Around the League - 2023 Offseason Edition

[Bill Peckerskull]

Yeah lets just scrap all the celebrations, not just the jerseys. No more military appreciation for anything ever. They don't need to be celebrated to do their jobs.

We don't need to make an effort to show marginalized communities they can enjoy hockey either. I'm not an intolerant bigot, so that means nobody else is either. Have you looked at an NHL roster? It's so diverse. And it's not like gay people have ever had bad experiences playing organized sports.

Also, lets scrap health care initiatives. I don't need someone to remind me to eat healthy and exercise, so that means nobody else in this country does either right? I'm annoyed I have to read my tv dinner is 4000 calories. I just want to enjoy my dinner, I don't need this distraction.

Also, no more medals for saving peoples lives or dedicated service. Those puss**s should know to do that without some virtue signaling medal. Yeah I might be wearing lederhosen and an arm band right now without them, but every time I see WW2 veterans applauded, it's such a distraction I go blind for the next three hours and can't watch my pointless game.

No more birthday celebrations either. I know I won't be able to love my family members, if we don't have birthday parties, but I don't care. Makes the whole cause moot right?

If that's what you really want.

 

[Foppa2118]

If that's what you really want.

The point is that just because not celebrating those things wouldn't render their cause moot, it would in fact diminish their importance.

Which is the goal of the mob the NHL is catering to with this decision.

 

[sethro109]

Pro sports is entertainment. Why the f*** would I want to be constantly reminded of real world problems while trying to watch an entertainment program?

 

[Foppa2118]

Pro sports is entertainment. Why the f*** would I want to be constantly reminded of real world problems while trying to watch an entertainment program?

How often are you really reminded? We get reminded once a year and then the topic of "pride" is almost never talked about.

 

[sethro109]

How often are you really reminded? We get reminded once a year and then the topic of "pride" is almost never talked about.

It's not about any one single topic. I'm talking about all the theme nights. There's way too many and their celebrations take too long.

 

[Foppa2118]

It's not about any one single topic. I'm talking about all the theme nights. There's way too many and they're celebrations take too long.

I have to disagree. There's only a few games a year with themes like this, and the broadcast dedicates like 60 seconds to it before the game starts.

 

[sethro109]

I have to disagree. There's only a few games a year with themes like this, and the broadcast dedicates like 60 seconds to it before the game starts.

It's definitely more than 60 seconds. These things always make the game start at least 15 minutes late and it's absolutely not just at the beginning before puck drop. It's every commercial break and there's plenty of segments in the intermissions.

 

[Foppa2118]

It's definitely more than 60 seconds. These things always make the game start at least 15 minutes late and it's absolutely not just at the beginning before puck drop. It's every commercial break and there's plenty of segments in the intermissions.

I really don't think that's true. They don't make the games start that late. Maybe a couple minutes at most, but what happens is they come back from commercial early, or they don't go to one so they can briefly show the celebration.

So instead of watching ads or some studio segment, you're watching part of the celebration. It's really not that long and you can just treat it like a commercial break if you want, and get some food or drink, or go to the bathroom, etc.

Even if they mention it a few times throughout the broadcast, this shouldn't distract you from enjoying the game.

The 15 or so commercial breaks, and ads plastered all over the arena, jerseys, and helmets for products you don't want to buy, are doing waaaaaaay more distracting than them mentioning something about pride, military, or cancer awareness a few times.

 

[UncleRisto]

I don't care what they show for occasional segments during games, but the thing you should never lose sight on is that the military, and especially pride for these organisations are on the exact same line as Star Wars night, KeyBank and the all new Chevy Silverado. Because military dollars and gay dollars are just as green as the other ones.

That doesn't distract me from enjoying hockey, but I sure as hell wouldn't thank anyone for representation or whatever.

 

[GeoRox89]

For me, the worst thing about this is that it boils down to really just being about money. If it wasn’t, the NHL would deal with that other more much universally agreed upon issue - the ridiculous proliferation of non-stop sports betting ads woven right into the broadcast

 

[Foppa2118]

I don't care what they show for occasional segments during games, but the thing you should never lose sight on is that the military, and especially pride for these organisations are on the exact same line as Star Wars night, KeyBank and the all new Chevy Silverado. Because military dollars and gay dollars are just as green as the other ones.

That doesn't distract me from enjoying hockey, but I sure as hell wouldn't thank anyone for representation or whatever.

Don't you think gay hockey fans are thankful for the NHL trying to welcome them, rather than ostracize them like is often the case?

Movies, banks, and cars are products. Gay hockey fans, military vets, and cancer survivors are people.

 

[Alienblood]

Not joking, they should ditch the national anthems while they're at it. The fact that we play that before every single sporting game is moronic.

Oh man I love you for saying this, how stupid is it.

 

[AllAboutAvs]

I'm fine with that decision. I actually agree with Bettman on this one. It was absolutely becoming a distraction. when every reporter is constantly asking, posting stories and retweeting about it, that's a distraction from hockey. I wish they would just do away with theme nights all together. I just want to watch hockey and for the games to start on time.

The only way this can happen is if we hire back Joe Sacco.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

I'm just not a fan of themed nights. As a vet, I'm actually embarrassed by military appreciation nights. It's cringy and if I'm being honest, feels insincere. Like it's an obligation, something the teams does on x night every year.

