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Pique n' your interest

Bertuzzi: Is it any wonder?

Hockey is really a sensational game.

It’s so good the first time I saw it I was inspired to learn how to skate so I could slide around and check all my friends into the nearest tangible object.

Unfortunately, there’s hardly any ice where I’m from.

In fact there’s only one major ice rink in all of greater Sydney (although I’m told they’re building another one), which means about five million people have had to share one rink.

But the most amazing thing about this one rink is that it hosts a hockey league.

It is a true testament to how insane Australians are about sport, particularly contact sport, that there is actually a hockey league on the only rink in Sydney.

The public uses that same rink and Olympians such as speed skating legend Stephen Bradbury have used it.

But despite the constant commotion at the Macquarie ice rink, somehow hockey fans in Australia have found a way to set up a league.

Granted, the league’s mostly made up of Canadians on holidays or Canucks who have married Australian women, but it’s a league nonetheless.

From what I understand the teams train and play once a week for about 10 or 12 weeks and they have a learn-to-skate session running for most of the year.

For interested pundits it’s easy to follow because the teams involved only play one game a week.

With only one game a week there aren’t too many injuries either, which means most of the players can train and also work in paying jobs.

The major sporting competitions in Australia are a lot more complex than Sydney’s hockey league but, fortunately, they have one thing in common and it is that most teams, regardless of what competition they’re playing in, play only once a week.

During winter, which is nothing like a Canadian winter because there’s hardly any snow, most Australians follow the Australian Football League (AFL), the National Rugby League (NRL) or the Super 12 (rugby).

In summer Australians follow cricket, soccer, tennis and basketball, but there’s also baseball, netball and surf sports.

Winter is the best season for contact sports; every weekend there’s a plethora of big hits to watch.

But the best thing about it is that, unlike North American sporting competitions, you can actually follow most of the teams in any one of the major competitions.

In the AFL Collingwood supporters know just how much the rest of the clubs in the AFL dislike their chief executive.

In the NRL South Sydney supporters know just how badly the latest scandal is going to affect the Bulldogs.

And in rugby NSW fans know why Queensland just hasn’t been the same team since John Eales retired.

The fans know these things about other teams because rugby players, rugby league players and AFL players only play about 30 games a year.

Things can change slightly around the "all-star" breaks, but generally all the teams in all three of the competitions play once a week.

The same can’t be said for fans of most major sporting competitions in North America, except for NFL and CFL supporters.

In both the NFL and CFL there’s only around 18 games and they play once a week.

This means that fans of the NFL and the CFL, like most Australian fans, can follow other teams and the direction of the game in general, as well as their own team.

With only 18 games, the fans have to make more of an effort to go to the games so there’s usually bigger crowds and more hype.

It also means that there’s, generally, less of a toll on the players so the best ones, such as Jerry Rice, have longer careers.

A week ago hockey fans were left shocked and angry when one of Vancouver’s favourite sons, Todd Bertuzzi, smashed Steve Moore from the Colorado Avalanche and broke his neck.

But considering the physical and mental duress most players are under for the majority of the NHL season, is it really any wonder that at least once every four or five years there’s a shocking incident?

Consider the numbers: Bertuzzi, like all the other players in the NHL, plays a minimum of 82 games per season.

This means that these guys are playing games three times a week.

You’ve got to wonder how the hell any of them have any time to gather themselves or "come down" from the high they’re expected to be on when they’re on the ice?

And when you’re playing three times a week, how do the game’s officials have time to properly review the ramifications of certain incidents and then make laws to ensure they don’t happen again?

But the NHL schedule pales into insignificance compared to the Major League Baseball schedule.

It feels like the World Series was about two minutes ago, but they’re already into spring training and in April the season starts again.

By the end of the baseball season, barring injury or selection in any "all-star" team, your average major league baseballer would have played around 196 games.

1…9…6 games!

This means they are playing almost every day.

The NBA is almost as difficult to follow because there are 82 games in their season and they too, schedule games almost every day.

Clearly there’s too much going on, and the fans know it.

A Canucks fan told me recently that the best way to follow sport in North America was to, "just pick a team and follow them because it’s too confusing to worry about anything else."

Which brings me to my point...

Why can’t all the big wigs from the NHL, the NBA and MLB get together and come up with a plan that revolves around having one or two games each, per week on or around the weekend.

This way the fans will have a better idea of what’s going on – they’ll be able to follow their team but there will also be time to appreciate what’s happening elsewhere (such as how well the Tampa Bay Lightning is playing).

The players will be better because there will be fewer teams and they should also be better prepared mentally to do their jobs every week.

A smaller number of teams and fixtures will also make it easier for the administrators to govern their respective competitions.

The administrators will also be forced to make better second division leagues so fans in states and provinces that don’t have teams can still go and support their game.

Of course the owners would argue that if you reduced the number of games then there would be no profit in it.

And yes, the owners would lose money on the fixtures because there would be less of them, but what about all the money they’d gain from merchandising and pay-per-view television rights?