The NHL Thread

[Defsta]

So NHL starts on saturday in London and teams are Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings. So anyone going to watch the games? As at first place I was coming there to watch those game but had to change my plans and now I'm only watching those games from TV.

So anyone going to watch those?

 

[ripley]

World's second best sport...
...wasted on the Brits :razz:

 

[Defsta]

:lol:

 

[nightgoat]

I wonder if this will bomb as much as my Stanley Cup Final thread back in May... :think:

 

[Defsta]

I wonder if this will bomb as much as my Stanley Cup Final thread back in May... :think:

You had one :shrug:

 

[ripley]

I wonder if this will bomb as much as my Stanley Cup Final thread back in May... :think:

...as a tumbleweed blows through this thread...

 

[LSUY]

...as a tumbleweed blows through this thread...

There you go.

 

[Phantom]

GOOOOOO AVALANCHE. Theo better play some decent hockey this year we cant rely on the inexperienced budaj.

I tend to tape hockey when i remeber its on

 

[sammax71]

I went to see the game on Sunday.

Was a good experience. Enjoyed the match. There was one punch up and I backed the Ducks -1 on the handicap.

So, good day all round.

 

[Defsta]

Busiest night of the season today as there's no more than 14 games played so have to stay up whole night and watch hockey :dance:

 

[LSUY]

Go Penguins!

We need to kick start our season.

 

[Defsta]

Even we are losing to Wings, but finally we are playing that fast skating hockey what I want from Oilers :think:

 

[claw_diddy]

I'd rather play EA Hockey from '91 on my megadrive.

 

[Defsta]

Holy shit, that game is legend

 

[cwy21]

Am I really bumping a 5+ year old thread? Hell yeah. LETS PLAY HOCKEY!

 

[Marty]

Am I really bumping a 5+ year old thread? Hell yeah. LETS PLAY HOCKEY!

So much yes!

 

[hughy]

Finally!

 

[EJWTartanSpur]

I'm a big hockey fan. I've followed all of the Detroit teams for a long time, since I was a kid ! Been over to Detroit as well, but have only seen Tigers games so far, because I usually go in the summer.

 

[HappySpur]

Hockey can be a terrific sport, but the NHL is a shit-fest of epic proportions. Every 7 years they basically erode the sport by having these long stoppages. And every time they think that its okay because all of the fans come flocking back. But they only come flocking back in the cities that have large youth hockey set-up, like Boston, Minnesota and the Canadian teams. But these fans that come flocking back are getting older and the kids don't give a shit about the NHL outside of these few regions because its a sport few can play (and you best be rich if you want to play as I see it put people in massive debt here) and its a league that stops every few years.

They only compound their dubious financial situation by pulling this crap when they have so many teams falling apart....including storied franchises. Too many teams and too little talent and way too many teams in places that shouldn't have them. Think about this....NBC paid 2 billion for 10 years of this league (and then got fucked by the owners). NBC just paid 250 million for 3 years of the EPL. And mind you, if you listen to anybody in Europe or American, they will say that nobody watches soccer. The EPL is worth nearly 1/2 as much as the NHL, and it's a foreign league that they cannot dictate anything to. They can't ask for times to be changed or games to moved and they have to play games in the morning (the worst ad revenue block for TV) in a sport that doesn't have breaks for commercials (they dictate commercial breaks to the NHL). They have no control over the EPL, unlike the NHL and gave out 1/2 the value for 3 years. The next contract will be worth more.

So the NHL is dying. Nobody realizes it yet. Europe will eventually have a league that will be better and could see the Canadian teams defecting to join it.

And don't forget, while not racist, their business model is based around working class white families. That is a diminishing group with whites in general heading towards being less than half the US population by 2050 at the latest and those types of jobs going out of hockey regions. Latinos and blacks have no historical association with the sport and thus gravitate towards others. It's why the Mexican Football League is much more popular than the NHL in the US. There's something they don't report very often. In fact, if you lump all the leagues together, soccer (the sport nobody loves) is more popular than anything but football and baseball (and it will surpass baseball in my lifetime) This is just going to get worse and the owners only shoot themselves in the feet constantly. And they do fuck all in grass roots work. They just sit on their ass and expect people to keep coming. When it falls apart they will react and it will be too late.

 

[hughy]

I know this is a bit of a naughty one, but where does everyone watch live games? Now that only Premier Sports show live NHL here in UK I'm missing out.