I'd be fine with the Avs just sticking to hockey. These guys didn't make it to the NHL because of their understanding of social issues or global politics.

 

[UncleRisto]

Don't you think gay hockey fans are thankful for the NHL trying to welcome them, rather than ostracize them like is often the case?

Movies, banks, and cars are products. Gay hockey fans, military vets, and cancer survivors are people.

I don't know why they would be when the team is just selling merch and stuff.

 

[TruePowerSlave]

Sport teams should just play the game and that's it. I don't appreciate sports being used as a platform to deliver non sport related messages, good or bad.

 

[forsbergavs32]

Friendly reminder

Please keep this discussion on the NHL and hockey and don’t spiral into political and religious beliefs, or military discussion.

Thanks

 

[redacted]

All the special jerseys are marketing. I understand how the impacted groups want recognition, inclusion, and feel it is their voice being heard... but the base level of this is the NHL and those teams were marketing to those groups. Once the marketing doesn't work or creates bad PR... then the plug is pulled. At the end of the day, this is a business that wants to maximize their revenue.

 

[Ceremony]

All the special jerseys are marketing. I understand how the impacted groups want recognition, inclusion, and feel it is their voice being heard... but the base level of this is the NHL and those teams were marketing to those groups. Once the marketing doesn't work or creates bad PR... then the plug is pulled. At the end of the day, this is a business that wants to maximize their revenue.

The Pride/You Can Play stuff is marketing. St. Patrick's Day is (somehow) marketing. Military ones are advertising an outside organisation.

The Hockey Fights Cancer jerseys being affected in the wake of this seems like a really bad move. Hopefully the money raised isn't affected too badly.

 

[redacted]

The Pride/You Can Play stuff is marketing. St. Patrick's Day is (somehow) marketing. Military ones are advertising an outside organisation.

The Hockey Fights Cancer jerseys being affected in the wake of this seems like a really bad move. Hopefully the money raised isn't affected too badly.

Military is very much marketing too. There are people who go just for those games and they tend to be some of the most popular event jerseys. I get what you're saying with the outside organization... those happen on most of the other nights too, including Pride nights.

The NHL is just pulling the ripcord on everything to not get into a social media spat. They'll take the hit in the summer when nobody is paying attention besides the hardcore fans (and we'll watch regardless). Then once the season starts casual fans will barely notice, if they notice at all.

 

[MacKaRtin]

The NHL is just pulling the ripcord on everything to not get into a social media spat. They'll take the hit in the summer when nobody is paying attention besides the hardcore fans (and we'll watch regardless). Then once the season starts casual fans will barely notice, if they notice at all.

It's a very smart decision. I swear there were 30-40 articles on The Athletic about individual players boycotting, this team canceling warm-ups entirely, and so on in this past season. All of them with a lot of engagement in the comments section with the same political fault lines that we see on our little corner of the Internet here at HFAvs.

There was just a Shayna Goldman article in The Athletic that castigated the NHL for being cowards for refusing to have tough conversations. When I realized that this was The Athletic's very last shot at writing such an article for the foreseeable future, it clicked for me how much the NHL decision made sense.

 

[The Moops]

It's a very smart decision. I swear there were 30-40 articles on The Athletic about individual players boycotting, this team canceling warm-ups entirely, and so on in this past season. All of them with a lot of engagement in the comments section with the same political fault lines that we see on our little corner of the Internet here at HFAvs.

There was just a Shayna Goldman article in The Athletic that castigated the NHL for being cowards for refusing to have tough conversations. When I realized that this was The Athletic's very last shot at writing such an article for the foreseeable future, it clicked for me how much the NHL decision made sense.

lmao as if The Athletic has a leg to stand on. What a joke.

 

[GoNordiquesGo]

HHoF is meaningless because they accepted too many "good" players instead of keeping it the elite of the elite.

Totally different scenario than scoring goals which is the literal aim of the game of hockey lol.

Yhea, it started slipping the moment it got correlated with longevity. 20 15 goal seasons = 300 goals doesn't equate to 10 30 goal seasons. Too many players got in because of impressive totals, resulting from consitency and healty careers. Those are great achievements but shouldn't be HHOF worthy. Once that door openned, it became very hard to backtrack from it, and it became a checklist of totals... Hench described it very well with Mogilny and falling short of totals,m becaue they are now doing the XXX point bracket, then they will move into the XXX-100 point bracket... total BS...

 

[Ceremony]

There was a good poll series on the main board a while ago (few years now, probably) voting for the HHOF over the years. Much better and more discerning than whatever it is now. As I've got older I've cared less about it, but when you're young and getting into the NHL and you hear players described as Hall of Famers (and when you have no other reference for what a Hall of Fame - a uniquely American institution - is), it sounds impressive and rarefied. Then you see Kevin Lowe getting in and think well, perhaps not.

 

[UncleRisto]

Beats me why the discussion is "Turgeon is the only 1 300 point guy left and after that they'll start doing 1 200." How about you just don't let Turgeon in and don't let more and more guys in every year. I know, yes, the only purpose is marketing so they don't want an off-year.