or the past two weeks, I’ve written articles touching on the fan experience and hockey. 

The first issue touched on television production of hockey games on TV and the brutality of multiple camera use during game play.  The second issue talked about the fan experience inside the St. Pete Times Forum, and the lack of traditions that the fans in attendance have.

I’ll be honest and say I’ve struggled to write my third piece – thinking I had the right ideas early on  (mass transit options to the game, ticket pricing and how discounts are ridiculed) and then having to nix the thought for one reason or another, explaining that would be a blog post unto itself.

Then I was fortunate to remember the NHL General Managers meetings just concluded, and that during those meetings, another research and development camp was given the green light.

For those of you who don’t know, the R & D Camp is held during the summer months for the NHL to test out various ideas and rule changes.  Some of these changes are subtle (eliminating the two-line pass rule for the sake of opening up offensive chances) while others change the game in more radical ways (bigger nets with a different shape – pitched in a post-lockout camp; having only one faceoff circle in each offensive zone).  The Lightning had a blog post with photos from last summer’s camp, which I encourage you to take a look at.

OK, so what’s the point?  How on earth does this have anything to do with the fan experience?  Well, that exactly is my point.  In trying to change the game to excite fans – the NHL adds confusion and eliminates consistency of how the game is played.

How can you improve the fan experience?  Stop changing the game and let’em play!

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What's one thing that stands out and makes the fan experience at Tampa Bay Lightning games unique?  One thing that sets apart the St. Pete Times Forum crowd?  Something Bolts fans cling to proudly and rally around?

I draw a blank.

Other NHL clubs have their quirks that fans rally behind:  Calgary rocks out Saddledome with their "C of Red" on a rather consistent basis.  It comes off annoying, in a rivalry related fashion, that the Florida Panthers fans still cling to the rat-related stuff...  Detroit has it's weird Octopi fetish...  And Vancouver has Salmon.  And you can't forget to "Throw the Snake" in Phoenix.  Chants of "Here we go Rangers" (and the five claps that follow the phrase) echo through Madison Square Garden in New York to support their beloved Blueshirts.  Montreal celebrates with chants of "Olé".  And lets not forget Dallas Stars fans accentuating "Stars" during singing of the national anthem.

Maybe this comes off manufactured and contrived, but these things are distinctive identities with those respective clubs.  They are rallying points for fans and serve as a bond building tool and tradition in their ways.

With all that in mind, my question is this:  where's ours?  What's ours?   What could our tradition that makes the experience at the St. Pete Times Forum unique?

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For one reason or another, producers who oversee NHL game coverage think that you want to watch hockey as intimately as possible.  They try to find new ways to get you into the game and make you feel like you are sharing the bench or sharing the ice with other players and stars.

Perhaps it's because producers compare the telecast of hockey to that of the NFL or Major League Baseball:  Two sports with numerous pauses that give those in charge of running a telecast the chance to build drama or seek out drama where none exists. 

The extreme-close-up where you get to look at the sweat pouring off a pitcher's face, the "sky-cam" football angle that shows you what's going on from the field of play?   It's all supposed to be more intimate; it's supposed to make you want to watch.

Yet every time the networks - NBC, ABC before it, then Fox before that; Versus, and ESPN before it on cable TV - try to re-create this intimacy while covering an NHL game, they ruin one aspect or another of their broadcasts and coerce fans to tune out.

I hate to break it to you, NHL television producers, but the fixed-camera system is actually your friend.  You draw in viewers by showing the competition that's being played, not by trying to oversell and micromanage the broadcast.  The fan experience, for a TV viewer, is hurt when you try to do more with a production than you need.

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