New Rules to Eliminate Shot Blocking?
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Idoit40fans
- NHL Second Liner
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Re: New Rules to Eliminate Shot Blocking?
You needed winning to turn the casual fan into a "hardcore fan" (which I read as "temp fan"). Look at Tampa, Chicago, Dallas, Pittsburgh as examples. They all fluctuate drastically between playoff and non-playoff periods.
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Odd Man Rush
- Junior 'A'
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Re: New Rules to Eliminate Shot Blocking?
I agree with that sentiment wholeheartedly. However not every team can win the Stanley Cup every year or even make the playoffs. That means that the league MUST do everything in its power to entertain its fans. The league does a TERRIBLE job in that regard and quite frankly, it always has. The game needs to be about skill and finesse and those obviously WOW!!! moments that make SportsCenter or NHL Tonight. It can't be a three hour infomercial on how technically superior Rob Scuderi is and how if you don't appreciate his brilliance then you have no idea what you are talking about and shouldn't even be watching the game in the first place.
That hockey snobbery mentality has gotten the league nowhere and that will never change.
I love hockey of all kinds and nothing gets my blood going quite like the struggle and sacrifice of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I had to be at the Airport at 4:30 a.m. and yet I stayed up to 12:45 a.m. or so to watch the end of the LA/PHX game because if I didn't I wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway without seeing that game through its conclusion.
However guys like us are few and far between and I'm telling you, LA/NYR or not, people are NOT going to tune in to watch seven 1-0 and 2-1 games. That is a dream matchup from a market perspective and yet the hockey is so slow and plodding that the casual fans who don't live in either market are going to lose interest. Now the numbers in NYC and LA will be good because of the stakes but elsewhere it will be a dud.
It is very simple; the NHL needs the Crosby's, Malkin's, Stamkos's and Giroux's of the world to be great for the league to reach the next level of the public consciousness. Even on the other side, people will respond to the athletic saves of Jonathan Quick, Martin Brodeur or Henrik Lundqvist. However most people are not going to be wowed by shot blocking prowess and courage of Dan Girardi and Ryan Callahan blocking 236 shots a game or Dustin Brown and Matt Greene doing the same.
Also, this is a copycat league. That means that if the Rangers win the Cup doing this bullschitt, you can bet your arse that next year the league will be infested with desperate teams like Columbus, Long Island and Calgary laying on the ice from October through March like it's some sort of bizarre sleep study.
The NHL needs to deal with this in the offseason or it is going to quickly become a very bad thing for the league as a whole.
That hockey snobbery mentality has gotten the league nowhere and that will never change.
I love hockey of all kinds and nothing gets my blood going quite like the struggle and sacrifice of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I had to be at the Airport at 4:30 a.m. and yet I stayed up to 12:45 a.m. or so to watch the end of the LA/PHX game because if I didn't I wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway without seeing that game through its conclusion.
However guys like us are few and far between and I'm telling you, LA/NYR or not, people are NOT going to tune in to watch seven 1-0 and 2-1 games. That is a dream matchup from a market perspective and yet the hockey is so slow and plodding that the casual fans who don't live in either market are going to lose interest. Now the numbers in NYC and LA will be good because of the stakes but elsewhere it will be a dud.
It is very simple; the NHL needs the Crosby's, Malkin's, Stamkos's and Giroux's of the world to be great for the league to reach the next level of the public consciousness. Even on the other side, people will respond to the athletic saves of Jonathan Quick, Martin Brodeur or Henrik Lundqvist. However most people are not going to be wowed by shot blocking prowess and courage of Dan Girardi and Ryan Callahan blocking 236 shots a game or Dustin Brown and Matt Greene doing the same.
Also, this is a copycat league. That means that if the Rangers win the Cup doing this bullschitt, you can bet your arse that next year the league will be infested with desperate teams like Columbus, Long Island and Calgary laying on the ice from October through March like it's some sort of bizarre sleep study.
The NHL needs to deal with this in the offseason or it is going to quickly become a very bad thing for the league as a whole.