Bob Ryan is a longtime sports columnist for the Boston Globe. His particular focus is generally basketball, but he writes about everything, including the Boston Bruins. So with the Bruins returning from their (mostly) Western road swing with a 6-0 record, and Thursday night defeating Tampa Bay 2-1 to claim sole possession of second place in the Eastern Conference, it’s not surprising he was on the job. 

Ryan dutifully chronicled Thursday night’s game here, noting that the last time the Bruins had had such a successful road trip was in the 1971-72 season, when they last won the Stanley Cup. Then he dropped this little bombshell:

… the question right now is whether or not this team is worth a serious emotional investment on the part of any Bruins fan.

Um, what?

A “serious emotional investment”? Isn’t that, y’know, what being a fan is all about? Isn’t that the whole point? What kind of “fan” studies the standings, sees a seven-game win streak, and says to him/herself, “hmmm, well, they’re winning, looks like they have a shot at the Stanley Cup, I guess I’ll be a fan now. Say, who’s this Krejci fellow? And how do you pronouce that?”

No. Those aren’t fans. They’re bandwagon-jumpers. Or what hard-core Red Sox fans cynically dubbed “pink hats,” the people who climbed aboard when the Red Sox won their first World Series in 2004 and suddenly became Fashionable.

Of course, this doesn’t just happen in Boston. When the Blackhawks won the Cup last spring, out of the hundreds of thousands (millions?) clogging the streets of Chicago for the parade, how many of those folks, do you think, had stuck with that team through thick and thin, suffered through the bad times, watched the drafts in which they selected Kane and Toews, dared to hope and cheer and dream?

Most importantly, how much did that parade mean to those fans, who never lost faith?

Nobody’s going to turn away bandwagon fans. They fill the arena, they create a buzz, they encourage the players (everyone likes to be loved and talked about). I for one am happy to welcome anyone who wants to be a Bruins fan.

But, y’know, there’s something to be said for swimming through bitter waters until you reach the sweet. You simply can’t appreciate having without going through the wanting, the dreaming, the hoping. When, someday (hopefully soon), the Bruins win the Stanley Cup, my tears — and those of my fellow black-and-gold faithful — will be all the more blessed, because we didn’t “decide to make a serious emotional investment,” we were there already. Fans — real fans – keep the faith.   

 Photo from boston.com

Not so fast, you! Glory be, ya’ll as (some) Southerners might say. (Probably not, but in the popular imagination, that’s what we would say.)

Is this a time of trepidation for Atlanta Thrashers fans? Should we be afraid (once more) that the Thrashers will be moving? Is the report out of New York correct? Are the Thrashers (and Hawks!) for sale again? It’s been rumored for some time that one or both franchises (and beautiful Philips Arena) could be on sale. Now, cue Jim Balsillie: Back up the moving van, The Thrashers are for sale! Let the rumors fly! But before you go crazy, do read the Atlanta ownership group’s statement:

As has been shared publicly for more than a year, we are interested in finding minority investors and have engaged a firm to assist us in that effort. We have no plans to move either team, and remain committed to the Hawks, the Thrashers, Philips Arena and the city of Atlanta.

Now that we’ve done due diligence, let’s assume the team is for sale, there are several reasons it would be difficult, though not impossible, to extract the Thrashers from Atlanta, the most important one being the naming rights agreement with Philips. It requires both an NHL and NBA franchise playing in the building. As with any contract, there are likely some ways out, but those ways would be quite expensive.

There are lucrative sponsorships to be considered, as well as long-term leases on luxury boxes that were signed with assumption that both hockey and basketball would be played in Philips Arena.

Atlanta IS a Hockey City

There are numerous reasons that Gary Bettman is right in his desire and commitment to make hockey work in “non-traditional” markets. Atlanta, contrary to what many believe, is a fantastic hockey city. It’s a city with a metro area of close to 5.5 million. It’s a city with deep pockets and a great, great many of those, ya know, hockey-loving Northerners who have relocated down South. It’s got a lot of Southern hockey-loving people too — don’t let the popular image of what Atlanta is (and isn’t) fool you. The problem has been lackadaisical ownership, the NHL lockout (which came at a horrible time for burgeoning franchises), and unfortunately, the economic downturn, which hit some cities worse than others.

