He’s back to that time of year; when thoughts of hockey begin to consume the attention of a small but passionate group of people referred to as poolies. The term poolies is the name given to those who obsessively participate in a form of gambling called pooling. Simply put, a group of people gets together and collects a sum of money. This money is held in trust to be given to the winner of the group at the end of the hockey season. Now sharing is nothing new. People have been doing this for decades for many sports, but it has seen a huge surge in popularity with hockey fans in recent years. The reason for this dramatic increase is twofold. First is the advent of the Internet, which has made statistical data access and distribution incredibly easy for those managing groups. Participants have instant access to statistics and results in real time through one of the many websites that host groups on the net. As a result, group participants remain engaged throughout the season with an active online community of poolies.
The second reason for this significant increase in the popularity of the grouping is what some might call the excessive expansion of the NHL since the 1980s. The expansion of the NHL had begun twenty years earlier and can be divided into three distinct periods at from the 1967/68 season. It was during this season that the end of the original era of the six was marked and the NHL changed forever.
The original six teams played a 70-game schedule beginning the last week of October and ending the first week of April, a six-month season that does not include a month of playoff games. When all was said and done and the Stanley Cup awarded, the season did not last more than 7 months for the two teams that reached the finals. In the 1967/68 season, the league doubled in size to 12 teams and played a 74-game schedule beginning in mid-October and ending in early April. The playoffs lasted just a little longer, so the season was kept to a reasonable 7-month span from start to finish.
The only significant change that occurred as a result of this first expansion was that teams were more geographically dispersed; two of which were clear across the continent on the west coast of North America. Before this, teams played in cities on or near the east coast of the United States and travel was quick and easy, relatively speaking. As a result, fatigue due to travel was not as big of a problem as it is today. It would be safe to say that it was at this point in NHL history that the way players approached the season began to change and self-preservation began to become a factor in the way players approached their game. regular season.
The second significant expansion was during the 79/80 season when the NHL welcomed 4 new teams from the defunct WHA. It was with this expansion that the world met the Edmonton Oilers and hockey took on a new dimension thanks to the efforts of players like Wayne Gretzke, Mark Messier and Jari Curry. The league had now grown to 21 teams playing an 80-game regular season during the traditional 7-month period. To accommodate this new 21-team league, the playoffs had to be changed to accommodate a 16-team tournament and the new NHL played well into May.
The third and final expansion was the brainchild of new NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. Bettman had been drafted out of his NBA position in 1993 in hopes that he could improve the league’s financial prospects. With little to no understanding of the game, Bettman felt that further expansion in the United States was the only way to “improve” the league and increase revenue. Under Bettman’s leadership, the league quickly grew from 21 teams to a whopping 30 franchises in 2001.
Today, as we eagerly await the start of the 2006/07 season, the teams face a grueling 83-game schedule between October 4 and April 8. This program will see teams travel across North America from east to west, north to south. Once teams have worked their way through the regular season, they are faced with the prospect of a two-month whirlwind of games to determine the winner of the Stanley Cup. This year, the playoffs will begin on April 11 and end on June 11. At the end of the seasons, the two teams that reach the final horn will have played 9 months of hockey and more than 100 games in a single season.
So what does the league’s expansion have to do with the group’s growing popularity? Well, as a result of the NHL’s expansion, players have changed the way they approach their season. Whether it’s a lack of interest, self-preservation, or perhaps both, players often treat the regular season more like a series of preseason games. The season is long and the playoffs are tough. As a result, teams are forced to choose which games in the regular season warrant a collective best effort.
This approach to the season often results in half-hearted efforts between individual players and even entire teams, depending on the circumstances surrounding a given game. As a result, fans are often disappointed and unchanged during the season because they are left with something less than a professional product to cheer on.
The hockey group is simply the fans’ response to what can sometimes be an unexciting or satisfying regular season. It gives fans something to cheer for, in addition to the often lackluster performance of their favorite team. By choosing a team of their own, from the rosters of many different teams, they no longer have to rely on the performance of the home team to entertain them. Grouping gives the individual some ownership and control over their role as a fan. The team they have created becomes the main reason for joy during the regular season.
Whether to pool or not is a no-brainer to many and there are undoubtedly a number of reasons for its popularity. However, the correlation between expansion and increased popularity of pooling cannot be dismissed as a mere coincidence. The game has gone mundane for much of the regular season and fans need something to cheer on the midseason duldums. The group has done just that and more.
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