OT - the NHL needs to market its product better
so im out of the detroit market but for the SECOND game in the row, the detroit PLAYOFF game is not being shown on cable tv. on saturday, fsn replayed the friday night game of penguins v. flyers. versus and nbc both had random crap on. tonight, versus and fsn are BOTH playing the penguins game.
i understand regular season, but this is the playoffs. no wonder the NHL is the least watched out of the big four, they cant even put their product on tv.
sorry for the rant....
EDIT: i have no problem watching the pistons or any other NBA games...why is the NHL so far behind? how come their marketing strategy includes alienating fans outside of the team's main market?
I know the Pens have Crosby, but I am so far from frigging Philly, how is this game relevant to a midwestern audience when Mi/Oh teams are on. try zomse.com, I'm getting a real good stream of the wings game now.
thanks alot... ive just been checking it out on espn.
Gary Bettman makes the AIG executives look like Warren Buffett.
They are showing the games that average fans want to watch. Looking at the marquee and seeing Crosby is better than Blues vs. Wings any day. The league actually is doing it right. Market the stars, bring in the crowds, then move to mass appeal.
argue the Wings' fan bases far surpasses the few thousand Crosby fans. Either way, I agree with you as to why the NHL is doing it. However, 1) the NHL is run by Bettman, a raving lunatic, and 2) I am selfish and couldn't care less about what the average fan wants, ha.
i get that... but how do you explain re-airing a game instead of showing the wings game 3? or having the same penguin game on 2 different channels?
marketing your stars is one thing. but doing it to the point that it saturates the rest of the league is another. AND the detroit red wings are no slouches when it comes to the NHL.
I live in Dayton and even though I'm 70 miles from Columbus, the game isn't on Fox Sports regional, but luckily for me Dish Network has it on one of the "Sports Alternate" chaannels. Weird though that for example the game this weekend that was on NHL Network was blacked out in my area even though I'm in Columbus's home market and it was an away game.
Baseball's got a leg up on all these leagues in terms of broadcasts... the game will be on your local station unless its simulcast on a national station (Fox, ESPN, TNT, etc). and worst case, you can pay $80 and get every game for your team through mlb.tv. I'm surprised the NFL hasn't caught onto the broadcast every game on the internet for a yearly or weekly fee. I would think that would be a goldmine. Granted the NFL mints more money than a 1920's Central American republic, but still, I would think with their international presence and the way the game is broken into plays instead of continuous action it would work well on internet broadcasts. Hockey I can understand-- I've watched some zomse and justin.tv feeds and its not great.
6 mins left in 2nd, at 7:28 cst, for those who care.
and rough up Franzen behind the net but as he's taking the hit, Franzen dumps it to Hank Z in the slot and he one times it for a goal. Sweet. 3-0 Red Wings.
Stewart just literally knocked the helmet off of R.J. Umberger. Commodore tried to retaliate, but ended up throwing himself into the Red Wing bench. They continued to attempt retaliation to the point where they left Zetterberg alone in front of the net to score.
what it was like with the Montreal dynasties in the 70's... I guess the Red Wings are in that class now. I remember the 80's Oilers barely, and I question if Edmonton had the kind of system that Wingss have developed or whether their success was purely (Gretzky + Messier) * Coffey = PURE WIN
April 21st, 2009 at 11:41 PM ^
I was in my teens back then so my recollection might not be the best, but my memory is of a much more wide open nhl where all the trapping wasn't nearly as prevalent. Not only did the Oilers score a lot of points, but so did a lot of teams in the nhl.
The Oilers last Stanley Cup title came after Gretsky left. They were a team loaded with good players.
April 21st, 2009 at 10:52 PM ^
looked up, saw the check coming, but then put his head right back down again. Nice clean hit by Stuart.
Umberger really needs to learn to keep his head up. This isn't the first time he's been absolutely rocked.
edit: the Stuart check (jesus, these youtubers are fast)
Also, San Jose has finally taken a lead in a game vs Anaheim. Should be interesting to see how they do when they're not chasing the Ducks.
stuart got his elbow up a bit, but that's a pretty clean hit. it's not even from the blindside, dude looks at him twice and still cant get out of the way.
if the Wings keep playing this solid, there is nobody in the league that can go past six games with them. Sharks and B's included.
The sharks need to figure out how to get past the first round before they can worry about the Wings.
the Sharks' annual conundrum. Doesn't matter who the coach is.
Osgood is to NHL goaltending what the Pistons were to the NBA a few years ago. Ridiculously proven, but always doubted come playoff time.
April 21st, 2009 at 10:50 PM ^
has played out of his mind in this series, as well as others. I cannot fathom for the life of me how many people doubt his ability, when the track record truly speaks for itself. I mean yeesh, you let in one 90 footer to MacInnis and it's like all of Detroit/the media covering the NHL decides you're horrible.
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:14 AM ^
It all goes back to that give-away in the San Jose series (had to have been like '94 or something), I feel like Osgood never quite won the Detroit fans back until probably last year.
As far as this season I think most Wings fans had faith that he would turn it around in the play-offs, but in media's defense his regular season stats were horrible so a little doubt was probably justified.
April 21st, 2009 at 11:38 PM ^
The nhl's problem is that the they signed a contract with Versus and a huge percentage of the population doesn't get this channel.
When this contract is up, they need to try and get back on espn where they can have games shown nationally 2-3 nights a week, as well as a lot of the playoff games.
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:40 AM ^
about eight less teams and more televised games. Better competition and more chances to view it would be nice. Does anybody really get excited to watch Phoenix, Atlanta, or Tampa Bay?
I mean I will watch ANY college football game that comes across my screen during the fall. I will watch any NFL game regardless of the teams playing. Hockey needs to better itself before anyone will care, there are too many teams and too many people who don't care because of it.
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:59 AM ^
The NHL has too many teams, which has diluted the talent pool. I also don't know why they haven't gone to the international-size rink, which opens up the game dramatically. Olympic hockey is amazing to watch.
Would that even be possible? I think that trying to convert NHL ice sheets to Olympic ice sheets would be a logistical nightmare.
It would be like asking all football stadiums to make their fields wider. It'd be extremely hard to do that at certain places (the Big House & Autzen come to mind).
Logistically, it's entirely possible; you'd just have to remove some seats around the rink to expand the ice surface. Why would that be difficult? Most arenas have their lowest seats on folding chairs or retractable stands anyway. (The Michigan Stadium analogy doesn't quite work, because there you'd have to tear down a brick wall and some concrete stands, which would involve a lot more cost/labor.)
I agree, though, that it won't happen because the seats that would be lost are expensive, and Bettman/NHL owners have very little foresight; they'd rather take that guaranteed revenue from the seats over the unknown of having a few hundred fewer seats, but a likely more entertaining product (which could expand the fanbase).
This just in: Barney Frank is Gay (not that there's anything wrong with that).
The NHL needs a better product period. The "new NHL" was supposed to provide this, but so far this playoff season, the games have slipped back to the pre lockout style that pretty much destroyed the league. Versus had a stat last night that the team leading going into the third period so far in the playoffs is 14-0. After last night's games, make that 17-0.