NHL finals game 1 TV rating

[Drewgasm]

I love hockey and I admit it.....I think the NBA is garbage...stands for Nothing But Assholes....

But thats just my opinion....I dont rip on people that like soccer....again, its not my thing....everyone has their opinion...if you dont like hockey fine...if you want to bash it...fine...but Im watching it....and I will be at the parade downtown next week when the Wings win another Cup....along with 1 million of my closest friends...if its on Lifetime...Im watching it....but then again, Im a diehard...I follow the game....nothing better than watching the NHL playoffs....an 8 seed can beat a 1...theres drama....with the NBA...there is NO drama....I will bet anyone here, the Lakers beat Orlando...my guess is 6 games....NBA is way to predictable...not to mention borderline fixed....whether its frozen envelopes...crooked refs....draft fixes....whether you believe it or not, these conspiericies are out there....the attendance is horrible in the NBA...watch highlights....there are tons of fans disguised as empty seats in venues everywhere....people think the NBA is good because ESPN shoves it down our throats....if they did that with hockey....some would think hockey is important....ESPN is just so big, people watch and it think its gospel for what they say....Before you know it, they will be telling me how great Brett Favre is and where he might be playing next year.....OOoops...nevermind....


Gasm~

 

[gtc08]

yeah, predictable like the top 2 teams facing off again in the finals for 2 years in a row.

and if your talking about animals kenny b, then you need to stick with your league the nhl. the players are nothing but brawlers and thugs for the most part. the NHL is the only sport where ive seen somebody try to kill another person intentionally multiple teams.

the animals are in that league, the nhl.

 

[Bushay]

Playoff hockey is a better product than NBA playoffs.
Big problem is it's not marketed properly.

I think with better marketing, MLB's number can improve 15%, easily.

Hockey has NEVER been a very good TV sport. And the lockout in 03' didn't help. Hockey is more exciting today than it's been in the last 20 years with the elimination of the red line and the no clutching and grabbing policy implemented.
“Not much clutching and grabbing. … It’s a lot more enjoyable for the hockey fans to watch these games now than what we used to watch years ago” – Hockey HOFer and Penguins co-Owner Mario Lemieux, on the NHL calling more interference penalties.

Plus with the invention of Hi Def, no sport has benefited greater than the game of hockey. Attendence is up every year since the lockout as well as ratings. Bettman didn't allow ESPN to rape them financially so he struck a deal with the Verses network where the sport gets top billing on their channel. And after taking a while to grow on cable systems, it is now available on every system in the country. It will never be as good as CBC's production of HNIC but the product gets bigger and better every season.

Again, the game has NEVER been a great TV sport and will probably never get the big Network contract that the NFL, NBA and MLB get, but its growing tremendously under Bettmans watch, like him or not.
It's really too bad it doesn't translate to a better TV product as there is no sport around more exciting and enjoyable in person than an NHL game. Especially a playoff game.

Listening to this depressing gtc08 is a lot like the Chicken Little character that told everyone "The sky is falling..The sky is falling". And we all know how that worked out.

Don't believe the hype or the uneducated.

 

[Bushay]

yeah, predictable like the top 2 teams facing off again in the finals for 2 years in a row.

and if your talking about animals kenny b, then you need to stick with your league the nhl. the players are nothing but brawlers and thugs for the most part. the NHL is the only sport where ive seen somebody try to kill another person intentionally multiple teams.

the animals are in that league, the nhl.

And what a beautiful thing that is.

You've just exposed yourself as to just how many games you have ever watched and just exactly what your missing. Your credibility just went out the window with this post and sums up mine and everyone's opinion of you and your knowledge of the game.
Thank a lot. You just saved me a decent amount of typing.

LOL. What a great post. The 2 remaining teams left are the 2 least penalized teams in 2009. But how would you know that if your mom didn't pass that information along as well.

 

[Bushay]

the NHL is the only sport where ive seen somebody try to kill another person intentionally multiple teams.

And for the most part it's all allowed as part of the game.

It's the toughest sport on the planet.

Something tells me you were an easy out in dodgeball growing up.

Does that strike a nerve?

 

[gtc08]

the fighting is what kills hockey. the only people who get into that are teenage boys. i even have friends who like hockey(yea i know its wild isnt it), but i do live in the state of hockey, so theres plenty here.

even my friends though that are die hard wild and nhl fans are turned off by the thuggery of the game. NHL teams have goons like Boogard, who are thugs. they go after people and purposely fight, thats what there supposed to do for there team. he has little talent, except being a fighter and a goon. he even has a fighting school here in minnesota, or had one.

the NHL almost has to push the thug aspect of the league though because it can't sell the ability of its players. blame it for any reason, maybe it just doesnt translate to tv like bushay said.

NBA, you watch to see talented players take over games. there is very little thug going on, or the definition of thug. The game sells itself compared to thuggery trying to sell the NHL.

you do have some guys like kenny b though who dont understand the definition of thuggery, and instead convey onto image, like having tattoos. i mean kenny b even said ray allen was a thug, so i know his main issue is racially related.

summarizing my statements though, the NHL needs to get tough, and tough fast on fighting. they cant be MMA on ice, they have no chance if they try with the ratings heh.

