Credit Where It's Due

I'll be the first to tell you that I rarely ever celebrate anything that the IIHF does. Yes, they've done some good things to push international hockey to a better place, but they often kowtow to bigger forces like the NHL and the IOC when it comes to important moments and events. With one of those two - specifically, the IOC - allowing Russia and Belarus back into the upcoming Olympic Games, it seemed like the IOC had once again turned the screws on the IIHF who has oversight on the Olympic hockey events. Tape screech sound effect, though, because it seems the IIHF not only has teeth, but is willing to bite the hand of the IOC with their announcment today regarding the two countries.

We'll go back to 2022 when the International Ice Hockey Federation banned both Russia and Belarus from international hockey events "until further notice" after Russia invaded Ukraine, sparking a war that has lasted longer than the six weeks that Vladimir Putin had predicted. The IIHF also pulled the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship from Novosibirsk, Russia, further backing their commitment to upholding member nations participating in events as long as they were in good standing on the world stage.

2023 saw the IIHF uphold the ban as the IIHF expressed "security concerns for players, competition staff and fans" over including Russia and Belarus at international hockey events. IIHF president Luc Tardif stated bluntly, "Too many risks" when asked if the two countries would return, and I was again was relieved that the IIHF was taking its founding principles seriously. I'll give them credit.

2024 saw more of the same from the IIHF as the ban was extended again, stating in a release that "it is not yet safe to reincorporate the Russian and Belarusian teams back into IIHF competitions". Those security concerns would extend the ban through 2025's events, and it would carry into 2026 where the IIHF saw its icy stance start to thaw.

It's hard to imagine that the IIHF was going to look at Russian and Belarus as being welcomed at any event, but the IIHF was willing to look at each situation on a case-by-case basis. The IIHF made it clear that this decision "explicitly confirmed that this does not mean that Russia has automatically been reintegrated" and that the decision to "reintegrate Belarus at the under-18 men's and women's events and the women's Division IV world championship" would move forward.

With the war between Russia and Ukraine still ongoing, on what planet did the IIHF think this was close to being a good idea?

Sometimes, a bad idea just needs some real world testing to reverse the decision made, and the IIHF did that on Thursday, stating "that Russia will not be allowed to participate in... IIHF Championships during the 2026-2027 season due to ongoing safety, security and sporting integrity concerns". As much as I dislike Belarus' inclusion, keeping Russia out is the right decision considering their ongoing war with Ukraine. This was the right move based on world events.

I've seen people on social media already criticizing the IIHF over this decision, saying that hockey is less without Russia's participation. To that end, I say you're welcome to your opinion despite it being completely ignorant of what the people of Ukraine - also an IIHF member! - are going through in this war they didn't want. People claim that Russian athletes have no say in what their military is doing, but each member of Russia's hockey player will wear the Russian Ice Hockey Federation's jersey as a national symbol.

Indirectly, that's support of Russia's war efforts because of how tightly hockey is tied to Russian culture and how the federation is funded.

If Russia wanted their athletes participating in the World Juniors or World Championships, they could easily do that by abandoning their war efforts in Ukraine and leaving the Ukrainian territory immediately. It would take some time for the world to trust that the Russians were serious about their intentions to rejoin the majority of the planet in trying to be good neighbours, but at least they could find some solace in that their athletes would be back on international stages where they could compete. But that's not going to happen.

If there's one thing that today's world lacks more than anything else, it's empathy for others. When one considers the plight of the Ukrainian people who wanted nothing to do with this war, but are forced to defend themselves, we might want to take a stand against the bully known as Russia. Hockey doesn't matter when it comes to helping a country defeat evil, but keeping them out of international hockey tournaments is a good message to send to Russia that they're not welcome at the party while being bullying a smaller country.

