Ice Hockey: Flyers take a flyer on Lindros
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WHEN it comes to touting its wares, the National Hockey League has traditionally lagged some distance behind baseball and American football. Now, though, the country bumpkin of the North American sports business fraternity is about to embark on a new campaign aiming to prove it is as anxious to make a financial killing as the rest.
The NHL's 76th season opens on Tuesday with two new teams, the Ottawa Senators and the Tampa Bay Lightning, sited in areas ideally placed to boost television revenue. The league, for its part, is negotiating a multi-million-dollar cable television contract that could see games being broadcast on some 60 million screens across the United States and Canada.
From a PR perspective, the decision to curb fighting - an element of the game felt by many to have prevented the sport from broadening its appeal - cannot hurt. Neither can Tampa Bay's heavily publicised try-out and subsequent signing of a female goalkeeper, Manon Rheaume, to a minor league contract.
Phil Esposito, the Lightning general manager, is adamant that this is more than a mere stunt. 'I really think she might one day play in the NHL,' he said after Rheaume had conceded two goals in last week's exhibition game against the St Louis Blues. 'But we'll never know if we don't give her a chance,' added Esposito, whose real gamble has been to try and sell pucks and skates to the sunshine state of Florida.
In the high-risk stakes, however, the Philadelphia Flyers are in gravest danger of a crash landing. In exchange for five experienced players and the little matter of dollars 15m (pounds 8.8m), they have acquired the services of the Canadian Olympic star, Eric Lindros, a 19-year-old who has yet to play in the NHL.
Bob Baer, the Flyers' vice-president for finance, acknowledges the potential pitfalls for a club who have failed to win the Stanley Cup since the mid-1970s. 'When you put all your eggs in one basket there are a lot of risks. But we think it's going to create a whole bunch of excitement.'
Hailed in some quarters as the finest prospect since the NHL's pre-eminent exponent, Mario Lemieux, joined the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1984, Lindros should have made his NHL debut last season. Having been drafted by the Nordiques, however, he refused to play in Quebec. Courtesy of a nifty piece of scheduling, Lemieux and Lindros will confront each other when the Penguins and the Flyers lock sticks on opening night.
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