Dotaz
JUST DIPSY DOODLE IT
It is about bad scheduling here. Obviously when you lable something Rivalrly night and place it only for WEDNESDAY games it is clear that not every Wednesday night will have great rivalry game scheduled.
Rivalry Night a Joke
- Thread starter TankLarkin
- Start date
NewAgeOutlaw
Belie Dat!
Totally wrong, fighting was actually the highest in the late 1980's. And you've missed his point entirely, his point is: Why does NBCSN feel the need to emphasize fighting games from the past between two teams (when the league was vastly different from how it is today) to promote the current games?
Are Crosby and Toews and other scoring stars like that not enough promotion to get people to watch the games? Obviously not, they'd rather hint at how much badass fighting there's going to be tonight and in the intermission they'll have Mike Milbury talk about how he wants to ban fighting because that makes so much sense after your network has spent all night hinting that the public should watch because there will be a lot of fights.
The poster's whole point is that if the league and the media don't like fighting they should never show clips of fighting to promote an upcoming game. I'm surprised to see how many posters in this thread can't seem to grasp that essential idea.
He very much implied that Bettman and the league hate intensity and fighting which is asinine. Yes, the instigator rule was a dumb idea but aside from that what has the nhl and by proxy Bettman done to eliminate fighting from the game in his time as commissioner? Not a single thing. There is less fighting because teams no longer employ 2 or 3 guys who can't play hockey and who's only job is fighting. The game has changed and evolved yes, but to act as if there is no intensity or passion anymore is just stupid.
They show the old clips to give the games a sense of history. It has nothing to do with using fighting and how the game used to be to promote the game.
flyershockey
Registered User
- Oct 10, 2006
- 13,601
- 6,754
It's phony marketing because the league plays up a rivalry that may or may not exist? Every other sports league in North America does the same thing.
JaegerDice
The mark of my dignity shall scar thy DNA
- Dec 26, 2014
- 25,568
- 10,226
The animosity that teams felt naturally fell away as a result of greater free-agency and the formation and growing participation in the NHLPA union.
Here's a naughty little secret: NHL players rarely actually hate each other. Even when they're punching each other in the face.
Rivalries today form based on teams beating other teams at hockey, rather than beating them up. As it should be.
Kings vs Hawks is a great rivalry based on who the better team is, not pointless fighting to prove 'toughness' or some such garbage.
NewAgeOutlaw
Belie Dat!
Name one marketing scheme which is 100% honest and representative of reality. I'll wait.
JaegerDice
The mark of my dignity shall scar thy DNA
- Dec 26, 2014
- 25,568
- 10,226
The difference is that I don't see NCAA college football rivalries being promoted on television with old films of fights between Georgia and Florida players. Rivalries in other sports are built entirely upon the concept of the fans as the center of the rivalry not the players. If you want to start claiming that the basis of the hatred between two NHL teams is how much the fans of each team hate each other then why is showing old video of "famous fighting games" necessary?
Makar Goes Fast
grocery stick
curious why it took op this long to notice, and when op noticed he noticed on a night with actual rivalries...
NewAgeOutlaw
Belie Dat!
1.) There is not often fighting in football, so that is a pretty horrible comparison.
2.) What do you propose, that NBC show clips of fans of the teams fighting to promote the game?
1.) There is not often fighting in football, so that is a pretty horrible comparison.
2.) What do you propose, that NBC show clips of fans of the teams fighting to promote the game?
Why do they need to promote fights at all? That's the original poster's point, he's saying that if rivalries means fights then the media shouldn't have such a negative attitude toward fighting. Do you remember that Milbury called for the banning of fighting during the intermission of a "Rivalry game"?
flyershockey
Registered User
- Oct 10, 2006
- 13,601
- 6,754
I'm not claiming anything. I know that for the most part that "Wednesday Night Rivalry" is BS. I just don't know why you and so many others are getting so bent out of shape about it.