It doesn't take a lot to be a morally-sound person, and the IIHF deserves a little credit for making the right decision here. For as profitable as future IIHF tournaments could be with Russia involved, being a better organization will have longer-lasting effects than the short-term gain of letting warmongering Russia back into the game.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 723

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, is diving into the financial side of the game tonight with a significant look at what's been happening over the last week when it comes to hockey and media. You likely know about Amazon getting into Canadian hockey broadcasts, but there are a number of other money-related stories from the hockey world that need some discussion tonight. We'll dive into those stories because, as fans, our hosts see problems on the horizon in the game that need addressing tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason will take a look at the deal between Rogers and Amazon and discuss why it happened, why Amazon's day moved, and what we might be seeing as a bigger problem in hockey. Beyond that discussion, they'll chat about Columbus cutting its radio play-by-play in favour of simulcasted TV play-by-play, Hamilton Hammers ticket prices, a new Hall-of-Famer, a contest coming to a close, and the insanity that will be travel for one league this season. There's a lot of topics tonight that will have a money theme to them, so you'll want to be ready for an hockey's untrained finanical audit by two radio hosts on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT on one of 101.5 FM, Channel 718 on MTS TV, or via UMFM.com!

If you live outside Winnipeg and want to listen, we have options! The UMFM website's streaming player works well if you want to listen online. We also recommend Radio Garden if you need an easy-to-use online stream. If you're more of an app person, we recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store or Google Play Store.

If you have questions, you can email all show queries and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! I'm here to listen to you, so make your voice heard! And because both Teebz and Jason are on the butterfly app where things are less noisy, you can find Teebz here and Jason here on Bluesky!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason chat about financial bubbles, bad deals, bad broadcasts, inflated prices, honoured players, elimination processes, unnecessary travel, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Another Dumb Idea

As a guy who watched a hockey team make the inexplicable decision to simply walk away from a radio contract that had brought the team some popularity in its market, it was hard to understand what the Columbus Blue Jackets were trying to achieve by not renewing the contract of radio play-by-play broadcaster Bob McElligott. McElligott had 17 years of experience calling games on the radio, and he was a trusted voice for Blue Jackets fans. Starting this season, that voice will be absent as the team looks to simulcast its TV broadcast on the radio which may lead to no radio in the future.

As per the announcement today, "all Blue Jackets game broadcasts will be simulcast across television and radio platforms, allowing fans to experience the same live game coverage whether watching on television or listening on the radio". Steve Mears and Jody Shelley will be calling the action on both mediums now, but this idea seems to forget that these two mediums are significantly different in how the actual broadcasts sound. TV is not radio, so this could go poorly.

As you likely know from watching hockey on TV, the action on the TV doesn't always have to be described because you, as the viewer, can see it. It's part of the reason why every ticket to a game doesn't come with a guy who sits besides you and describes the action. You're able to process what's happening on the ice because you can see it, and the TV broadcast will call the play and fill in the analysis gaps.

You don't get that same benefit with radio because there is no visual component. The audio hardly lends itself to knowing what's happening on the ice, so the radio play-by-play person does a lot more talking to describe what's happening on the ice at all times. There's a signficant difference in how the game sounds when there are big gaps between plays called on radio whereas TV can handle that with its visuals. That's why TV-to-radio simulcasts don't work.

If the Columbus Blue Jackets are letting Bob McElligott as a cost-cutting move, there are likely hundreds of other things they could have done to save a few bucks because there is no way their product will sound better on the radio by using the TV broadcast as its play-by-play. No longer will be there be different analysis done by different people because the single broadcast removes those other voices who bring a different perspective and different experiences to the game. Losing those voices doesn't make the game better.

My hope is that Bob McElligott gets picked up by another team because he was very good at his job. For the handful of games that I heard him call, he was always professional, sounded well-prepared, and called the game with passion. Wherever he lands, he'll bring those traits to his new job, but I really hope he finds his way back to a hockey broadcast booth. His talents make the game sound great!

