Are the Islanders going to have PBR as their official beer sponsor? Will their sweaters be plaid? Will NPR cover their games?
Are the Islanders going to have PBR as their official beer sponsor? Will their sweaters be plaid? Will NPR cover their games?
https://twitter.com/2ndBestHull/stat...596034/photo/1
Brett Hull just posted that on his twitter, if you cant tell it's him scoring on Buffalo with his foot in the pumpkin crease, so genius.
Why is the NHL even still around? This is what the 4th work stoppage since 1990 including the loss of an entire season. Who do these players think they are to make demands like they are some big shot MLB or NFL players. Dear NHL players: You are a 5th rate sport behind NFL, MLB, NBA, College Football, and even NASCAR. Stop acting like you deserve all this extra money. I have never even seen an NHL game on a real network unless its the Stanley Cup finals. The games are always on something random like Versus or they rerun them on Fox Sports at like 3AM. I have seen more soccer matches aired on ESPN than NHL games. The sad thing is I dont even think ESPN even bothers giving NHL games air time yet it will air WNBA games. Thats just sad when the WNBA gets more air time and thats the worst sport ever invented. Also I understand Hockey is mostly a non American sport so then why are the majority of the teams in the US? At least move most of the teams either to Canada or to countries of the former USSR so people will actually go to the games.
Last edited by Lilly32; 2012-10-24 at 08:48 PM.
Good I can reply to you hear without adding to that useless thread. Players can make demands because the NHL is still a multi-billion dollar business. Also, it isn't the players making demands, its the owners hence why it is a lockout, not a strike. The NHL is on NBC every Sunday during the season, well most Sundays. You're right about it not being on there enough though. The NHL should have taken the slightly lesser value deal with ESPN that would have made ESPN2 essentially the NHL channel with games on 3-5 times per week plus national game on ESPN every week. They didn't because Bettman is the worst GM in pro sports. ESPN can't give the NHL games airtime because that isn't how television contracts work. ESPN holds the TV contracts for the WNBA and the EPL in the US, NBC holds the rights for the NHL. Thats how contracts work.
Moving teams to the former USSR? You're insane. That would never work for travel or for television. As for US vs Canada distribution, America has 350+ million people, Canada far, far less. Could Canada support more teams in the NHL than it does now, absolutely, but there are only a handful of US markets that absolutely struggle for tv ratings or for attendance (Florida, Phoenix, Nashville, Columbus, New Jersey, and Tampa Bay). Several US markets are just as healthy as any Canadian team (Detroit, Rangers, Philly, Pittsburgh now not several years ago, etc.).
And besides, NHL is the only major NA-sports league that people outside the NA care about.
Rofl the arrogance of some people, before you post next time Lily32, do your fucking research before you start talking out your ass. Only once in 20 years since Gary Bettman became commissioner of the NHL has there been a single player strike, and that only cost the league 30 games back in 1992. The players have constantly been forced out of work by the owners and the league itself since that time and it's not once been the players being stubborn in the years since. The owners continue to be a bunch of cheap assholes who attempt to backtrack on contracts that they agree to sign rather then refuse to pay the full value, try to restrict player movement and eliminate player rights like salary arbitration and limit free agency eligibility.
Also, considering how many minutes some players log in a single game, they deserve to get paid fairly. How the hell do NFL players like quarter backs who play half the bloody game, most of which the clock is running between plays and they only play 16 games a year, deserve to make more money then hockey players? Pretty sure hockey is just as, if not more brutal of a sport on the body and just as high a risk of injury or a concussion. Since when does sitting in a car turning left for 3 hours wasting gas constitute millions of dollars in salary? It's not hard to drive at 180-200 Mph. Not hockey players faults that American sports fans are dumb and would rather watch hillbillies drive in a circle then watch a skill game.
---------- Post added 2012-10-24 at 07:41 PM ----------
This is assuming the Islanders still actually exist and the owners don't go bankrupt in the next two years.
Can't disagree with you that basketball is the worst sport ever invented. The rest of your speech was rather idiotic though. In regards to skill, speed, stamina, strength and the other things that make a sport worth watching; The only one that compares is football.