The reason you don't see ads built around fighting for NCAAF is because fighting is against the rules/doesn't typically happen. And come to think of it, a lot of NCAAF promos actually do include teams bumping chests and shoving at the 50 yard line before big games. Just like you rarely see ads for a Yankees/Red Sox matchup without catching a glimpse of Pedro Martinez tossing a bald-headed Don Zimmer to the ground.
Fighting attracts the casual fan, and that's what WNR is geared towards. You can scoff all you want at it, but the NHL really doesn't care about you and I. They know we're watching. They want your neighbor that used to watch 2 games a year to start watching 10, 20 games a year now and so on. And the best way to get that is by yucking up every nationally televised game as some great historical rivalry with years of bloodshed to show for it.
NewAgeOutlaw
Belie Dat!
They aren't promoting fights, they are promoting the game.
That wasn't the op's point though. The op's point was thinly veiled criticism of Bettman for removing passion from the game which is just untrue.
you think it's only for the casual fan ? I was watching the habs stink up another first and in the GDT someone mentioned that things were going south in the battle of pennsylvania and I ended up flipping back and forth.
I know that the number of people who have Center ice or their choice of games every wednesday is probably pretty low, but if two teams dont like each other and rivalry night serves as a hype man, i might flip over and have a gander. Rivalries sell a lot more than the nba style player A and team X vs player B and the Y's.
Skip To My Lou
Abused Fan
flyershockey
Registered User
- Oct 10, 2006
- 13,601
- 6,754
Of course they are. They know that you know the rivalry. Anyone who follows hockey knows it.
tom_servo
Registered User
Ovechkin gets booed every game in Pittsburgh. Casual Pens fans even hate the guy (...although serious Pens fans probably don't).
redcard
System Poster
- Mar 12, 2007
- 7,245
- 5,730
Exactly, you aren't the person they're marketing too. You aren't the one they're trying to convince to watch the game, if you're interested you'll watch it anyway, if you're not interested you won't watch it regardless of what they call it.
But the non-hockey fan that couldn't tell you a thing about either team might be intrigued to watch "Wednesday Night Rivalry" for the reasons you just described.
In short, if you've ever thought "these guys aren't even rivals" you're not a person NBCSN is trying to rope in, you're already in.
Reality Check
Registered User
- May 28, 2008
- 16,991
- 2,745
So the real issue here is that the NHL is pretty damn boring to the bros without fighting?
Good to know.
Good to know.
Classicnamesup
MVP Backhand Slapper
Removing helmets.
Were teams threatened to be suspended entirely and fined heavily back in the 70s for the brawls? Was NYI not threatened for it vs Pitts recently?
I don't really care about the slogan and when I watch WNR games I don't pay much attention to the intro. I just tune in to watch a hockey game and hope it's a good one. Whether the teams actually like each other or not isn't a big concern of mine when they're usually not teams I care about much to begin with. Having a "real" rivalry isn't a guarantee of an interesting game anyway. I have been bored as hell watching some Sharks-Kings games.
NewAgeOutlaw
Belie Dat!
Penalties against removing helmets don't prevent fights. Actually the NHL greatly expanded the rulebook to prevent fighting in the 70's so you clearly have no idea what you are talking about. In fact, the president of the NHL in the 70's was widely known to hate teams who had a lot of fighters, especially the Flyers.
The Islanders were fined a few years ago because they brought up a guy like Trevor Gillies because they felt they had a vandetta against Pittsburgh because of a clean hit and their goalie getting his face broken in a fair fight.
The fact that anybody argues that Bettman wants to get rid of fighting is ridiculous. The guy has been in charge since 1993, if he wanted fighting gone it would be gone by now.
Speaking of rivalries, I get that feeling tonight ( alone looked like he just scored).
If there is a god in heaven Wilson tunes Downie but good.
If there is a god in heaven Wilson tunes Downie but good.
