The lack of injury disclosure in the NHL is a pet peeve of mine, as I think it is really disrespectful to the paying customers. We are asked to pay our money and emotionally invest in the game and the teams, but they won't give us any injury details on the players they want us to follow? Weak. The NFL gives full injury disclosure, and in fact fines teams who fudge on their injury report. If that's the standard for the most popular sports league in the world, why isn't it the standard for the NHL also? Right now, some fans are probably thinking Anderson is dogging it. That's ridiculous in my view, but that's what you are going to get without full disclosure on injuries.
Cameron is dead on regarding goalies coming back from injury also - you can't shelter a goalie's minutes, and a goalie can't adjust his style to compensate for an injury. He's completely exposed all the time.
This is a bit backwards in thinking here. You are a customer who pays to access a product. Your money gets you into a game, nothing more, nothing less. You are entitled to no more than the seat in the stands, and the quality of the on-ice product, let alone extra information about players, are not owed to you.
Like going to a movie, you can opt to never return, that is your voice as a customer, but you have no say in what goes on in the production studio, nor do you have a say in how the theatre chooses to run its operations, and nor does anyone feel entitled to any of that anyways. Some people choose to look at, and treat hockey differently, likely because of the emotional investment that being a fan involves.
Sometimes people seem to think that Melnyk takes their money and then goes and makes a team, builds a building, making the customer feel like they have actually financially invested in the product. This way of thinking is erroneous and leads to a false sense of entitlement we so often see.
The reality is that Melnyk invested vast sums of his own money to buy the team, and the arena, and pays players with his own money. We then come and pay to view the product of HIS investment. The only investment that we actually make is our time.
Obviously a better product and lots of player access makes the product more attractive, and this encourages people to become customers, like any business, but definitely, it is not owed. People feeling upset that they don't have disclosure pertaining to a player's injury really should apply some critical thought to the process; the advertising of the product, and the culture created around the product is very effective, so much so that you feel as though you are investing in it, being a part of it, which in the end makes it easier to part with your money. The NHL has a policy that they feel adds to the fan experience, and a better experience often means more customers.
The reality is that it is a company selling you a product, and professional sports works hard to create avid returning customers. This is fine, as there is definitely enjoyable returns on the expenditure of our time and money, but we should be careful when we start feeling like we are owed more than seats we buy, or the TV subscription we pay for, because in the end we are not, not at all, and any negative emotions that thinking this way cause, are wasted on a futile and essentially pointless struggle.
Unless of course fans petition the league to offer another service, full disclosure, and they choose to in order to expand the value-added experience. I for one don't see it happening as the NHLPA would not support forcing a universal change that could potentially render their members vulnerable when playing injured, or coming back from injury.
I know this isn't rocket science, but sometimes it's nice to have it all written out for easy consumption. I hope this doesn't come across as an attack on you personally Lari, It's not meant to be, but rather a personal commentary provoked by a small part of your post.
