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Damien Cox, the Star's hockey columnist and associate sports editor, takes turns stirring up trouble and chuckling at the foibles of the sporting world. He'll start with hockey, Canada's ongoing passion play, and stick his nose into a few other games and places where athletes reside. You'll love some of his thoughts, hate others and get a chance to give your two cents on all of them.
First, regarding the OHL teams and the Marlies, the OHL teams haven't been successful for a simple reason: that there are two of them within ten minutes of each other (on the same street, if you can believe it), in a neighbourhood populated mostly by people from countries where hockey is played on a field or not at all. If they had put one in Richmond Hill and one in Oakville, two communities that are much more in love with the game, you can bet that the teams would be infinitely more successful. As for the Marlies, they're doing much better now but I think the simple fact that it is hard to get to Ricoh by subway has been detrimental.
As for the success of the Caps, there can only be one Alex Ovechkin, who has been a godsend to that market, not to mention the fact that he Caps are winning. And that's the point: sure, some of these markets might do okay if the teams were good (though there's New Jersey, who are constantly fantastic and still can't draw flies), but in a competitive sport, not all teams can be good. You have to have teams in markets where they can endure a few years of being mediocre.
Posted by: Noam Sugarman | April 24, 2009 at 10:38 AM
A second NHL team in the GTA won't change the fact that Toronto is a Leafs town. Always has been, always will be.
Posted by: chris | April 24, 2009 at 02:54 PM