrick Division. It was a team that was difficult to play against, and their home ice was one of the more somber places to play in the NHL. The fan base for that team was mostly in Maryland, with the strongest pockets in Anne Arundel and Prince George's County.
But after that, we have the high salary Caps, the ones that made it to a Stanley Cup Final, and wound up spending a lot of money -- albeit unsuccessfully -- trying to get back. As Ted Leonsis wrote the other day, that team's fanbase is in Northern Virginia and Montgomery County, while occupying a division with cities (regions really) with which it has little in common.
On Frozen Blog would like to see the Caps move back to the Patrick, and one of their contributors thinks relocating the Pens to Southern Ontario might just be the first domino to fall in a process that could make it happen.
Unfortunately, that scenario would force Nashville to take Washington's place in the Southeast Division, not a happy prospect for a team that gets a significant percentage of its gate from former Michigan residents working in the Tennessee auto industry who have grown used to seeing their Red Wings as often as possible, both at the rink and on local television.
I can remember thinking the day that the realignment was announced how unappetizing the prospect of multiple home games against the Hurricanes, Panthers, Lightning, and eventually, the Thrashers, seemed at the time. And although those teams have improved, with two winning Stanley Cups, and Atlanta looking like it's about to become a perrenial playoff contender, the crowds haven't come back.
Want to know when Caps home ice rocks harder than ever? It's when those old Patrick Division rivals, plus Boston and Buffalo, come to town. If you want to improve the team's economic prospects, the best scenario would be to increase the number of games the Caps play against those clubs. Short of that, the only viable long-term solution is one the team has been chasing for better than 30 years: Win that Stanley Cup. That in itself would solve a lot of problems.
UPDATE: CapsNut responds.
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Growing up I may have been the only Caps fan in southern Ontario. I had a traumatic childhood. The name Pete Peeters still gives me nightmares (Hug the post Pete, hug the post. For the love of God hug the post. NOOOOOO. That didn't just happen. The Flyers didn't just score from the corner. NOOOOO.).
Sorry. Back now.
Anyway, yes, I lost touch with the team about the time they moved to the SW. I still try to follow a bit, but it's not the same. The old Patrick featured great games and great rilvaries. To this day, I'll chose the Rangers vs Philly, or Devils vs. Pittsburgh over Habs/Sens any day.
Caps/Bolts....not so much.
Posted by:
at October 17, 2006 02:13 PM
This is a very accurate post. I have talked to family in MD about this(im from NY). When the Caps moved to DC, they lost a large part of their fanbase that resides in MD. And ted complains about the city not coming out for the team? He should have looked at some demographics before he made that post. Im pretty sure the residence of DC don't care about the Caps.
So end result is moving out of MD hurt the caps, they might have been in the middle of nowhere, but they had a fan base.
Bring back the Patrick :)
Posted by:
at October 17, 2006 02:25 PM
There's a more immediate problem with the Pens/Preds/Caps carousel: no way would a Southern Ontario team accept a realignment away from the Leafs. More likely they'd move closer, to a Northeast Division with four Canadian teams, and displace the Bruins to the Atlantic. Yes, the Caps belong in the Atlantic/Patrick, but there's an alignment problem in the Southeast no matter how you slice it, and the Caps are essentially the least worst fit.
I think some of the demographic nostalgia for the Cap Centre ignores the changes in PG since that time -- and if Loudoun and western Fairfax can get to the Phone Booth, Anne Arundel should be able to handle the drive as well, especially since they're more likely to spend their 8-5 in DC than are Virginia residents.
Posted by:
at October 17, 2006 03:35 PM
As a Southeastern denizen, I'd like to see the Caps move to another division, but for other reasons. I think it's asinine that Nashville isn't in the Southeast. Atlanta and Nashville are less than 200 miles apart, and they don't even play this year.
Posted by:
at October 17, 2006 05:18 PM
I think one point that's being missed is that what makes NHL rivalries great isn't proximity (how close are Detroit and Colorado?) or sharing common rivals in other sports, but rather repeated post-season confrontations.
I wrote about this last year. In my opinion, the Southeast Division can be great and the rivalries can develop just as they did in the old Patrick Division, but only if these teams are meeting year after year in the playoffs. That's why I'd love to see the League go back to a format in which the first two rounds pit division rivals against one another (I proposed a way in the post I linked to above). That's how you develop - and maintain - rivalries in the NHL.
Posted by:
at October 17, 2006 06:28 PM
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