Miscellaneous NHL Discussion LXI: The highway on which the bleachers are out in the sun

[Ghosts Beer]

From a ratings standpoint Montreal-Islanders definitely is the Final the NHL wants. Two traditional teams with a big fanbase from huge markets that haven't made the SCF in forever. Pretty easy to market that series.
Would be very similar to the 2010 Final.

Absolutely .

 

[Flyerfan4life]

No casual fan gives a flying f*** about Las Vegas & Tampa Bay. It comes across like two expansion teams playing, or, like I said before, a roller hockey game not the Stanley Cup. Casual fans don’t even know who those teams are.

Everyone recognizes Montreal, & the Islanders are a well-known franchise.

Everyone in Canada will be tuning in rooting for Montreal to bring Canada its first Cup since ‘93, & a huge New York market will be tuning in for the Isles. That’s a lot of TV ratings that TB-VGK sure won’t match.

HEY... not everyone..

f*** the Habs.. till the end of time..

 

[Ghosts Beer]

HEY... not everyone..

f*** the Habs.. till the end of time..

Hatred is a form of recognition.

 

[ajgoal]

So Slavin won the Byng, which I feel is pretty deserved, but Damien Cox is having an absolute meltdown on Twitter over it, and it’s hilarious.

He's right you know. Mathews was a Byng finalist (You know, the award that mentions a player being gentlemanly) the season in which he harassed a female security guard. Definitely should review how THAT happened.

 

[Surrounded By Ahos]

He's right you know. Mathews was a Byng finalist (You know, the award that mentions a player being gentlemanly) the season in which he harassed a female security guard. Definitely should review how THAT happened.

McDavid literally got fined this year for elbowing a guy. What gentlemen they are!

 

[renberg]

From a ratings standpoint Montreal-Islanders definitely is the Final the NHL wants. Two traditional teams with a big fanbase from huge markets that haven't made the SCF in forever. Pretty easy to market that series.
Would be very similar to the 2010 Final.

Hard core fans would watch the game but aside from them, in the NYC area, not many outside of LI. Lets see, I live in SoCal and I have a choice of watching that game or going to the beach. Where's the sun tan lotion? Fans in other cities are going to be into baseball or football camps which are coming up. Here its all Sixers. Even in Canada, I wonder how tuned up the folks in the West are to watching the Canadiens? Who are the big stars to drag you into watching?

 

[Rebels57]

McDavid literally got fined this year for elbowing a guy. What gentlemen they are!

And he did that like twice in one week

 

[Ghosts Beer]

Damien Cox's take is absurd. Just a typical fan crying about his favorite stars not getting enough recognition. Because, you know, 24/7 media fawning isn't enough. They also need every award.

 

[Magua]

I think certain people are projecting THEIR deep deep deep deep want for a Montreal-Islanders final. This isn’t the late 70s. Two teams short of top talent, getting shelled all postseason, with two unlikeable teams/fan bases sure to get ALL the eyeballs out of market.

Montreal-Islanders is like a shitty 1st round in a normal season. I wouldn’t watch a game.

 

[TCTC]

Hard core fans would watch the game but aside from them, in the NYC area, not many outside of LI. Lets see, I live in SoCal and I have a choice of watching that game or going to the beach. Where's the sun tan lotion? Fans in other cities are going to be into baseball or football camps which are coming up. Here its all Sixers. Even in Canada, I wonder how tuned up the folks in the West are to watching the Canadiens? Who are the big stars to drag you into watching?

Still better than Vegas and Tampa, two teams that really only local fans and hardcore fans care about.
The Canadiens have a history and the Islanders have a history and both have multiple generations of fans.

Vegas was a great story when they made the Final in their inaugural season, but that novelty has worn off by now. Tampa won last season, so seeing them in the Final again this year would be kind of boring, especially to casual fans.

 

[Henry Miller]

Would the Flyers postseason struggles last playoffs look somewhat better a year later if both the teams they played ended up in the Finals the next year?

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

@Striiker you’ll love this one

It honestly is a dumb award. They could eliminate some of them. I would get rid of this, the GM of the year, the Jennings, etc. & change some of the language in the awards to more so reflect how they’re actually rewarded (the Selke for example is voted as the best two-way award).

 

[CanadianFlyer88]

So Slavin won the Byng, which I feel is pretty deserved, but Damien Cox is having an absolute meltdown on Twitter over it, and it’s hilarious.

Damien Cox is the biggest piece of shit associated with the hockey world, so this is not remotely surprising. What an asshole.