 

[gtc08]

so what, still the same 2 teams. and this final was easily predictable.

while in the nba, nobody had orlanndo.

 

[Jambruins]

gtc, why do you rip on hockey every day like this? I could care less what other people think of it but I am just curious as to why you do it everyday? We understand that you hate it but why do you need to start a thread everyday about it?

 

[gtc08]

gtc, why do you rip on hockey every day like this? I could care less what other people think of it but I am just curious as to why you do it everyday? We understand that you hate it but why do you need to start a thread everyday about it?

i havent started a thread everyday. this is the first nhl thread i created in a week, and it was about the low rating for game 1, until it grew into this. its the hockey people that keep pushing this. all this thread was made to do was point out how embarassingly low the stanley cup finals are, and how much closer the NHL is to sponge bob square pants rewinds, then the big 3.

 

[Bushay]

Please don't get yourself banned from this forum as you did the Hockey forum. You expose your IQ with every post. And the forum is much more entertaining with you in it than out.

When a fight breaks out in a hockey game there not a person in the building still sitting in their seat. Even the wheelchair spectators try and get up. Just like the shoot out did for the game. There's not a single butt in their seat once the shoot out begins.

I have to ask you though? I'm honestly not sure if I'm conversing here with a male or a female. If you are in fact female as I now suspect, I apologize for some of my reply's. And would explain a lot of your misconceptions.

 

[Vancouverfan]

true hockey fans know fighting has to be a part of the game if you want to eliminate all the problems with stickwork, as it is the one major sport where you are carrying what can be considered a weapon in your hand. Whenever I watch a game based in the states, the crowd is going absolutely crazy when there is a fight.

Here is a great article written by Woody Paige from the Denver post years ago.

>
Let's Hear It For The Good Guys
> By Woody Paige
> Denver Post Sports Columnist
>
> Feb. 3, 2003 - An exhaustive check of police records (and Interpol
> documents) reveals that none of the players participating in the NHL
> All-Star Game on Sunday was charged with murder on this weekend last year.
>
> Ray Bourque is not celebrating his 19th all-star appearance with the
> release
> of a new rap CD titled "Czech The Republics, Maim The Mothers."
>
> Mario doesn't have 18 tattoos up the Lemieux, and Teppo Numminen hasn't
> choked his coach.
>
> The all-stars will sign autographs, won't spit guttural and adjectival
> obscenities at the kids, will help little old ladies cross the street and
> won't beat up bridge dwellers in LoDo.
>
> Not one all-star is on trial for raping a teenager. Their numbers are
> 16,24, 39 and 77, not 16243977. They shoot pucks, not ex-wives and
> waiters.
>
> Hockey players are the last of the good guys.
>
> Even the Red Wings.
>
> You can actually feel good and proud cheering for them at the All-Star
> Game.
>
> These players are pros, not cons; heroes, not villains; fine fellows, not
> common felons.
>
> Peter Forsberg recently went to the hospital - not because of a gunshot
> wound or a drug addiction. He visited a young boy dying of cancer.
> Forsberg
> promised he would score a goal in the child's honor that night. He did.
>
> My hobby requires that I hang around NHL, NBA, NFL and Major League
> Baseball players. As a boy I happily idolized a lot of them. As a man I
> sadly loathe a lot of them.
>
> Except hockey players. Will Rogers never would meet a hockey player he
> didn't like.
>
> Take a goon to lunch. You'll like him.
>
> This is a broad generalization, but so many football, basketball and
> baseball players are jerks and creeps who act as if the world owes them
> fame, fortune, free cars and obeisance.
>
> Beware of false gods.
>
> On a street in Nagano, Japan, in 1998 I heard my name shouted above the
> crowd. Joe Sakic just wanted to say hello. (Most athletes would rather
> enter the witness protection plan than say hello to a press parasite.)
> Sakic would say hello to you. The NHL's best player this
> season is a Regular Joe.
>
> So, why are hockey players a bunch of regular Joes and charming, courteous
> gentlemen you'd introduce to your pals, your parents, your pastor, your
> pet?
>
> Several of us were addressing the question in Tampa, Fla., last week right
> after a conversation with Ray Lewis - who had just compared himself to
> Jesus, then uttered an unChrist-like verb and a pronoun.
>
> I've theorized that a majority of the NHL players, born and raised in
> small
> Canadian towns, weren't coddled as youths, but instead were taken away
> from
> their families to play junior hockey and boarded in groups in basements of
> strange people's homes; they weren't worshiped as young men by the press
> and the public, and they developed strong moral values and quality traits.
>
> Not so true, says NHL vice president Frank Brown. They are treated like
> favored sons in hockey-crazy Canada. He claims hockey players "aren't
> featured in the first five minutes of ESPN's "SportsCenter.' They're not
> as
> well-known as other professional athletes, and they remain humble."
>
> My friend says youngsters who grow up in coldweather locales tend to be
> nicer and friendlier. She obviously hasn't been to Detroit.
>
> Another writer cites peer pressure. "Players in other sports learn from
> the
> veterans to distrust the press and dislike the fans. Hockey players are
> taught by older players to respect everyone."
>
> Mike Ricci, one of the most popular players when he was a member of the
> Colorado Avalanche, said the players feel fortunate to be playing a game.
> "My brother is a plumber. I know if I wasn't doing this, I'd be his
> helper.
>
> I never forget that."
>
> Money, says the NHL's Brown.
>
> "Players in hockey for years didn't get the big bucks that other athletes
> made. That's changing now, but the players haven't changed."
>
> Fabled Bobby Orr used to hide in the trainer's room after games - not to
> avoid the media, but to allow his teammates to be in the limelight, too.
> "No matter how great you are as a player, you're only on the ice 45
> seconds," says an NHL executive. "The whole game is shared by all the
> players, and everybody cares about one another."
> Maybe hockey players unleash all their hostilities, aggression and ill
> manners on the ice.
>
> The NHL is not without the random problem, but, according to the league,
> there have been fewer than 10 off-ice criminal incidents in the past six
> years.
>
> Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy was cleared this week of cross-checking two
> French doors at his house, and a few U.S. Olympic hockey team players
> attacked their dorm rooms in Nagano - reportedly in retaliation for Pearl
> Harbor.
>
> But, overall, hockey players are upstanding citizens of places from
> Saskatchewan (God bless you) to Latvia.
>
> They're the last of the good guys, but these good guys don't finish last.

