Kings fans deserve the Stanley Cup just for their heckling.
As I wrote a few weeks ago, it was very easy for NHL experts and analysts to label the Los Angeles Kings a Cinderella story because of how bad they sucked early on in the season. They were bad enough to get their coach fired and they were bad enough early on that it took a hell of a late season run to avoid missing the playoffs entirely. But people conveniently ignored that the Kings were a sweetheart team before the season began, having made the playoffs last year and returning one heck of a talented squad.
Tonight, they can sweep the New Jersey Devils to win the Stanley Cup and put an exclamation point on an amazing comeback, but the problem isn’t that this was simply a team that just needed to get it right to become this good. It’s that nobody is even watching them now.
While Games 1 and 2 drew good ratings in New York and Los Angeles, according to figures provided by NBC, across the rest of the United States, overnight ratings for Game 1 were off 25 percent from last year’s Boston-Vancouver opener, and Game 2 was down 12 percent from last year.
The dropoff in national ratings for two of the N.H.L.’s non-marquee teams stands in contrast to the rise in ratings for the Oklahoma City-San Antonio Western Conference basketball finals, likewise involving two non-marquee teams. (Via the New York Times)
I’m not going to do the whole “Hockey is boring, that’s why nobody is watching” routine, because the Kings aren’t boring. They’ve been exciting as hell as they stormed to the Finals, so the problem has to be something else. And considering I can’t even tell you what time tonight’s game is or what channel it’s on, I’d say that the NHL should start with its marketing department.
Game 4 is at 8 p.m. tonight on NBC Sports Network, obviously. I know this because I had to go to NBC Sports and enter my zip code into the channel finder. Again, the problem isn’t that hard to pinpoint.
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The reffing during the Phoenix/LA series was extremely biased. Many people were left wondering why some of the calls that were made….were made. It seems that after that series, the NHL is no different than the WWE: rigged. Fans are obviously insulted, and could care less. Blame the people who rigged it. Turn it back into an actual sport. Maybe people might tune in again.
I admit I’d have to watch a game in great detail to understand the complaints of terrible reffing in the NHL. The NBA is so much easier to accuse of being rigged.
I saw it firsthand. I grew up playing hockey in NorCal, before the Sharks were even a thing. The ownership has really done a number making Sharks hockey relevant, something never seen before. And now, they flourish as a pristine hockey destination.
I moved to AZ about 6 years ago, because my dad’s dying. Wayne Gretzky coaching the Yotes was a publicity ploy, the owners didnt give a shit, etc. The Yotes have sucked in AZ for one reason alone in the last 10 years: it was a cover for gambling debts, and revenue to fund terrible gamblimg habits.
If greg jamison gets hold of this team ( which remains to be seen), phoenix is just another drop in the bucket. And fuck you, Wayne Gretzky.
@Burnsy: The reffing has gone back to pre-lockout quality, which is garbage. The NHL decided after their lockout in ’06 to open up the game by calling penalties. Prior to ’06, the game had become so terrible, you couldn’t sell the game anywhere. Not only that, but shitty teams that had no business making the playoffs were making runs in the playoffs because they could just commit 2nd degree assault on the ice on the more talented team.
Anyway, from 06-10, penalties were called in both the regular season and most importantly, the playoffs, The hockey was incredible to a point where even really old NHL fans were saying that the NHL had entered a golden age in hockey.
Then the 2011 playoffs began and there was a dip on things not being called. The product became garbage. After Boston won the cup, because the NHL is a copycat league, more teams started to adopt a boring style of hockey where they commit 2nd degree assault on their opponents and win 2-1 with defense.
Now we’re at a point where the hockey being played is terrible and refs randomly call penalties. We are now watching a terribly slow and boring style of hockey. And people are changing the channel (as they should).
Joelski: Phoenix had no business making it to the Conference finals. When your team gets outshot 45-12 every game, you should feel lucky they were able to win 1 game, let alone win 2 rounds.
And it looked even worse when the Coyotes, owned by the NHL, was getting some favorable reffing leading up to the conference series.
Tippett coaches a defense-first sytem, and has done an amazing job of it, considering there was no money to buy any quality stars. He’d worked miracles with the hand he was dealt. Yes, maybe the Yotes didn’t deserve to be there. But with Tippett’s system, it doesn’t matter who the goalie is They’ll look like Vezina candidates no matter what. Tipeett’s a genius for being able to tweak a bunch of hand-me-downs into a relevant force.No one thought they’d even make the playoffs. Which is why Bettman made sure they didn’t make it to the finals.
*blows whistle for no reason*
@Joelski: While I would not contest too much the Kings getting more calls, you gotta admit that Phoenix got calls in the playoffs to get to the Conference finals. And by getting calls, I mean not getting penalties. It’s not like the Coyotes are owned by the NHL and wanting to showcase the Coyotes to potential buyers to keep the team in a shitty market. *whistles singing in the rain*
Eh, it simply about the teams in it. LA isn’t a good sports city until the finals of whatever sport is being played and the Devils fanbase exists solely of people who live in NJ who aren’t already Flyers fans, Rangers fans, or incarcerated. Which leaves, like, 4500 people.
…or Islanders fans. I think that’s still a thing.
What Youppi said.
LA is a terrible sports town and there just aren’t very many Devils fans.
I would say that the problem is no one is really interested in hockey in the States and clearly promotion is non-existent. Now before you think i’m biased, even here in Canada, no one is really interested in these finals other then curiosities sake. So if you broke down numbers for tonight’s game, you’ll see more people watched the last hour then the rest of the game just to see if a winner is crowned.
I’m interested in these Finals, and kind of sad that I may have to shave off the playoff beard after tonight’s game.
Too many terrible, small market teams. No real relationship w/ ESPN (Barry Melrose popping on for 2 minutes an hour to biasly talk about the Kings does not count). Garbage officiating. Garbage promotion/marketing. A 6th and 8th ranked team playing for your championship trophy. Poor scheduling (game tonight, next game on Saturday?? seriously?). The finals are being played on channel 146 on Cablevision. *146*.
I almost hope theirs a lockout in September when the collective bargaining agreement ends. This league needs to fix *so* many things. A tear down/rebuild honestly wouldn’t hurt the sport at this point. 1. Contraction 2. Schedule reduction (make the games more meaningful) 3. Less teams in the playoff….you could literally go on all day.
And get at least 3 pucks going at all times!
Hockey will never be what it was in the 80′s, unfortunately. It is a far superior sport to the NBA. I would rather watch the Octomon diddle herself than watch the playground garbage that ESPN loves to promote.
I live in New York City, and the media around here really pushed the Rangers as the City’s team in the Eastern Conference Finals, and when they lost, acted like they didn’t care anymore. If anyone else (save maybe the Islanders) had played the Devils in the ECF, the local media might have been pushing the Stanley Cup more.
LA isn’t a city that’s hyped about sports unless their team is in the Finals, and NJ doesn’t have too many fans since most are fans of the Rangers. The White Boom Boom is also correct in saying the Rangers is pretty much the team of NYC. There is literally nothing driving me to watch the games.