It's interesting to see the two very different perspectives on minor league hockey.
There are those who don't care about the level of player talent relative to the larger pro hockey world, as long as the players are present in the community, that the team is a winner in its respective league, and perhaps those players may even settle down in that community once their playing days are over.
Others are more concerned with seeing the highest level of talent available outside the NHL, even if that means the team is heavily influenced by a larger parent club and the team maybe isn't (perceived) to be as present in the community. In that scenario, your local community is just a waypoint on the path to a larger goal. And, ultimately, those players could be called up at an inconvenient time.
I have to admit, I fall into the latter category. I don't care if I don't hang with the players in the local bar, or if they don't choose to settle down in my town when the pro career gig doesn't materialize. I've thought about this at length, and I personally prefer to see first-round draft picks vying for their time at the NHL level. I like seeing a guy like Jamie Lundmark on HNIC on Saturday night, then maybe seeing him again in my local arena the next week. Or seeing Eric Nystrom play live in my hometown, then watching him become a fixture (and a solid NHL'er) with Calgary. I can sit down to watch an NHL game on any given night and watch players I saw play here in Moline over the last two seasons. I guess the inconvenient callups, to me, are just the breaks.
It's been tough for me to stomach the whole move back to the Mallards here in the Quad Cities. To me, it's an incredible letdown. I haven't been to a game yet, even though I intend to do so at some point, but the excitement for me is absent. Maybe over time, I'll get more comfortable with it. For now, I've been drowning my sorrows in my Center Ice package. Just my two cents...
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