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NHL looks to Europe and outdoor roots this season

The NHL will enter uncharted territory and return to its outdoor roots during a new season that begins tomorrow with the Anaheim Ducks starting their Stanley Cup defense on European ice.

The Ducks and Los Angeles Kings travel to London to play the first NHL regular season game in Europe as the NHL bids to gain a foothold in a market which has also attracted serious attention from the NFL and NBA.

"We've got to look at extending our brand outside of North America, whenever we can," Ducks general manager Brian Burke told reporters. "We think that to take regular season games to Europe is a milestone for our league.

"Is it ideal from a preparation standpoint? No. But I think when the league asks you to go, you go," he said.

The Ducks are coming off their first Stanley Cup in franchise history with some uncertainty as the apparent departure of two veterans leaves them with some fine tuning to do.

If the Ducks are to go on another championship run in the 2007-2008 National Hockey League season they will need the same combination of meanness, leadership, grit and scoring that evoked memories last season of the Broad Street Bullies of the 1970s.

But a big part of that may have been lost when playoff hero and captain Scott Niedermayer and top scorer Teemu Selanne didn't show up for training camp.

Selanne led the Ducks in goals (48) and Niedermayer in assists (54). More importantly Anaheim will miss their leadership in the dressing room.

Chris Pronger is one of the top five skilled defensemen in the league but has yet to prove he has any tangible leadership qualities.

"As coaches, you can't live in the wish world," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "You can only deal with what you have.

"We have to move on without them. It's a cruel part of the business. We can't allow these issues to take any focus away from our task at hand."

The defending champs open the new National Hockey League regular season in style this weekend in London, where they will play a two-game series against the Los Angeles Kings.

Besides Selanne and Conn Smythe (playoff MVP) trophy winner Niedermayer, Anaheim also lost rising star Dustin Penner, who was lured away by the Edmonton Oilers and a five-year, US$21 million dollar contract.

Even without those three, Anaheim still has to be considered one of the favorites to win the Stanley Cup. The NHL hasn't had a repeat winner in 10 years, but with Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Andy McDonald they will have no problem keeping the production up.

While the European adventure will mark the grand opening to a new campaign, the health of the game in North America is of more immediate concern to the NHL, with salaries on a dizzying rise and already minuscule US television ratings sinking.

The NHL continues to flourish in hockey-mad Canada, but in the US the league is in danger of being dropped from the so-called "Big Four" status it shares with American football, baseball and basketball.

A defiant NHL commissioner Gary Bettman points to last season's record attendance and revenue figures as reasons for optimism but teams continue to lose millions of dollars despite a salary cap imposed after a bitter labour dispute that wiped out the entire 2004-2005 season.

In the two seasons since, the salary cap has shot from US$39 million to US$50.3 million with wages climbing back close to pre-lockout levels.
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