[Carlo Colaiacovo] I hope this is a wake up call for change in the NHL. Fans are losing interest. No rivalries; lacking storylines; more buzz around t

[wintersej]

There would be more trade and less math if the cap had not been flat for a thousand years. That’s a temporary problem. Rivalries? Why is Buffalo vs Carolina on TNT instead of Leafs vs Bruins?

 

[vandymeer13]

I remember when the Pens had a fierce rivalry with the flyers. There was hatred between the teams. Every game was a blood bath. This was merely 8 years ago. The days of Kunitz, Orpik, Hartnell, Carcillo.
Nowadays, fights are non-existent and anything resembling a hit starts a skirmish of holding and bickering.

I hate enforcers but fighting and hitting needs to come back. Instigator rule needs to be abolished.

Also, allow us to stream games.

Don't agree with anti enforcers. But hitting fighting desperately needs to come back. I miss the grimsons proberts domi and barnany's

 

[Skip To My Lou]

Let's be honest here, sports thrive on personalities. As much as I hate him, LeBron is a larger than life personality on top of his elite talent, same thing with Tom Brady, Steph Curry, Pat Mahomes Travis Kelce, etc. Something about the way the NBA and NFL market their players is something that the MLB and NHL suck at doing.

Players in football and basketball are allowed to be themselves, and act like normal human beings. For hockey players, these guys have been taught from Junior to act like robots when the camera is on them. I hate watching NHL interviews.

As dynamic of a player McDavid is, they guy is as exciting as white bread when he talks. He's just awkward, and not in the charming-Phil Kessel sense. Hopefully guys like Zegras and Jack Hughes can start a trend that allows hockey players to act like normal human beings and not robots who are talking from a list of talking points.

 

[Breakers]

I LOVED Adam Oates idea of having 1st overall in their conference gets to choose their first round matchup of the teams that qualified

then 2nd gets to choose if not chosen by 1st..... etc etc

that is a fun way to create rivalries that I think is really creative.

The captains make the selections on some sort of stream.

 

[jeffff]

Cap, point structure, playoff seeding, the refs, analysts etc are FAN issues. Knowledgeable fans that want tweaks to the game itself. This has nothing to do with growing the game. We all want changes but we continue to watch.

The only thing that matters is......accessibility. Having the ability to watch a game, PERIOD. It is insane that the NHL has blackouts, and it is insane that when a fan wants to watch a game, he/she can't or has to jump through hoops in order to do so.

FWIW, I watched the Edm/TB game that was televised on ESPN while I was in Phoenix a few weeks ago. First off I was shocked it was on TV and secondly, it wasn't bad....surely better than not watching the game at all.

 

[SimpleJack]

Why watch a hockey game when I can just stare at my smart phone for hours while scrolling through TikTok and Instagram?

 

[Hisch13r]

I do not care about anything Carlo Colaiacovo has to say.

 

[Forgot About Drai]

The marketing of Connor Mcdavid is criminal and Bettman should go to jail for allowing it.

 

[Aaaaaaaaaaaaa]

So he's calling out who? No one. He's calling out hockey in general and giving no ideas or possible solutions.
Grow a sac CC. Call out Bettman, call out the owners.
Hey, here's A thought, call out your fellow players: stop being jock, meat head, bullies. Stop using your athlete status to prey on women. Stop looking the other way when your teammate is sexually assaulted, stop with the code of silence to cover up dirt bag predators who share the locker room with you. I mean, that sort of shit turns me away from the league much more than anything he mentioned.
But I suppose, in the mind of a hockey player, the real enemy will always be math.
f*** YOU MATH!!

If you take 800 hockey players, just like every day society, some of them will be bad human beings. We agree; get rid of them, throw them in prison, whatever needs to be done.

But then when you have amazing role models like McDavid or Crosby....guess what? People say they are boring, vanilla, wallpaper paste and that players need to be a-holes to get attention.

So which is it?

 

[Anthrax442]

And get rid of half the teams????

yes

 

[swiftwin]

Why watch a hockey game when I can just stare at my smart phone for hours while scrolling through TikTok and Instagram?

Because boomer NHL execs think people just stare at TVs all day, flipping channels until something interesting pops up.

The reality is twofold:

1 -They need to tap into social media way better to hook fans who are mindlessly scrolling instead of trying to took fans who are mindlessly flipping channels.

2 - They need to make hockey accessible to watch. If you hook a fan on social media, they aren't going to turn around and drop $100+ a month on the dying medium that is cable TV. They need legitimate streaming options where fans can actually legally watch hockey online without a TV cable set.

edit: I'm honestly think Ryan Reynolds buying the Sens is going to give the whole NHL a huge boost in popularity. He understand this stuff and knows how to market to newer generations, unlike boomer execs liek Bettman.

 

[easton117]

It's mostly the edge that is lost. There's barely ever any chirping between the benches anymore, and that used to be a daily occurrence.

Playoffs still have some of that edge but it will never be what it used to be.

I also think the concept of tanking has become so shameless that it takes away from the game as well.

