Why are there no good NHL podcasts or youtube channels?

[SnowblindNYR]

Seems like everything is either vanilla and boring (The Hockey Guy) or over the top clownish (SteveDangle). I listen to Locked On New York Rangers but the guy is kind of boring and while the Rangers guy is good enough I listened to his interview with the Panthers guy and he was terrible, could barely string a sentence together. Meanwhile the horrible New York Giants have some great podcasts where they breakdown film and have strong analysis. And these guys are usually fans that do these podcasts so the lack of resource argument doesn't seem to fly.

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[HarrySPlinkett]

Seems like everything is either vanilla and boring (The Hockey Guy) or over the top clownish (SteveDangle). I listen to Locked On New York Rangers but the guy is kind of boring and while the Rangers guy is good enough I listened to his interview with the Panthers guy and he was terrible, could barely string a sentence together. Meanwhile the horrible New York Giants have some great podcasts where they breakdown film and have strong analysis. And these guys are usually fans that do these podcasts so the lack of resource argument doesn't seem to fly.

That’s the modern NHL for ya.

Serious answer - I suspect many who could be doing these sorts of hockey podcasts do NFL stuff because it’s vastly more profitable.

Hockey’s a very chaotic sport - you can endlessly nitpick football because they huddle up, decide what to do, have 25 more seconds to figure out what the defense is trying to do, then another 4-8 seconds of the play itself.

Plus all the coaching decisions that go into every play.

There are so many layers to a bad decision.

In hockey, it’s pretty obvious where the error is, and half the time it’s the result of a frozen bit of rubber taking a supernatural hop. End of discussion.

The coach in hockey either told the right guys to go get em or he didn’t, to a large extent.


Hockey is also a great “remember a guy” game - and that’s another problem. Hockey is a lot of fun to talk about, with other people. A lot of these YouTubers in particular are solo acts.

In particular with YouTube, you won’t start getting paid for your videos until you reach a thousand subscribers, and most creators will lose interest and stop doing it themselves long before they hit that milestone.

It’s hard to monologue about, especially if it isn’t your full time job.

If most of these podcasts don’t have multiple cast members involved, it’s going to be very hard to be compelling.

Which is another thing - it’s hard to be compelling. And interesting. And consistent. Especially when you have bills to pay.

When you consider even 95% of gainfully employed full time professionals don’t make much covering the NHL, you can see why so few noteworthy hockey channels exist.

 

[Cubs2024wildcard]

You mean you don't listen to the craptastic podcasts that have a sub forum here?

There's no money in hockey podcasts. When I have my hockey draft streams the only way I get views is if I have half naked girls doing the Korean cheerleader dance in the back ground, and even then I have to pay them so I break even.

Tough racket.

 

[CanadienShark]

I haven't listened to a ton and it's pretty niche, but @Kcoyote3 and @Sheng Peng have a good Sharks podcast. Maybe it's not so much for casual fans looking for general NHL talk though. The former used to be very active on the Sharks board and recently got more into hockey coverage and away from the forum, but is still around.

 

[hangman005]

Not enough generational talent

 

[MangoX]

I try to stay away from watching nhl youtubers. If I do decide to watch one because of clickbait, the majority are just speaking over a EA NHL game, so extremely boring. Steve Dangle is pretty cool, if he wasn't so annoying. Like com'on, where's the creativity. Like I'd rather watch paint dry or SpaceX launches. At least those are more interesting.

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

Seems like everything is either vanilla and boring (The Hockey Guy) or over the top clownish (SteveDangle). I listen to Locked On New York Rangers but the guy is kind of boring and while the Rangers guy is good enough I listened to his interview with the Panthers guy and he was terrible, could barely string a sentence together. Meanwhile the horrible New York Giants have some great podcasts where they breakdown film and have strong analysis. And these guys are usually fans that do these podcasts so the lack of resource argument doesn't seem to fly.

The culture around the NHL is pretty conservative and dull and there isn't a lot of wit or cleverness in the media landscape.

That said, I know some don't like them but for my money the best current regular podcast by far is Kypper and Bourne.

They do about an hour and a half a day if you don't include ads. The first half is on the Leafs (whom I hate, but the schadenfreude when they struggle is good, and the analysis is sound regardless) and then the second half is National though it does emphasize other Canadian teams so it may not be what you're looking for.

But the chemistry is on point, and Bourne and Kypreos understand the game well having both played it and been around it at high levels. They also often see things through a bit of a different lens which leads to some good discussions.