Pre-playoff Stanley Cup world tour continues: Papua New Guinea villagers, like many Americans, unsure about hockey

Mutam, Papua New Guinea--The NHL's regular season stretch drive is upon us and in preparation for the playoffs the league decided to give a passport, some spending money and an around-the-world airline ticket to the most treasured and symbolic trophy in North American professional sports in an effort to improve--if possible--upon last year's strong post-season television ratings.

"Last year, the ratings were fantastic, but we wanted to build on that," said Vince Bollard, NHL director of television relations. "The Finals featured one great hockey town, Philadelphia, but two great sports cities with Chicago. It was nice to have the big market teams battling for the Cup, but we want to expand our market globally and we think we're headed in the right direction with this tour."

Mike Bolt (pictured holding the Cup above), one of the keepers of the storied trophy, went along for the global trek to keep a close eye and act as an ambassador for the game. The schedule has the Cup returning to the North America by mid-April in time for the playoffs, but not before stopovers in the Galopogos Islands, Fiji, the Maldives, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Timor and Brunei, to name a few.
"The trip has been great," said Bolt, grinning through the oppressive humidity and perspiration dripping from his forehead, saturating his freshly pressed suit and trademark white gloves as he waited to depart New Guinea's Jacksons International Airport. "Papua New Guinea has been an interesting adventure and I think we may have some new fans tuning into the game next month. I think the Cup struck a chord with these villagers."

Bolt and the Cup arrived in Mutam, a village of forty-three that faces frequent power supply interruptions and where the average worker takes home $2 per day, on Tuesday to a crowd of three. Just three. Not three hundred or, even, thirty. Just three.

"We took Stanley into a traditional New Guinea living quarters," said an excited Bolt. "They were not really sure what to make of the silver guy. At first, they were frightened. I told them to not be scared and told them they could win the Cup one day."

The visit to this rural community was arranged by the NHL several months ago as part of a carefully planned out travel itinerary that would yield the "highest volume of new fans and have potential as a possible future talent pool." But the contact person, the community's mayor equivalent, had traveled to Port Moresby, the country's capital, on official business. Essentially, the league arrived in this village on the other side of the world with no connections.
"The residents really had no warning that we were coming because apparently the mayor was waiting until our actual arrival to break the news," said Bollard, rolling his eyes and hinting that the community's leader may be sporting new sneakers when he returns.

The four men and two women representing the league, despite losing their "in" with the village, attempted to organize a pickup street hockey game with the villagers using sticks shipped two weeks earlier, where only ten of fifty could be accounted for, and a whiffle ball.

As the residents, one by one, began to lose interest in the game they turned their attention to gathering supplies for a weekly fishing expidtion along the shallow inland marsh waters on the southern coast of this nation of nearly seven million. The ambassadors were determined to go along for the trip and, when the locals refused, citing dangerous conditions on narrow, hollowed-out boats, the NHL strongly suggested they go along for the ride.

"The canoes were very unstable, but they told me that I could not sit down and that by doing so would jeopardize the entire hunt," said Bolt. "But I got used to standing really fast. I mean, real fast. There was a snake right in front of me."

The league feels that, despite the low interest in hockey in New Guinea, thus far the trip has been a success. The NFL held a fairly successful tryout last year in Port Moresby signing two players and the NHL plans to do the same in fifteen years after the game "catches on a bit."

"Would I schedule a visit to Mutam again?" asked Bollard. "Absolutely, but I would pay the mayor half the guide fee in the beginning and half at the end, instead of paying all of it before we even arrived."