Rant, Rave

Lacrosse deserves some attention

It has been around North America for centuries. It is fast-paced, physical and action-packed, like hockey on cleats and with more scoring.

It has had a foothold in the northeast for decades, particularly on Long Island, in Maryland and at prep schools. It is easy to follow and enjoy even if you don't know the particulars of the rules, which aren't that complicated.

Yet somehow lacrosse never has branched out, which is too bad, because the NCAA lacrosse tournament is one of the nation's most exciting events.

As they have been for years, the semifinals and final were broadcast by ESPN. On Memorial Day, Virginia defeated Johns Hopkins 9-7 for the title. It was exhilarating, and it was played at 11 a.m., meaning essentially no one west of the Mississippi saw it.

How things might have been different: Syracuse, upended by Johns Hopkins in a semifinal, has an illustrious lacrosse history. Football icon Jim Brown also starred in lacrosse for the Orangemen. What if Brown had pursued lacrosse instead of football and used his clout to kick start a pro league?

Lacrosse, perhaps, would have leapt into the fray with hockey, basketball, tennis, et al. Maybe spectacular performances like that of Virginia goalie Tillman Johnson, who won honors as the the tournament's most outstanding player, would be front-page news instead of resigned to the margins.

Change some rules, or clean up the clutching and grabbing (for real) or stop letting goalies wear 500 pounds of equipment. Whatever it takes to bring a little more scoring to hockey, do it this offseason.

Or suffer the consequences. There are two major trends in hockey, and they might be linked: fewer goals and slumping TV ratings.

Entering the Stanley Cup final an average of 4.73 goals had been scored in the playoffs, almost three fewer than the average 15 years ago.

Meanwhile, the opening game between Anaheim and New Jersey had a 1.4 rating, down 52 percent from last year's first game of the final (which had Detroit's Hall of Fame-laden team) and 18 percent from two years ago (New Jersey vs. Colorado).

There are two problems with minimal scoring: Fans generally like more goals, and luck becomes a bigger factor. When neither team can score, a bad bounce or freak play can make all the difference.

This isn't to say that 10-8 is better than 2-1. There's a happy medium, with enough scoring to differentiate between teams but not enough to trivialize the value of scoring. In other words, more than soccer, less than Arena football.

Players are bigger and faster, but the rink and the goal are the same size. Something must change. The NHL needs to act. The dead-puck era is taking its toll.