Am I Alone in Feeling...

[Money99]

Quote: Originally Posted by CS10029

That hockey deserves more attention. The game is so entertaining compared to other sports in my opinion. Theres almost always something exciting happening. Wheter its a hit, a save, some crazy dangling, a fight or and incredible goal. Something is almost always happening during a game. ESPN doesn't give a **** about hockey. Out of all the sports on OS, this one gets the least love. The NHL forum is dead compared to NBA, NFL and MLB. I really feel this game is more entertaining than any of those. Anyone else share these feelings?

I agree with the other members here who said the Hockey board isn't as thriving because there's very little infighting.

Also, if you read a lot of the threads in there, there's more to talk about. There's more 'characters' in the other sports.
Baseball has Man-Ram who doesn't seem to care about anything but himself, basketball has more drama like Kobe-Shaq and football has so much off field shenanigans it's a 12-month sport.

In hockey, while you have some great characters like OA, they're clean. You won't read stories about him snorting coke off a hookers @$$.
Crosby would never trash anyone and tries to do his talking on the ice.
Zetterberg, perhaps the best all around forward, wouldn't say 'poop' if he had a mouth full of it.

Another thing that kind of hurts hockey (and basketball too) is that the regular season means a LOT less than the NFL and MLB. While only 14 of the 30 teams don't make the postseason, you can probably pencil in 6 of those 14 before the season even starts. So in that respect, there's less drama as well.

I have other theories as to why it's not as popular:
- translates poorly on TV
- too many Europeans
- lack of variety in goals

But that's a subject for another day.

[bcgudely]

I think the lack in coverage isn't helping it. I watch the first two periods of the Carolina/Florida game last night, and wanted to see the highlights of that game, and the other games that went on last night. I flipped it to SportsCenter at the beginning of the show, and an hour later, I fell asleep with no hockey highlights.

I can understand if they want to talk about Drew Brees for over an hour, and make a big deal about football...but why can't they at least show some highlights of the game?

I think that more hockey games should be in HD, and people would love it. The biggest problem isn't that people have no idea what's going on. It's that they can't see anything when it's most important...scoring chances! Watching the Hurricanes in the crappy SD they are broadcasted in is a bit frustrating. I just see someone take a shot, and the goalie react, and it takes about 2 to 3 seconds before you see the puck sitting still in the back of the net, and everyone is celebrating. In HD, this isn't an issue at all.

I don't know about too many Europeans...most people can't relate to sports figures anyways. In the NBA, most of the league is African American, but there are tons of white fans. I think the same thing could be possible with Europeans in the NHL. I don't think it makes that big of a difference. Personally, I don't really even like the Caps, as they are my teams division rivals, but Ovechkin is cool as hell. :P (Yes, I know he's Russian)

I dunno, I guess I'm ranting, but to me, there's nothing more epic than a close hockey game. I think the sport could really catch on here in the US (Outside of the Northeast area) if it were just given a fair chance.

[truckie16]

The NHL is close to a pretty embarrassing situation with the all-star voting. If it ended today, all six Eastern conferance starters would be from Montreal. That would be an absolute joke!

[SPTO]

Quote: Originally Posted by truckie16

The NHL is close to a pretty embarrassing situation with the all-star voting. If it ended today, all six Eastern conferance starters would be from Montreal. That would be an absolute joke!

Not as big of a joke that is the NFL Pro Bowl where 21 of the NFC's leading vote getters are Washington Redskins players.

[mddst34]

I know that hockey is about 400 times more exciting than baseball. More so watching it live. The holdout year really set it back some, but it is heading in the right direction again. Once it lands some big TV deals, it will be bigger than ever.

[mercalnd]

Quote: Originally Posted by truckie16

The NHL is close to a pretty embarrassing situation with the all-star voting. If it ended today, all six Eastern conferance starters would be from Montreal. That would be an absolute joke!

I saw last night during the Habs game broadcast that the NHL had investigated and scaled back the Montreal votes due to some tampering by automated programs that would vote. However, even after they removed those extra votes, the 6 starters were still Habs players. I don't know if it's Habs fans voting like crazy or people thinking it would be cool to have all Habs starters given the game is in Montreal and it's the franchise's 100th season festivities. Maybe it's a bit of both.

Also, 4 of the 6 Western starters would be from the Wings, with only Phaneuf and Luongo in the mix. Rafalski is right behind Phaneuf and Osgood is somehow right behind Luongo in the voting so it wouldn't be impossible to have the 6 Habs starting for the East and 6 Wings starting for the West.

[SPTO]

Quote: Originally Posted by mercalnd

Also, 4 of the 6 Western starters would be from the Wings, with only Phaneuf and Luongo in the mix. Rafalski is right behind Phaneuf and Osgood is somehow right behind Luongo in the voting so it wouldn't be impossible to have the 6 Habs starting for the East and 6 Wings starting for the West.

This is why fan voting in any sport is stupid.

[truckie16]

Quote: Originally Posted by SPTO

Not as big of a joke that is the NFL Pro Bowl where 21 of the NFC's leading vote getters are Washington Redskins players.

Alright, you got me on that one. That would be a bigger joke.

[mercalnd]

Quote: Originally Posted by SPTO

This is why fan voting in any sport is stupid.

Couple that with the fact that these guys will get off the ice after 45 seconds to a minute and you have a whole lot of fuss over something incredily unimportant. Heck, in many games the lines starting the game are third or fourth lines.

[allBthere]

the lockout killed it for me. Basketball too. I just don't really care anymore, I'd rather see a bulldogs game in the hammer than the leafs.

Other negatives are that the season is too long - playoffs in june!?!? Season should be over in april at the latest - it's a winter sport!
It just makes each game seem less and less important during the season - why would I watch a useless reg season game that means absollutley nothing?
Basketball is even worse, especially since the real game starts and ends in the 4th quarter.

You may think hockey is exciting to watch, but most of the time imo it isn't. If you look at all of the games during a week, to me at least, less than half would be remotely worth watching.
at least from the highlights I've seen this year, fighting is up which should help.