RAZOR AT THE HALF

I don't know how interesting this is for you but I find it intriguing.

On Sunday I was crippled by back spasms. (No doubt brought on by my ongoing “carrying” of our broadcast). A normal human would have been at a hospital, a horse would have been put down.

So, despite the excruciating pain, I found a tolerable position and did a little time-coding work.

I've always wanted to juxtapose an NHL game with an NFL game and compare the time it takes the game to be played, as well as the time each sport takes during segment changeovers (intermissions, halftime and ends of quarters)

What I found was that an ice pack and a hardwood floor created a state in which I no longer thought about being euthanized, and also that the NFL doesn't seem to share the NHL's belief that the sooner you can get your product off the airwaves, the better.

The Titans-Chargers game ate up 3 hours, 1 minute, and 10 seconds of CBS's valuable time.

The glazed-eyes inducing Stars-Red Wings game on Saturday afternoon seemed to take f-o-r-e-v-e-r but was actually over in just under 2 hours and 17 minutes.

That's a difference of 44 minutes.

I agree, why would the NHL need another quarter of an hour to brand itself and promote the sports individuals?

Perhaps of even bigger interest was the so called downtime within the game. You know, the intermissions, etc.

The NFL game broke for halftime, and then 13 minutes later kicked-off the second half. Thirteen minutes! And their stoppages at the end of the first and third quarters were around 150 seconds.

By contrast the Stars game featured the traditional two intermissions, both chalk-full of frivolity and info, and both lasting about 18 minutes. Add em' together and that's 36 minutes of "not hockey".

Many years ago Ed Goren and David Hill at Fox openly questioned why hockey has this two intermission format. In their view, why would you tell your viewers to go away twice per game? At the time I felt offended that this Aussie and American duo would blasphemously suggest changing the way hockey has always been.

How dare they!

Its always been this way.

Always should be.

Right?

Well...13 years later...I'm not so sure that them boys at Fox weren't just crazy like a fox.

Think about it, if we could trim the down time and boost the action, replay, storytelling and commercial time, wouldn't that help hockey, and more specifically -- the NHL?

The NFL broke for a combined 18 minutes at the end of timed segments of the game. The NHL game was interrupted for 36 minutes.

The NFL game was 3 hours long. The NHL tilt was approximately 2 and a quarter.

I'll do the math for you. Two hours and forty-two minutes of the NFL broadcast was the game, while only an hour and forty minutes of the hockey broadcast was hockeytime.

You can tell a lot of stories, show a lot of replay action and sell a lot of product in an hour.

My thoughts on what the NHL should adopt:

• Go to two 30 minute halves. (I learned during All-star weekend last year, that it is a natural internal debate whether to wait 18 minutes and stay for that 3rd period or just skip out at the 2nd intermission, beat the traffic, and be fresher tomorrow.)
• Dry-scrape 15 minutes into the game and 15 minutes after the half (That way the ice gets "resurfaced" three times per game instead of only twice) Two zambonis should be able to get that done in five minutes. Hire Ricky Bobby if need be.
• Cut the intermission on-ice games and shenanigans to the bare minimum, or better still eliminate them altogether. (Use the multi-million dollar multi-media screens to their full potential instead)
• Make "halftime" 15 minutes long. (That's enough time to wet-zamboni the ice)
• I know this is only 11 minutes shorter than today's combined breaks but its also only 8 minutes longer than the NFLs resets.
• Another fine by-product would be the ability to update viewers with video packages and interviews three times a game instead of just twice.

11 minutes doesn't seem like much but put that back into game action, adopt only one major intermission, and stop hurrying up the re-joins from commercial breaks and you would have a more interesting, time-smart, and visually compelling 2 ½ hour infomercial for the team, the sport, and the league.

Razor has again spoken.