 

[gtc08]

thats a good article vancouver fan, but has nothing to do with the game.

the game sells itself on thuggery and people obviously arnt buying it based on the ratings. why would a family watch 2 guys pummel there faces in, and why is that even entertaining to anyone outside of teenage boys.

i watch a game for skill. if i want to watch thugs fight each other, ill order MMA ppv, or i guess watch a nhl game now.

like i said, if the game cant sell itself on its skills, then the league will stay where it is now, with the likes of sponge bob square pants rewinds and tna wrestling, which are consistenly beating the NHL.

 

[Bushay]

When the Wings were mediocre during the Prober-Kocer days, most games were sold out BECAUSE of the fighting. I mean...unless you are a little "soft".....how can you NOT enjoy this. Again...unless your "soft"
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Then, I'm sure boxing isn't a sport either for you maam.

 

[Vancouverfan]

I think there is an average of less then one fight per game in the NHL now last time I saw the stats, if you think thats bad then good thing you weren't watching in the 70's and 80's when bench clearing brawls were a lot more common. Personally I don't care much about the tv ratings in the U.S. , it never has been popular there on tv and at this point I don't think it ever will be. NHL should realize this and just focus on the markets where its working like Canada and the northern US states like Minnesota, New York, Michigan.. etc.. Why they are bending over backwards to keep a bankrupt team in Phoenix , and struggling teams in Florida amazes me, when they could be a huge success back in cities like Hamilton and Winnipeg. The one thing I have been impressed with during the playoffs is watching games in St.Louis, Carolina, and Chicago especially... the buildings are sold out and extremely extremely loud, much louder than any of the arenas packed with fans here in Canada.. the fans definitely get into it there...

 

[Vancouverfan]

Bushay, all those fans were standing and telling Coxe and Probert to please stop.... don't fight!! If a fight like that doesn't get your team all jacked up to play , nothing will.

 

[Bushay]

Winning fixes everything.

 

[Bushay]

Bushay, all those fans were standing and telling Coxe and Probert to please stop.... don't fight!! If a fight like that doesn't get your team all jacked up to play , nothing will.

LoL. And if you didn't pick up on it. I cut the clip a little short as all 20,007 ticket holders got up and walked out of the building in disgust after the protest. Free beer was offered at the next game to get them all back in the arena. I was completely against it myself but, the free beer will get you every time.

 

[Vancouverfan]

I should say there are probably a few exceptions to hockey growing in popularity outside the northern US states. Our local WHL junior franchise (one of the leagues where NHL players get drafted from) the Kelowna Rockets, have 4 kids from California on our roster. I talked to one of them a couple months ago and he told me hockey is absolutely booming among kids in Cali over the past decade. There are now many leagues and high quality young players coming out of that have been drafted in the past couple seasons, and apparently its only the tip of the iceberg.

 

[Vancouverfan]

Don Cherry used to wear a shirt on Hockey Night in Canada that said "Give blood, fight Probert" haha...

 

[Bushay]

An example that most sticks out in my mind is the 1980 Olympics. I was 21 and playing in local beer leagues at the time. When the USA won the gold, ice time here in Michigan became so scarce and hard to get, as kids who never thought of playing were joining teams and leagues to a point when in the next few years arenas started popping up in every city in site. My town in fact had an arena with 2 sheets of ice and within 5 years they expanded to [what i'm told] is the only arena with 5 sheets of ice in the entire USA. To this day, ice time is extremely expensive and continues to be in short supply. And from what I've read it's even stronger in Minnesota and Massachusetts. Were also a short distance from Windsor where the rinks are just as plentiful. And with the success of the Wings, comments this clown makes in this state are only testimony of her ignorance.