Oscar Wilde wrote in The Picture of Dorian Gray, "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." It appears that the Columbus Blue Jackets are fully prepared to test that famous quotation this season.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Pennies On The Dollar

I'll always be the last guy to credit Rogers Communications with anything intelligent based on how they spend their money, but there are certain things that happen where one has to ask the obvious questions that go with what transpired. Rogers was busy today announcing that they had reached a deal with Amazon Prime Video to have Bezos' streaming service exclusively broadcast Wednesday night, regular-season, national NHL games and early-round Stanley Cup Playoff series in both English and French for the next twelve years. And for as greedy as Rogers is know to be, this deal seems like buyer's remorse.

Amazon Prime Video will now have the exclusive rights to Wednesday night where they'll compete with TNT Sports for hockey fans' eyes, but you can add another streaming service to your collection of bills after this announcement. For $99 annually, you can watch Amazon's collection of Wednesday games they choose to show on their national broadcast which will see "at least 26 national regular-season NHL games, beginning on Wednesday, September 30, available only on Prime Video in Canada at no additional cost to Prime members."

Add that onto your $350 annual fee for Sportsnet+ and any fees to watch games that the NHL might be producing for the four teams - Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets, Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues - who signed on with their centralized production group, and simply watching hockey on TV is becoming a thing of the past. With everything being streamed on multiple services, we're back to the cable model that everyone tried to abandon a few years ago.

The title of this article isn't about that, though. Instead, it's a question that goes to the very heart of Rogers' 12-year, $11-billion deal they signed with the NHL because you'd think a company with five network sports stations and a streaming service that recently raised its annual price would want more content that Canadians love.

If Rogers was looking to sell one night of their annual $917-million deal, it would clock in around $131 million. Of course, there were no details on the financial deal that Amazon made with Rogers to acquire the rights to Wednesday night games, but you know they aren't paying $131 million annually for those rights. If they are, they need their heads checked as much as those people making decisions for Rogers. With "at least 26 national regular-season NHL games", Amazon isn't spending $5 million per game for those rights.

Again, I have no proof that they aren't spending $5 million per game, but there's no way Amazon makes money if they are. And if they spent less than $5 million per game, that means that Rogers sold Wednesday night rights for pennies on the dollar. On the low chance that Amazon did spend more than $5 million per game, why wouldn't they just buy the regional rights to teams who need regional coverage for much less? I know at least one French-speaking province and team who doesn't have a regional broadcaster for next year.

Again, it begs the question as to why Rogers sold off Wednesday nights at all if Amazon thinks it can make money with those broadcasts. If Amazon could generate enough subscription and ad revenue from those broadcasts, Rogers wouldn't let someone else benefit from those rights when they owned them. That makes me think that they aren't seeing the returns they want, and they'll trying to recover some money by ridding themselves of one night of games per week where they generate the least revenue every week.

And let's not forget that Amazon had Monday night games last season they had bought from Rogers! Why switch nights for the next twelve years unless they discovered that Mondays can be profitable?

No one is going to come out and explain why Rogers and Amazon made this deal from each side's perspective, but if you think that Rogers is generating more than a billion dollars per year while broadcasting hockey, I have barrels of snake oil to sell you. This is the first sign that the financial bubble the hockey world lives in might be close to bursting based on how that financial model plays out.

Economist Hyman P. Minsky's research identifies five bubble phases: displacement, boom, euphoria, profit-taking, and panic, explaining the progression from excitement to market collapse. The NHL went through its displacement phase with the hirng of Gary Bettman in the 1990s as it changed rules, added new teams, and marketed everything it could. The boom phase saw more fans gain access to things to which they never had access before, pushing the NHL into its euphoria phase where everything could be monetized with the NHL forecasting that the revenue will not diminish. That leads us to the profit-taking phase where everyone is making as much money as they can as fast as they can, forgetting that money and revenue streams are finite. All that's left after this phase is panic.