Marchand just referenced this the other night. There are mic’s everywhere. Linesman have become recess monitors, making sure the children talk nice to each other.

It’s ridculous. But everyone should’ve seen it coming. The general public/sponsors couldn’t handle what was being said on the ice, so guys get told to act like they’re in a f***ing Disney movie.

As soon as lawyers and corporate entities and big tv got involved in the sport it started going in to the shitter as far as entertainment went.

Edit and for the love of god just let me pay for the team I want to watch. Make it a non asshole conceived price (it’ll be a struggle, I know) and I’ll buy it. Then I’ll watch games. Then you can fellate to the ratings increase. Then we’re both actually happy.

 

[mjhfb]

When I was younger I loved watching the all star game. It was a game. Now...

 

[GrumpyKoala]

Hockey is for everyone, so
Fair price for tickets and food
Stop 2nd market tickets retail

Hockey is for everyone, so
More accessibility to watch games. You don't gain visibility or new fans from a hell crasy house of cryptic paywall

Hockey is for everyone, so
Respect the game, Respect the core experience Respect the viewer who support it
Stop trying to immitate what working in other league and capitalize on what make hockey unique. Stop rigging the game into a coregraphied spectacle

At the end of the day what we care is to see the best athletes fairly fight for the control of a vulcanized disc and sometimes put it in the back of the net.

The more we derail from this, the less I care

 

[swiftwin]

Marchand just referenced this the other night. There are mic’s everywhere. Linesman have become recess monitors, making sure the children talk nice to each other.

Marchand is one of the best things to happen to the sport in a long time. He knows to play the heel, and loves to stir shit on social media. Those are the two things the NHL lacks the most.

 

[easton117]

Marchand is one of the best things to happen to the sport in a long time. He knows to play the heel, and loves to stir shit on social media. Those are the two things the NHL lacks the most.

There’s so few of them, which is staggering when you think of it.

Like, anyone that has played the sport at any level knows about 20 of those guys from their respective leagues. Where did they all go!?!

 

[Number8]

He's not wrong but it's much easier to complain about things than it is to offer solutions.

Yes, we need better rivalries but what do you propose to do to make them better?
Yes, the NHL needs more trades but how?
etc.

And too many math equations?!? Ahh...

In fairness, it’s Carlo’s job to solve. It’s Commissioner Bettmans. And he gets paid more than enough to do that. You may disagree with the suggestions for why viewership is down, but there’s no denying it’s down. Maybe it’s cable as another poster suggested. And mybe that’s something outside of Bettman’s direct control. Still his problem to solve.

Meanwhile he offers us gambling while looking the other way when one of his refs states that “game management” is in play. Oh yeah, and fines Coaches who have audacity to state the obvious when certain refs suck at their job.

Wakey wakey, Gary.

 

[EXTRAS]

I believe ratings are now released with streaming numbers included.

I'm saying people who choose to stream watch less of all sports these days, I'm not saying people watch their sports on streaming.

 

[OilerTyler]

This week there was a pivotal missed call on LeBron in the Lakers/Celtics game. It made headline news and the head of the NBA’s referee association issued a public apology. Imagine the NHL ever having that kind of accountability.

In the NHL, the refs go out of their way to ignore obvious calls because they are trying to influence the result of the game. If a star player is being grabbed, hooked or tripped the league doesn’t care. Their team had the last power play so it’s fair game. No one is tuning in to watch the stars, right? The viewing experience is in a terrible place and I think if many of us weren’t diehards we wouldn’t still be tuning in. I totally understand why the casual fan doesn’t care anymore.

 

[Warden of the North]

Define it, sorry when I read a Leafs fan (or original six team fan) say "soft cap" I smirk how transparent that is.

Why shouldn't I be transparent about it?

Aside from that, it will encourage player movement, and line the pockets of lesser markets.

 

[ZDH]

Go back to 1-8 seeding, that format bred rivalries.

 

[Mez]

It's true. Just an endless string of players with zero personalities. I mean, McDavid is almost laughable with how boring he is. Just wallpaper paste.

Yet he's insanely entertaining to watch on ice. Not sure how him being fun in interviews would do much....was Gretzky super cool and fun off ice?

 

[Iggys Dome]

definitely need to push the original six more

casual fans and non fans are super interested in that

I never understood the obsession with the O6 stuff. Like yay the 9th winter classic in a row that features Boston vs Chicago or someshit…big whoop.

 

[saska sault]

Sportsnet now doesn't work if you live in the market of the team you're trying to watch. They black it out because they want you to pay for cable. The opposite is true if you live out of market. There, they black out games on cable, forcing you to stream instead. It's all super convoluted and f***ed up. It's like they want to scare fans away.

They are actively preventing people from watching games, then wonder why people don't watch the games. It's beyond stupid.

It all went down hill when Don got fired!

 

[Mr Positive]

the rivalry thing is true. It's a joke that divisional opponents hardly play each other. It might as well be no difference between eastern and western conference at this point. Like the Oilers played the Flames only 3 times, and that's it for the year. We get to play the Isles twice.