Part two of three ORLANDO, Fla. – Once you’ve lured the fans in, the next step is to keep them coming back and to bring a few friends next time. Sounds like a simple proposition, right? In the world of minor league sports, nothing is simple or easy.
Regardless of the degree of difficulty, the Federal Hockey League is in the position of capitalizing on its successes of year one in order to keep the positive movement 
going through season two. Even with the momentum coming out of increased attendance in the playoffs, commissioner Don Kirnan, vice-commissioner Andrew “Sarge” Richards and league administrator Phil DeFranco had the task of figuring out how to keep the interest level high.
Naturally, the talent on the ice is what the fans come to see. However, in order to keep the playing field even and raise the stakes, the FHL voted at its Board of Governors meeting in June to make three alterations to its rules. One points directly at the playing rosters while the other two deal with twists to the standings and playoff format that will make things interesting.
A year ago, the FHL started off with rosters that held 17 weekly salaried players and a reserve taxi squad of six more. The six taxi squad players, who were paid $50 per game played, were meant as a security plan in the event teams needed a player due to injury as well as becoming recognizable parts of the squad.
Unfortunately, some teams misused the taxi squad, pulling in players who weren’t on the list. Others chose to skip replacing injured players, which would have required workers comp activity, preferring to pay them and just go with short rosters. It made for some unbalanced, even at times embarrassing game results.
To counter the misuse, the league revised its rules, giving the teams an 18th roster spot on game night and a two man taxi squad. The two extra players, according to Richards, will only count as one contract and get paid when they play. Additionally, each team will get ten one-game contracts to use for emergency game day fill-ins and ten three-game contracts for longer term replacements.
“We’ve given everybody the opportunity to manage their rosters and put 18 good players on the ice every game for 52 games worth,” Richards said. “We think we’ve learned in that respect and we think we came up with a good compromise.”
On the ice, every league’s goal is to have its teams battling down to the final day of the regular season for spots in the playoffs. A year ago, the FHL, not knowing how the teams would stack up from the outset, wanted to employ a first half / second half theory, thinking that teams that took longer to come together could be competitive in the later stages of the season. When the Binghamton franchise was forced to move to Cape Cod, the loss of games forced a change to using winning percentages based on the actual number of games played because the figures differed from team to team.
During the meetings, Richards was able to convince the Board of Governors that a change in calculating the standings could provide a spark of excitement as well as keeping every team in the hunt. His idea: use the Olympic three-point system.
For those not familiar with it, the Olympic system is fairly simple. Teams that win a game in regulation time get three points while the loser gets nothing. If the game goes to overtime or a shootout, the winner gets two points while the loser gets one. The theory behind it is that late in the year, a team can get hot and make up points in a hurry and if every team has that kind of a shot come the final games of the season, fan interest should remain sky high.
“We want to mathematically keep people in the hunt as long as possible,” Richards said.
An argument could be made that if a particular team runs out to a huge lead in the standings, they could breeze into the post season without much drama. That, Richards admitted, could happen but the use of the three-point system is more about the back end of the standings than it is about the top.
“If you’re 40 points up with 20 games to go in the two-point system or 60 points up with 20 games to go in the three-point system, it’s the same difference. With 20 games to go, you’ve got to win them all to catch them,” he said. “What really matters to us is not so much the first and second place teams because what do people get excited about come mid-January? The drive for the playoffs. We’re more concerned with five, six, seven and eight (place teams).”
DeFranco said that he thinks the fans will be extremely happy with the change, especially if post-season births hinge on a regulation win on the final night of the regular season.
“Just imagine, a win in overtime doesn’t do anything but a team has to win in regulation and it’s tied 3-3 with two minutes to go in the third period. I think playing six-on-five for the last two minutes or minute and a half – because you have to win the game (in regulation) because it doesn’t mean squat in overtime – trying to win the game (will be exciting),” he said. “If the last game of the season can come down to that, I think that three point game will make the fans excited and keep them coming back.”
Many hockey fans within the FHL footprint had the opportunity to experience the standings format at the World Junior Championships that were played in the Buffalo area not too long ago. Based on the positive response there, the FHL is certain that it will be received well by its fans. If there are any questions, Commissioner Kirnan said the league is more than willing to answer them and at the same time promote the FHL as a whole.
“It’ll give us an opportunity to explain the differences between what we’re trying to do and how we’re trying to do it,” he said. “I think it does give us something to talk about.”
When the FHL gets to the playoffs, the teams will find a different format than season one. With the increased number of teams in the league, a new system was needed and found it in one that was recently used in the Southern Professional Hockey League.
Six teams will qualify for the post-season. The top seed will play the sixth seed in a best-of-five series with the winner heading straight to the finals. The second place and fifth place teams will square off in a best-of-three series while the number three and four seeds will meet in a similar best-of-three. The winners of the short series will then meet in a best-of-three with the winner advancing to the best-of-seven finals against the winner of the one-six series.
A key component of the one-six series will be the top seed having its choice of a 2-2-1 format starting at home or a 2-3 setup beginning on the road. The higher-seed option was also extended to the shorter rounds. In the best-of-threes, the higher seed can opt for a 1-1-1 format which would begin in its home rink or go with a 1-2 starting on the road and having back-to-back games at home.
Richards said that several factors could come into play with the decision, especially if the Danville, Illinois team comes into play.
“We gave the higher seed that choice. Those things will be interesting managerial decisions. They’ll be calculating who their opponent is,” he said. “If it is Danbury and Brooklyn or New Jersey and Brooklyn, maybe the travel is insignificant. If it is Danville and Cape Cod, somebody’s going to put a little bit of time into it to figure out what’s to our real advantage.”
A major complaint that SPHL fans had with the playoff format was that a team could “play for the sixth spot” if they liked how they matched up with the top team. With an automatic spot in the finals on the line, they could choose to not expend any extra energy in the regular season knowing they could turn it on in the playoffs. Richards, a former coach himself, said that theory was nonsense, adding that when a six seed wins, it says more about the strength of the league overall.
“It’s only advantageous if you win. That’s one of the problems we all have as a coach. We all outsmart ourselves sometimes. The players are going to determine the outcome of the game for the most part,” he said. “The beauty of it and you’ve seen it in the SPHL is that the sixth place team has won. That’s because there’s such parity in the league. If we were fortunate enough to have that kind of parity, then I would consider ourselves blessed that we even had that and who won in that one-six wouldn’t make any difference.”
In the end, all of the changes create talk and talk creates buzz and in this case the buzz is a good thing.
“I think all these things, all they do is generate interest in everything the teams are doing in the league. All these things are discussion points – that’s why we’re talking about them – because they’re interesting to talk about,” Richards said. “Every time people are talking about you, they’re paying attention to you and the more attention we get, the better it is for everybody. They’re doing what we had hoped they would do and they’ll continue to do that because it’s not just the same as everybody else. People are going to argue. They’re going to either agree that it’s a great idea or they’re going to say you’re an idiot and you should have stuck with the old idea. In either case, you’ve got a lot of people talking about the FHL.”
Next: Year two and beyond…
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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