NHL Europe

I had this misfortune of listening to some NHL Talk Radio on XM Radio this past weekend. The hosts for whatever reason were discussing putting the NHL in Europe.
A general paraphrasing of what I heard them suggesting and my reactions after the jump.

The two hosts, who shall remain nameless because I don't care about who they were, had some different thoughts, but agreed on one general idea.

They both thought the NHL should expand into Europe.

In their insane ranting, they generally agreed to relocate about 4 "sun-belt" teams (Sun belt teams being teams like Florida, Tampa Bay, Dallas, Phoenix, Nashville, etc...) to cities in Europe, suggesting Moscow, Helsinki, Geneva, and either Paris or London. I'm not sure about exactly which cities they said, but the fist and last on that list were definite suggestions I remember.

The biggest problem with expanding the league into Europe is glaringly obvious: Jetlag. As I type this, Norway is approximately 6 hours ahead of my time. That means when it would normally be 7pm in Pittsburgh, it would be 1am in Norway. Earlier in Moscow. Now there are two ways to go with that. 1) Stick to american time, and play early morning home games for these European teams... or 2) Play local time and watch as the Euro teams kills the North American Teams in Europe and vice versa.

The second major problem: Playoff games. Imagine having two home games in...say Ottawa. Then you have to fly to Russia, lose 8 hours, play two games, then gain 8 hours for a game 5, lose 8 for 6, gain 8 for game 7. That's INSANELY BRUTAL. I wouldn't wish that upon anyone.

That said, the NHL creating it's own league in Europe wouldn't necessarily be a bad idea. Putting a team in Helsinki, Moscow, Berlin, Paris, London, Kyiv, and maybe even Rome and/or Madrid for a separate but equal league would give the NHL a good chance to compete with the KHL. In addition, wouldn't it be awesome to see a mid-summer, 7-game series that rotated annually the location, pitting the two league champs against each other for the World Championship?

In most major sports, there have been two leagues that merged into one. The NFL had the NFL and AFL, MLB had (and still has) the AL and NL, hell, even the NHL had the WHA for a brief time. While an NHL/NHL-E summer series could be tough, taking an already shortened off season for the Championship teams and making it shorter, it's just one idea, and would be an exciting way to keep enthusiasm for the sport up through the summer.

In summation, the NHL needs to stop trying to kill it's players by sending them overseas, and should perish the thought of the NHL expanding over there, when there are so many cities in Canada that would love a team: Winnipeg, Quebec City, Hamilton (I didn't forget about you, Jim Balsille). Maybe make a secondary league, or something. See how it goes. If it doesn't work, contract it and never say you didn't try.