NHL Owners vs. NHL Players

Bouchie

I agree with da MAN. I was watching CNN this morning and one of the anchors mentioned the NHL lockout in the middle of discussing the election (I know, I don't get it either). Anyways, the other guy said something like "maybe in a Canadian election, hahaha" (?!). The point? Americans hardly mention the NHL lockout, and when they do, they keep mentioning Canadians, as if to say it's our league and we'd be the only ones who care about it. If that's the case then why are 24 of the league's 30 teams based in the USA?

Bouchie

Similiar situation when a Canadian reporter was attempting to talk to John Kerry as he walked by a row of people. The reporter said "Canada loves you", and Kerry said "hey, you guys gotta get that NHL running again". Moron..his lack of knowledge in regards to Canada should be enough to keep him out of the Whitehouse.

The Strange One

I would agree with football being hard to follow for casual viewers. But I think that football is something that a lot of Americans are raised on, much like Canadians are raised on hockey.

The difference is this:
If a kid in Toronto decides one day that he's curious about football, he can go outside and toss a football. But if a kid in Florida is curious about hockey, the closest he can get is buying some in-line skates and knocking around a rubber ball in his driveway or street. That's not exactly the same thing.

I agree with D, hockey is much more exciting in person. We have an AHL team in Houston that is really fun to go watch. I love to go to live games but I can't watch 5 minutes of NHL on TV. I think the only time I watch hockey is the last 3 minutes of the Stanley Cup Finals.

I don't think that NHL's poor ratings speak to the quality of the game of hockey, I think its attributable to the failure of NHL's marketing.

:guns: :redbounce :bounce:

Miakal

You don't live in Chicago then. Or anywhere else.

A lot of kids have skates. If they don't, they just play without them. It's not a requirement. Just as you don't need a helmet and thirty pads to play football with your friends.

Further, people watch and play hockey in Florida. We all know this.

Football sucks for a lot of reasons.

1) Most of the game is spent non-active. That's just boring as hell, folks.

2) When the game is ACTUALLY in motion there's so much chaos going on that there is no way you can be a real "fan" of it.

3) 16 games isn't enough games to determine who the "best is" thus the whole thing is useless crap.

AudioSavior

He has a point. Road hockey is a blast and you can play hockey without skates and anyone can do it anywhere.

The Strange One

Well, you are certainly entitled to your opinion but the NFL is in much better shape financially than the NHL, which is indicative of you being in the minority. If hockey is a better sport than football, then that only speaks to how poorly the NHL has marketed their product.

I still say that playing street hockey isn't the same as playing hockey on ice, the same way that playing flag football isn't the same experience as playing full-contact football.

Off topic, I like having fewer regular season games because it makes each one count more. Baseball, on the other hand, has way too many games, in my opinion. Take the Astros, for example. After 3 months of futility, they finally played well in the last month and a half and got into the playoffs. You can't do that in football because every games counts so much.

:guns: :redbounce :bounce:

AudioSavior

Roller Hockey is fun too! lol

DMW

Miakal, everything you said about football is wrong, but I don't want to hijack this thread.

This NHL situation is just another example of how labor unions do more harm than good these days. It appears that you have another over-zealous union leader whose ego seems to be preventing him from doing what is truly best for the people he represents, while the majority of union members would seemingly be much happier taking a small paycut rather than playing hockey for little more than minimum wage elsewhere.

The owners obviously have to take some blame for not properly preparing for financially difficult times, but regardless of who was wrong in the first place, the leagues economic system needs to be revamped or everyone is going to out of a lot of money and no one will win. If anyone wins this, it seems like it's going to have to be the owners, because if they're willing to cancel an entire season and lose all that money, you know they must be serious about their financial situations.

Miakal

I agree that it's a lot about marketing but that doesn't mean, as you seemed to suggest earlier, that there is no market for the NHL. I think that's just stupid.

And it ties into your comments about people playing football/hockey. Not a lot of kids play real tackle football so they either play tag or some half-assed version of it. It's the same thing with hockey. Yeah, you can't play on ice year round or in every state but you can play some version of it, so what's your point? The game can still be played.

PS. Fuck the NHL. Watch college.

Bouchie

I got a better idea...FUCK YOU, how's that? God damn ignorant Americans...