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.

 

[Wateredgarden]

Hockey is really a partisanship sport. Almost nobody watches other teams games. The playoffs are barely watched by any other viewers than the two teams fans.

 

[John Price]

spitting chiclets is supposed to be good but biz is a f***in barstool stooge

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

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.

If you’re a Rangers fan why aren’t listening to Don LaGreca’s podcast?

He talks about the whole league but he does lean local

 

[LuGBuG]

spitting chiclets is supposed to be good but biz is a f***in barstool stooge

I enjoy chiclets personally.

 

[Snuggs]

Most casual fans only follow one team. Other sports fans will tune in and watch multiple teams/ multiple games in a week, especially NFL/NBA.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

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.

Eck and Johnny Hawkey are good hockey YouTubers

 

[Coffee]

I keep pushing for @ViD or Filthy Dangles to make one, @amnesiac would be my first pick for head of production as well

 

[Rodgerwilco]

A few opinions I have on the topic here:

1. Hockey players are generally kind of boring and/or very dude-bro-ish, which doesn’t make for great depth of discussion.

2. Hockey is a fringe sport outside of Canada. Most people interested in making a podcast would be better off doing a different sport or even just a podcast not centered on sports.

3. I don’t think many hockey fans care much about teams outside of their favorite team.

4. With there being so many games, each game individually doesn’t quite matter as much. Seasons go through lulls where a large portion of the games are fairly inconsequential. Of course that could be an issue with Baseball or Basketball, but they’re more popular in the USA and I’m not as familiar with those sports so I’m not sure how that plays out.

With that being said a @Mulletman podcast might actually break the internet and I would tune in every single episode….

 

[JohanFranzenstein]

Hockey Psychology is my personal favorite. For people that used to watch SBnation/Secret Base, he scratches that itch but with strictly hockey content.

 

[Ulysses31]

lot of em soy out way too hard for my tastes

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

spitting chiclets is supposed to be good but biz is a f***in barstool stooge

I can’t tolerate that show

 

[John Price]

Greg Wyzinski and Sean whatshisname used to have a good one but they don't do it anymore. They had such good chemistry so sad that podcast ended. There was a newer version called Puck Soup which is pretty tolerable, haven't heard it in years.

The best hockey podcast I've actually heard is the Don Cherry one where he just rambles on teams. Funniest thing was when they were talking about the finals and he could only talk about the Canada teams. "Dad, what about the Eastern Conference finals." "Oh I don't care about that"

 

[Frank Drebin]

Had a podcast come up on my YT feed "Slanging the bizkit" lol but he had ian white on
what a tool that guy is

 

[Rcknrollkillnmachine]

For me 'The Puck Podcast' is excellent and going since 2006 covering all of the NHL happenings despite Eddie and Doug being Kings and Ducks fans respectively. I certainly recommend that.

For some comedy takes I watch the 'Urinating Tree' YT channel but I know it's not for everyone.

 

[Thallis]

The Hockey PDOcast is superb

 

[TGWL]

I find the podcast that talk about the NHL in general and not just your favorite team end up better.

 

[Leonhard Euler]

Check out Hockey Psychology channel on youtube I randomly stumbled across it and have been very positively surprised. Lot's of in-depth breakdowns and also nice weekly recaps of the games played across the league. Easily my favorite YT channel.

The Hockey PDOcast is a good podcast with often in-depth deepdives or interesting topics.

 

[JianYang]

Greg Wyzinski and Sean whatshisname used to have a good one but they don't do it anymore. They had such good chemistry so sad that podcast ended. There was a newer version called Puck Soup which is pretty tolerable, haven't heard it in years.

The best hockey podcast I've actually heard is the Don Cherry one where he just rambles on teams. Funniest thing was when they were talking about the finals and he could only talk about the Canada teams. "Dad, what about the Eastern Conference finals." "Oh I don't care about that"

I would have loved a don cherry podcast from like 20 years ago. He was a great storyteller.

Those are the type of hockey podcasts that I'd listen to. The stories from behind the scenes from retired players. Chris nilan's podcast is mostly this.

Current players are too filtered and I don't blame them.