When the Thrashers ice a quality, winning team, fans come. That’s been shown in the past. You are lying to yourself if you think Atlanta is the only place where fans don’t show up to see losing teams. Remember the Pittsburgh Penguins a few years ago? Were they selling tickets like Sno-Cones on a summer day? No. Remember the Chicago Blackhawks? I sure do. The AHL Chicago Wolves iced better teams and had more buzz in the city until the philosophy changed with the younger Wirtz taking over in Chi-town. But I remember many games at the United Center that were empty, empty, empty! (My sister was in Chicago for many years and for many years we attended games with extremely sparse attendance.)

I know Canadians like to dream of plucking one of the Southern franchises (said with disdain) from its home and moving it back up North where hockey really lives. Winnipeg is a popular choice and rallying point for these Canadians. But, can that city — or many of the others (some in the U.S. as well) whose names pop up (ahem, Kansas City, Hamilton, Ontario, Kitchener/Waterloo, Milwaukee, etc.) — sustain a team? Does it have 13 Fortune 500 companies headquartered there (as Atlanta does)? Does it have the all-important ability to sustain corporate sponsorship? Does it have a state-of-the-art arena with all the bells and whistles that people demand today — particularly those corporate sponsors? Does it have a huge potential market? The potential to bring NEW fans to the NHL’s table? Yes, we know our friendly neighbors to the North have the fans, but that’s only one piece to the extremely complex puzzle that is professional sports today. To put it another way, why would you court the lady you already have?

It’s marketing. Marketing, that, (for all his flaws) NHL Commish Gary Bettman understands. If you already love any product, you are not the target of that company’s ads and marketing. The goal is NEW fans. Canadian hockey fans are a given. If you love Coca-Cola, you aren’t necessarily the target audience of Coke’s ads and marketing. The goal is new drinkers of that product. That’s why Bettman is gung-ho about non-traditional markets, he’s courting new fans. Where Bettman is failing is in ensuring the right ownership in these markets. With the right ownership, marketing and success on the ice, hockey can not only survive, but thrive in these markets.

So bring on new ownership. Ownership that cares about cultivating this growing fanbase and nurturing lost relationships with fans. The Atlanta franchise can be turned around. What was Yoda’s most important lesson to Luke Skywalker? Patience.

It won’t happen overnight.

Photos: Ondrej Pavelec and Philips Arena by Goddess Kaatiya. Copyright 2007-2010. All Rights Reserved.

Maybe the headline should have read “Hockey Gods, er, Goddesses Lift ‘Hossa Curse’”? Nah! Too easy.

Readers of this blog no doubt know of my great love and admiration for Marian Hossa. I’ve believed for years he didn’t deserve all the crap he’s taken from Pittsburgh Penguins fans who somehow feel he jilted them (get over it, you had him for three months!) and Detroit Red Wings fans who derided him as nothing but a mercenary (maybe that’s true, but it was his right — right?). It’s us Atlanta Thrashers fans who could really make a case for being the jilted ones. The ones he up and left as soon as the gettin’ was good.

But I’ve never thought of him that way. As I talked about in a previous entry, Hossa gave Atlanta many good years — years he never asked for (please recall he signed a long-term deal with the Ottawa Senators and was traded the same day for Dany Heatley — after being denied a no-trade clause). While he was in Atlanta, he became a huge fan favorite and, in my observation, got a heck of a lot more love on many days than did the ultimate Thrasher Ilya Kovalchuk.

So with a tiny bit of sadness, I watched Hossa finally raise the Stanley Cup. I am happy for him. Short of some horrible misdeed, I will always cheer for him. I just wish, as I cheered him, he would still be wearing that glorious (!) Thrasher blue. Cheers Marian!

Photo: Marian Hossa by Getty Images.