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Editorial: Fox Makes Major Mistake with SuperPuck

by
Jim Iovino

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Excerpt from article "It's the end of the world as we know it..." as published in issue 17 of Le Coq Sportif: guide to hockey:

"... From now on, real hockey fans are going to have to sit through some PR firm's crazy ideas and overenthusiastic thinking on how to sell the game to those who have no clue as to what it's all about. ..."

I didn't want to have to say this, but I feel I must. I told you so.

Those wacky people at Fox are at it again. Last year it was the fightin' robots that were supposed to draw millions of people from all walks of life to Fox to see the two machines beat the crap out of each other after one hockey team scored on another. This year, it's the SuperPuck.

The latest innovation by the same people that have brought you "Married, With Children" and "Herman's Head," the SuperPuck is a specially designed puck made to feel no different for the players than an ordinary puck. What makes it "super" is the infrared emitters placed inside the puck which, with a special camera, can make the puck do some interesting things. Like create a blue haze around the puck at all times during play, or leave a red comet tail behind when the puck is shot or passed at a speed of around 75 mph.

Interesting, yes. Necessary? No. Annoying? Definitely.

Upon first seeing the puck on TV during the All-Star Game, hockey fans across North America sighed deeply and shook their heads as the game took one step farther away from being a sport and a step closer to becoming pure entertainment. "Woah, it's a blue fuzz," said Greg, the guy across the hall, after he caught his first glimpse of the SuperPuck. Dave Miller, student at Case Western Reserve University and hockey nut said, "Damn that glowing puck... they's all crazy!" While the rest of North America might have said it a little differently, the meaning is still the same. Hockey fans just don't like the new puck.

While the ability to immediately show how fast a shot was during a broadcastis a good idea, the rest of the gimmicks Fox employed were true garbage. The SuperPuck, in essence, is another attempt by Fox to throughly trash the NHL and ruin any kind of honor or dignity that was ever bestowed upon the great international game. Remember that legendary cinematic classic "Caddyshack 2"? Good ol' Jackie Mason turned a once-proud country club into a PGA-regulation putt-putt golf course complete with a circus-type atmosphere. The same thing is happening to the NHL.

The reasoning behind the design of the new puck is because there are some people out there (will the two of you please step forward) who claim that they can't always find the puck on their TV screen and it lessens their enjoyment of the game.

Hogwash.

Let's break this problem down and see where the problem really lies. These people say they can't see the black puck on the white ice. Black on white. Total opposites. Do not blend together in any way. Very easy to distinguish. So what's the problem?

I know, I know... the problem must lie in the fact that the usual camera angle for a hockey game doesn't show the full ice surface. There's a small portion of the rink hidden at the bottom of the screen that blocks out where the puck is. That must be the hang-up point. Millions of people don't watch the game of hockey because they can't see 1/20th of the rink. Wrong. A simple suggestion for those who have this problem: Take a look at which way the players are skating, where the pile of bodies are located, and that's where you'll find the puck. It's really quite simple. Zippy the Wonder Chimp can do it, so you can too.

But I do understand that the action of a hockey game is nothing but fast-paced excitement. There are times when the puck seems to go faster than the naked eye can follow it. Even the people working the cameras can't get it in their sights all the time. But that's where hockey knowledge must come into play. Good anticipation allows the viewer to see the action unfold as it happens without having to worry about where the puck is at on the ice. Knowing is half the battle. Being babied isn't, which is what Fox is trying to do with their SuperPuck telecasts. The only way the viewer is going to learn about the game is if he or she watches enough hockey to become familiar with what's going on on the ice. A real hockey fan knows that watching the puck isn't the best way to watch a game anyway. Watching the players skate is the key. Find the open man on the ice and it's a sure bet that the puck will end up on the stick of that player.

But the people at Fox wouldn't know anything about that. They're not real hockey fans. They're just broadcasting games because there's money to be made in the NHL. Perhaps they should take a lesson from their friends at the CBC, who have successfully been showing National Hockey League games to an entire country on Saturday nights for 44 years. That's 44 years without a single complaint about not being able to see a hockey puck.

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Le Coq Sportif: Guide to Hockey © Copyright 1996 Le Coq Sportif