 

[Ghosts Beer]

Still better than Vegas and Tampa, two teams that really only local fans and hardcore fans care about.
The Canadiens have a history and the Islanders have a history and both have multiple generations of fans.

Vegas was a great story when they made the Final in their inaugural season, but that novelty has worn off by now. Tampa won last season, so seeing them in the Final again this year would be kind of boring, especially to casual fans.

Yup. It's not a complicated formula.

Which of the four teams have the biggest local TV audiences? Montreal and the Islanders.

Which of the four teams have the biggest national audiences? Montreal and the Islanders.

Do casual fans know or care anything about Vegas and Tampa? Surely not as many as who will at least recognize Montreal and the Islanders.

Think fans who don't follow hockey know anything about playing styles? Of course not. And it's not like Vegas and Tampa play high-octane offense-first styles, anyway. Certainly not in the postseason.

 

[kudymen]

I bet the team that couldn't fill Nassau Coliseum has the highest national following of the 4 teams left

(don't take this comment too seriously, it's Sunday)

 

[skagittarius]

f*** the Habs.. till the end of time..

Yeah, that's how I feel. Normally the logos/ethos appeals in my mind would tip the scale to the side of Montreal as I hate what LV was gifted / lucked into and don't care for the city, but I can't get past the flood of bitter comments I read last year from Montreal fans on the main HFboard after we sent them home. Habs fans came out en masse to diminish our accomplishment and overwhelmingly appeared to be rooting for the Islanders in the next round. So I'm emotionally pulling for LV.

 

[BernieParent]

Still better than Vegas and Tampa, two teams that really only local fans and hardcore fans care about.
The Canadiens have a history and the Islanders have a history and both have multiple generations of fans.

Vegas was a great story when they made the Final in their inaugural season, but that novelty has worn off by now. Tampa won last season, so seeing them in the Final again this year would be kind of boring, especially to casual fans.

I really don't see how casual fans would think that winning is boring. Two long-storied but recently mediocre teams that have 1 Cup combined in the last 30 years is more in line with ho-hum.

That being said, most everyone without a horse in the race loves an underdog, and Montreal fits that bill to a T. Down 3-1 to the media-crowned kings of the North, they found a way to claw back. They rolled over the defeaters of the other Canadian heirs-apparent, and are a game up on a team that most everyone who has seen at least 1 NHL game expected would curbstomp them without breaking a sweat.

EDIT: I never stop editing my posts.

 

[Captain Dave Poulin]

I really don't see how casual fans would think that winning is boring. Two long-storied but recently mediocre teams that have 1 Cup combined in the last 30 years is more in line with ho-hum.

That being said, most everyone without a horse in the race loves an underdog, and Montreal fits that bill to a T. Down 3-1 to the media-crowned kings of the North, they found a way to claw back. They rolled over the defeaters of the other Canadian heirs-apparent, and are a game up on a team that most everyone who has seen at least 1 NHL game would curbstomp them without breaking a sweat.

The Islanders are really short-storied, too. They have been shit outside of a five-year period when they were unfortunately awesome. Their fanbase is packed to the rafters with total mongrels even a mother couldn't love. In fact, that fanbase resembles nothing so much as a pack of animals who were abandoned by their mothers to fend for themselves before banding together with other like-minded, super obnoxious volunteered orphans. It's a horse shit organization that only an asshole could tolerate, much less love.

 

[TCTC]

I really don't see how casual fans would think that winning is boring. Two long-storied but recently mediocre teams that have 1 Cup combined in the last 30 years is more in line with ho-hum.

That being said, most everyone without a horse in the race loves an underdog, and Montreal fits that bill to a T. Down 3-1 to the media-crowned kings of the North, they found a way to claw back. They rolled over the defeaters of the other Canadian heirs-apparent, and are a game up on a team that most everyone who has seen at least 1 NHL game would curbstomp them without breaking a sweat.

Winning isn't boring and I'm sure Vegas and Tampa have their share of bandwagoners. But those who support Tampa today because they're winning will support the Islanders tomorrow if they're winning.

Completely agree about people loving underdogs. Funny enough, that's what Vegas was just a few years ago. Now the roles are reversed and people are cheering for their opponents because Vegas is the power house and Montreal is the underdog.

 

[Captain Dave Poulin]

The ability to constantly state the obvious is an ability.

 

[kudymen]

The ability to constantly state the obvious is an ability.

This was a comment

 

[BritainStix]

This was a comment

Actually good sir, it still is a comment.

 

[FlyerNutter]

Comment allez vous

 

[kudymen]

Actually good sir, it still is a comment.

Ah well. I am known to be right only like once or twice on Sundays

 

[GKJ]

you love to see it