Rogers owns something that should be an asset, but the value of that asset is less than what Rogers paid for it, making it a debt. The bubble formed when asset prices surged far above their intrinsic value thanks to speculative market prices that the NHL created thanks to its always-rising economic forecast. And now that the prices are far too high for most people's budgets, revenues will begin to dry up and the bubble will burst, causing significant financial losses and economic problems for years to come. Rogers should be worried.

Of course, Rogers could sell other days to networks and streaming services to cut their losses, but I get the sense that ego and pride will stand in the way of making deals with Bell Media or CraveTV. Rogers has deep enough pockets to weather the losses they may incur as long as their shareholders are ok with it, so I'd expect more price increases for Sportsnet cable channels and their streaming service before they sell off other days. After all, someone will pay their insane prices to watch hockey, right? Revenue is all that matters.

With the costs to watch hockey from the comfort of your own home skyrocketing, with ticket prices at an all-time high in all markets, with merchandise prices higher than ever before, and with equipment and ice-time pricing rising faster than the temperature in Death Valley, hockey is standing on a dangerous cliff where they are close to financially alienating the middle-class fan. The NHL isn't trying to grow the game as much as they're trying to grow their bottom line and hockey-related revenues, so don't be surprised if people start finding their entertainment elsewhere this winter.

It's hard to like the world's best hockey league when all it does is treat its fans like ATMs, so maybe it's time to move on. Like a good investor, it's better to cut your losses and get out before one falls into moral and financial ruin. Just don't say you weren't warned.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

TBC: Cutting Edge

I'll be the first to admit that I've likely forgotten more about hockey than what I know. That's not to say that I should stop learning, but it does reinforce the importance to keep learning and reading about the game. I enjoy the history of the game when presented in a fun way, player biographies often bring insight, and I'm always looking for something that will give me better understanding of how the game is presented. Thanks to Arsenal Pulp Press, I was given an opportunity to read a book that has yet to hit bookstore shelves about a topic I admittedly have very little knowledge. Teebz's Book Club is proud to review Cutting Edge: Hockey as Queer Culture, written by Daniel Gawthrop and published by Arsenal Pulp Press. Gawthrop examines the game from every angle when it comes to LGBTQ+ culture in hockey, and I feel that this book could help the hockey world understand its own shortcomings with respect to the LGBTQ+ community that Gawthrop puts under the microscope with this book.

From the Arsenal Pulp Press website, "Daniel Gawthrop (he/him) is the author of six non-fiction books, including The Trial of Pope Benedict and The Rice Queen Diaries (both Arsenal Pulp Press), and one novel, Double Karma (Cormorant Books). A co-founder of the Cutting Edges, Vancouver's LGBTQ+ hockey association, he has written extensively about hockey for numerous publications. He lives in New Westminster, BC." Gawthrop also plays hockey with the Cutting Edges hockey team, worked as a reporter for the Hope Standard and Vancouver Sun, freelanced as a journalist, and served as a communications representative for the Canadian Union of Public Employees in his storied and illustrious career. He continues to advocate for LGBTQ+ causes and events.

Before I get into discussing Cutting Edge, I want to make it clear that I, as a cisgender, white, straight male, wasn't sure what I was going to read when I started flipping pages. My anger towards the NHL and their defence of players who spoke out about Pride Night festivities still burns when the NHL pumps its own tired about inclusivity while my exposure to women's hockey where same-sex relationships are often seen has allowed me to gain better understanding of some of the challenges that gay and lesbian hockey players face, but my depth of that understanding is barely surface deep as I haven't faced the same discrimination or had the same experiences as the LGBTQ+ community in hockey. My hope was that Cutting Edge would build on the admittedly little knowledge I had. That's where we'll begin.

Gawthrop doesn't waste any time in Cutting Edge by looking at one of the most well-known hockey figures in history in Hobey Baker by turning his story on its side by connecting the dots that could lead one to seeing Baker in a different light. While the evidence is there to possibly have one of hockey's best players as a gay man, no one has ever said that about Baker. Could Baker have been the first homosexual man in the sport's history? There's enough evidence to make one wonder based upon what's presented in Chapter One!

