There's a lot of buzz right now going around about a Capitals at Penguins Winter Classic at Heinz Field. The Pensblog and MYFO each had their own articles about this, and I guess I owe my inspiration to them. Either way, here's my 10 reasons why the 2011 Winter Classic could suck.
1) It's the Western Conference's turn - You established a pattern, you really shouldn't give up on it yet. There's plenty of good teams in the Western Conference. Speaking of which...
2) Canada deserves a turn - There's no real heavy rivalry between the Canadian teams in the Western Conference. Toronto and Ottawa are always at each other's throats in the east. Edmonton is a joke, but Calgary and Vancouver just seem a little too friendly. Time to brew some hate in the great north.
3) There's better venues than those in Pittsburgh - Yes, they will have a new arena, but they're not playing outdoors in it. You just know things won't go smoothly in Pittsburgh...they never do. On a side note, I hear there are lovely new rinks in Hamilton, Quebec City, and Winnipeg.
4) Grow the sport, not the faces - Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin are as close to household names as hockey players can be right now. And that's part of the problem. There's plenty of stars in this league. Sell some of them as well. On that note...
5) Don't make the public hate your faces - Think about it...Do you really want to see more Crosby/Ovechkin if you are a fan of your home team and live somewhere outside of Pittsburgh or Washington? Yeah, it'll be exciting, but you'll make the fans sick of seeing the non-rivalry between these two.
6) New Years isn't Thanksgiving, and this isn't football - And you don't even give out a 6-legged turkey (though maybe a 6-neck bottle of champagne would be more relevant). My point is, the Penguins are neither the Dallas Cowboys nor the Detroit Lions (thank God), and they don't need to become a staple for this novelty game. Segue to...
7) NBC will treat is like a novelty no matter what - Even if you try to make this the most exciting game of the year, NBC will have all kinds of exterior shots, bad ads, and bad jokes. They just don't respect the sport, and you're assholes for renewing the deal with them as you did.
8) Remeber the G-20? - Yeah, that didn't go so well. Let's not reward this behavior, okay?
9) This is a good way to injure your league stars - Bad ice. Dirty players. National Televison. Sounds to me like the formula for Ovechkin injuring Crosby and then being hurt himself.
10> Pittsburgh will still be in Steelers mode, barring a repeat of their last season - Let's face it, the Steelers are the heart of Pittsburgh. As long as they're still in the Playoff hunt at this point (God forbid leading the division), you'll be selling more tickets to the out of town fans. And there WILL BE FIGHTS in the stands if you do this thing at Heinze Field.
Well that's my 10 reasons that Pittsburgh doesn't need another Winter Classic game...Yet. Anything I missed? Disagree with one of my reasons? be sure to let me know!
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