Should the NHL hold a charity game?

A charity hockey game could be a good option for the NHL.

There’s the old joke in sports that if your team doesn’t make the Stanley Cup Playoffs, they hit the golf course for the NHL offseason. My New Jersey Devils will miss the NHL’s proposed 24 team playoff and be hitting the course as well.

Before they trade in their hockey bags for golf bags and Bauer sticks for Taylor Made five-irons the course belonged to Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady this past weekend. They were competing in “The Match: Champions for Charity” held to both to raise money for charity and fill the void that live sports has left in our lives.

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The golf match proved to be a huge success, scoring record ratings and $20 million for charity. It was an easy and safe operation, so why should golf be the only sports to have a little exhibition action? What if the NHL, or more specifically NHL players, held their own little charity game while we wait for league action to resume?

Having a charity game while the NHL is not in session isn’t anything new. Back in 2012 when Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast the NHL was in the middle of their 2012-2013 lockout. With the need for hockey and to do a little good, locked out NHL players put together “Operation Hat Trick” to raise money for Hurricane relief.

The game was held at the neutral site Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey with all 10,000 tickets sold. Much like “The Match: Champions for Charity”, some modified rules were used for Operation Hat Trick as it was an exhibition game mostly for entertainment purposes.

Maybe the NHL should try another charity match? Actually, much like Operation Hat Trick which wasn’t an NHL sanctioned event such as The World Cup Of Hockey, any such event would most likely need to be put together as an initiative of the players and not the league.

If the league won’t allow their star athletes to go to the Olympics, they probably won’t want to send them to a charity even either. Would anyone watch it? Considering the last NHL All Star Game 1.7 million viewers when the sports market was still saturated a big enough audience should be expected.

Any possible event, much like golf’s event, would be fan less. Plus the logistics of having multiple athletes and personnel as opposed to four golfers and a few broadcasters would be more difficult. As for a place to hold it the recent announcements by the Governor of New York and the Governor of New Jersey that sports can resume (fan-less, of course) opens up four NHL rinks in the largest media market in the United States.

Doing some good would be part of the event as well in the effort to raise money to charity. Golf may have been able to raise $20 million, but it’s hard to pin point an exact estimate an NHL game or tournament might bring in. Considering the NHL has the richest fan base among the four major sports leagues they should be able to raise a pretty penny for charity.

A lot can change, and a lot can change quickly, especially when it comes to the NHL’s season resumption. For example, this was written before Comissioner Gary Bettman’s press conference on Tuesday afternoon. If the NHL’s return is later rather than sooner, even if a charity game is part of the “training camp” towards a season resumption, the league and its player should look into it.