Gawthrop takes us through the history of hockey's whiter-than-white past, introducing the reader to where Gawthrop began to take an interest in the game. I won't give way which team's grace and beauty dazzled the young writer, but it would be two players who captured Gawthrop's attention for very different reasons, giving him enough thought-provoking material to fill early chapters in Cutting Edge!

Gawthrop does an excellent job in introducing readers to the Cutting Edges hockey team, exposing why many gay men move away from hockey while growing up, displaying the often-toxic hypermasculinity found in the game, examining the constant brutal ways masculinity is portrayed in the game, and providing enough evidence of each of these issues through the first hundred pages that you may question where else Gawthrop can go in his writing. From there, Gawthrop showed how he found his niche in the hockey world, how others navigated the hockey world despite numerous negative stereotypes shown towards the LGBTQ+ community, and how the NHL world struggled to accept the LGBTQ+ community when facing it.

I was often left amazed and, quite frankly, proud of how the LGBTQ+ community handled the gatekeeping and toxic masuclinity it faced throughout hockey's existence, particularly at the NHL level. Gawthrop himself faced a number of realizations as he also grew as a person and writer to have a better understanding of the game's nuances during this time, and his reflection upon himself is walked in-step with the reader as issues like sexual abuse, hazing, and mental health situations are better accepted and understood.

Reading the chapters about women's hockey growing and having more BIPOC players in both men's and women's hockey, Gawthrop faded into the background, allowing others to have a more prominent voice. This was evident in Chapter 16: Breaking the Hockey Binary where Gawthrop spoke with both Harrison Browne and Jessica Platt, two transgender players, about their experiences and what they had to overcome to be professional hockey players. It was here that Gawthrop realized the Cutting Edges had been describing itself as a "gay men's hockey team" despite being welcome to all, and trans player Sam Punzo didn't know if he'd be welcome, stating,

"'I think when you don't institutionalize [who the orgnaization is for] and you don't have language in it, it's left to interpretation, and it kind of creates a bit of ambiguity,' he explained. ''Gay men's hockey,' even though the intention behind it was to be inclusive, does send a message that it's not inclusive. In order to clarify, someone sould have to reach out or know somebody to be like, 'Oh, no, everyone's welcome.' Well, you'd have to know that. So, yeah, I think the [wording] change was huge, and times change. The description now, thirty years from now might not work too, right? But that's why we evolve and contonue to grow.'"

That comment from Punzo stuck with me as I finished reading Cutting Edge because Punzo is correct in that our language will change over the next thirty years as we become more knoweldgeable and have a better understanding of how to describe people who don't fit into a preconceived category. We should want to evolve, to change, and to be better so that everyone has a chance to be their best selves.

After all, aren't we told that hockey is supposed to be for everyone?

Overall, Cutting Edge: Hockey as Queer Culture is a book that doesn't shy away from the hard questions needed to be asked about sexuality, gender, and how they fit into the game of hockey. Daniel Gawthrop doesn't demand the reader to abandon one's beliefs as much as he simply asks the reader to have an open mind about the discussions he generates. It took me about a week to get through Cutting Edge simply because I had to put the book down at points to process what I had read, but these moments allowed me reflect on the topics that Gawthrop framed. Because this book is another important step in understanding what hockey can do and where hockey can be better for everyone, Cutting Edge: Hockey as Queer Culture absolutely deserves the Teebz's Book Club Seal of Approval!

Cutting Edge: Hockey as Queer Culture will be released on September 8, 2026, and you can order a copy of the book from the linked Arsenal Pulp Press site above. It took me picking this book a few times to get through all the chapters that Daniel Gawthrop wrote, and the topics in those chapters are intended for a mature audience with the occasional unsavoury word used. In saying that, Cutting Edge should be read by everyone in the game of hockey in order gain a better understanding of how to be inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!