Around the League 2024-25 season

[fivehole32]

I am not a big fan of the stoppage for a meaningless tournament, however I like that they are taking the 2 weeks off at one time instead of staggering groups of teams off for their ten day break.

As far as viewership is concerned, as everyone else said having multiple app, etc to view games is an overall negative. I have no idea when a game is on Amazon. Hulu has like 90% of the games and then the Kings games I have to "borrow" the stream for a friends DTV account. I still get screwed on Kings games that broadcast of KCAL because I live in the desert and its considered LA sphere of influence so its blacked out yet I can't get KCAL in the desert.

Lastly, fewer and fewer games against rivals is an overall negative. I would prefer to have one game per season vs east coast opponents to ratchet up some tension in the division and conference games.

 

[kingsholygrail]

NHL viewership on ESPN and TNT is looking truly dreadful

The NHL finds itself struggling in viewership, drawing dreadful audiences for regular season games last week.

awfulannouncing.com

*39% year-over-year decline in Opening Night viewership

*Record-low audience for the Winter Classic

*Sharks Kraken got 175K viewers the lowest-viewed program on ESPN for the entire day. (A women's NCAA basketball game got 390K the same day).

It's same problem we had with NBC. It's not promoted by the networks that host it and they don't show it much either. TNT shows it on one day a week as far as I can tell. ESPN seems to only have a game on randomly. This is no way to build any viewership. And the Winter Classic sucks.

 

[lumbergh]

As far as viewership is concerned, as everyone else said having multiple app, etc to view games is an overall negative. I have no idea when a game is on Amazon. Hulu has like 90% of the games and then the Kings games I have to "borrow" the stream for a friends DTV account. I still get screwed on Kings games that broadcast of KCAL because I live in the desert and its considered LA sphere of influence so its blacked out yet I can't get KCAL in the desert.

As an out-of-towner Kings fan, ESPN+ is pretty much the best thing ever. I cut the cord years ago. The only issue is I can't watch the TNT games.

 

[King'sPawn]

Not NHL but still fun to think of brawls coming from the handshake line:

 

[KingsHockey24]

Not NHL but still fun to think of brawls coming from the handshake line:

Just tag me next time.

 

[Herby]

I will watch the 4 Nations, but Hughes sitting it out just proves how little it means to the players, there is zero chance he would have sat out for the Olympics. And not to make it political or anything, but not having the Russians also greatly cheapens the eventual winner. I still struggle to see why American players were allowed to participate in international hockey following the Iraq invasion, but Russian players are not because of the Ukraine invasion.

 

[King'sPawn]

Just tag me next time.

@KingsHockey24

Done. You're welcome!

 

[21Dog]

I understand the complaints, but 3 thoughts:

1) It's better than the cringe All Star Game.

That's a low bar.

 

[johnjm22]

That's a low bar.

Life is much better when you have low expectations for everything.

 

[kingsholygrail]

Not NHL but still fun to think of brawls coming from the handshake line:

Not sure I'd call that brawl, but still pretty funny. Surprised this hasn't happened at least once in the NHL. We've had some refusals to get in line and skipping some handshakes, but no scrums yet.

 

[KingsHockey24]

Not sure I'd call that brawl, but still pretty funny. Surprised this hasn't happened at least once in the NHL. We've had some refusals to get in line and skipping some handshakes, but no scrums yet.

Come again?

 

[kingsholygrail]

Come again?

This was AHL though.