Quote:
Originally Posted by Joborule
Let's say Flames ceased to exist one day, would Girly continue to watch the NHL? That's an important question for the NHL because if there are a fair number of people who only watch the game because of their favorite team, then that means the product itself isn't that great as it should be. It may be in NHL's best interest to really explore how to make the game more exciting not just for the casual fans they want to pick up, but for those who already watch it but only pay attention to one team. If international sized rink and bigger nets can lead to more exciting hockey, it's something they should strongly consider.
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I don't watch non-Flames games now. There are some exceptions because watching the Flames means you need to track a few things. But it's not appointment viewing.
I watched the entire Boston-Chicago SCF. I haven't watch a Canucks game since the 2011 final. Why should I? They cheat, they dive, it's a team full of mugs and the league does nothing about it. Why should I spend 2 hours on that? Perhaps the Canucks have changed? But every now and then I venture into the OOP thread and yup, the Canucks are still like that.
On Friday I watched San Jose-Edmonton just to see what all the fuss of Edmonton not scoring was about. Holy crap that game was garbage. Neither team could put two passes together.
I don't dislike hockey, I'll watch the World Juniors, I'll watch the Olympics. I can't stand the NHL. Not only is the qualify poor, the game makes absolutely no sense. What is a penalty? Glencross goes into the corner in San Jose on a Saturday night and taps the guy on his stick.. SLASHING! There must have been 20 penalties that game. Then I see the Flames on a Sunday evening in Chicago. ZERO penalties until the refs decided to give the Hawks a 5-on-3 just so they could tie it up.
When a team is leading it's more likely a penalty will be called on them then when a team is behind and in the last 5 minutes of a tied game.... nooooooo penalties! That's garbage.
I used to tell my American friends how awesome hockey was. Then they tried to watch it and it made no sense. Why are there no penalties and then suddenly there's a cheap one? The overall product is poor. People just follow their teams. It's not a North American thing. It's a hockey thing. Why? Because they can't stomach how bad other NHL games are. They will stomach it for their team but that's all.
NFL has it's marketing down pat. There is a Sunday night game and a Monday night game. Every single team must play a game on one of those nights and if the team is better they will be on at night more. Doesn't matter if you're Indy, Houston, Seattle, anyone. If you're good and you have a star, you'll be on tv. Why to I have to watch the Leafs every Saturday night?
Next Sunday night it's Manning vs. Brady. Any football fan is going to watch that.
Now I've heard the argument of "well hockey it's a team game, it's not star oriented. The best stars only play 20 minutes out of 60"? Why? Why is it that hockey has become 45 second shifts and no more? Why do the players have to skate so fast and tire themselves out? This will sound sacrilege for hockey fans but why aren't there more commercials so that the stars can rest? Why isn't there more than 1 timeout? Why does a faceoff have to occur so quickly so that a game end in 2 hours 30 minutes? What's the rush? Football fans watch 3 3+hour games every Sunday and they don't seem to mind at all. If hockey were slowed down with more breaks so that the 1st line plays over 30 minutes, you'd still watch.