Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle
I actually have no problem with the beards, or the go fly a kite reaction this got. But it's not nearly as stupid of an idea / issue as many of you are thinking it is. If the goal is to grow the games revenue (this should be both the goal of the NHL and the NHLPA given their revenue sharing model), there might be something to this.
No doubt, the more affluent fans of the game, i.e. said another way, the Canadian fans and a smaller number of American markets, understand, heck even appreciate the tradition of the playoff beard. But those fans are already buying the game, their dollars are counted.
One of the biggest things that seems to sell sports in the US, is the star power and the individual athlete. Often they seem more interested in the athlete then the sport themselves. We see this in Basketball and Baseball especially. Now, I'm sure all this NBC executive was thinking, was that he knows this to be true. Then he looks at his hockey product, which doesn't really do well on the individual athlete level ( really, individuality fly's against what we love about hockey right, heck, everyone gets offended when the slightest showboating occurs right, Subban etc...), and he looks at the playoff product, where he might actually have a chance to sell the game to a new audience and every single player on the ice looks exactly the same sporting their playoff beards.
How's a fan to know or better identify with the Toews of the world if he looks just like his line mate?
Again, I personally have no time for this proposal and couldn't care less, but it's not as dumb as many of you are making it out to be. I actually think there might be something to it. The NHL does not do a good job at pumping up the stars of this game, mostly I think because hockey is all about TEAM, but that isn't necessarily what sells the game to the new sources of revenue for this league. This is likely just a small micro example of what could be done to make the stars of the game stand out a little bit.
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