MLB: People, generally on steroids, taking turns hitting a ball and running around bases.
NBA: Where oeople, with a drastic advantage to anyone for "being tall", take turns putting a ball in a basket. The hell do they even say during timeouts "Come on guys! Be taller!" If there's any reason Canadians shouldn't be allowed to create sports, it's basketball.
Nascar: People driving cars in circles at fast speeds.
Amazes me that so many people can watch those without falling asleep. Baseball might actually be worth watching if it was 5 innings instead of 9, there was a salary cap, and people stop taking performance enhancers.
Last edited by Greeney; 2012-10-25 at 03:10 AM.
Well, he was talking about women's basketball which is an abomination, not men's basketball. Basketball is actually a fairly complex sport of specific plays and matchups, not unlike hockey really. Also being tall does not mean you are good and I mean tall in comparison to the average NBA guy not the average normal human lol. I am pretty anti-Nascar, but there is a lot of complexity there as well. The cars are built by hand every single week by a crew. The cars themselves contain zero computers or any sort of driving aides so the driver is basically all on his own in a car with every extra ounce of material stripped out doing 200mph on banked inclines. Nascar is tremendously boring, but it does take some skill.
Nascar does take skill. Going 200 MPH with 42 other cars around you, is no easy task.
Also Baseball may be slow, but it does have the most difficult task in all of sports; Hitting a baseball. 3 inch stick, 3 inch ball being thrown 90+ MPH, where the pitcher can manipulate speed/curve/height, is just incredible. A bit bias due to me formally pitching till my collar bone broke, but still.
Last edited by Irony; 2012-10-25 at 04:01 AM.
You can tell WoW changed the MMO for good when players started complaining about the amount of time they sink, into a time sink.
I played little league too, but it doesn't change that performance enhancers and a lack of salary cup diminish the sport for me and the nine innings is way too much to bother watching.
I don't see it. Either way I see people trying to put a ball in a basket and often some penalty is called after because the player was poked by an index finger or something. At least in the WNBA there's something entertaining to watch.
I'm not going to say it's easy, but I don't see why sitting down, not sneezing, pushing on a pedal, turning a wheel, and moving a car in a circle a lot of times is labelled as a sport.Nascar is tremendously boring, but it does take some skill.
Last edited by Greeney; 2012-10-25 at 05:51 AM.
You have to have played it or be a really big fan of the sport to get the complexities of the positioning and set plays. And yes, the foul calls are a little trigger happy and definitely detract from the flow of play which is vastly superior in hockey.
As for Nascar, its a motor sport, not a sport at least in my book. But go out on a track and try and maneuver among 40 vehicles at 200 miles an hour in a stripped out metal shell that is essentially 4 wheels, an engine, one seat and a roll cage. And then do that for five hours. It isn't with the major sports as far as athleticism required, but it isn't something anyone can do without years of practice.
Nashville is not struggling btw at least in the attendance category ( we had more sellouts last year than any previous season at 20+ ) and tv ratings wise it struggles because its either been on some off the wall channel ( some random Fox Sports channel that might choose Alabama St. vs Montana community college game to show instead ), or because the sport translates very poorly to TV for most people.
I had several people down here tell me they just can't get into hockey from trying to watch it on TV and I told them to go to a game. 95% of the time once they went they were hooked because Nashville is such a great place to watch a hockey game. Also keep in mind down here that college sports are practically a religion, Pro Football is close to it, and NASCAR definately is. There is a lot of sports going on for a much smaller population of people, but the NHL has been gaining here, well til this lockout.
Going into this year Nashville was probably the most stable franchise outside of the classic hockey towns or major US cities, but I'm not sure whats going to happen now. Out of site, out of mind down here.
Thats another thing to counter that guys point. The NHL is the only one of the big sports that is absolutely a better experience in stadium as opposed to on tv. Football is incredibly mediocre in stadium unless it is college. Baseball is better in person than tv, but both are behind radio where baseball really shines. The NBA is decent in person but better on tv. Hockey is great on tv, but it is the one sport where you get a real understanding of how tremendously fast and agile the game is when you see it in person. I'd rather be a season ticket holder for a shitty NHL club than just about any other pro sports team in any sport in the US.
---------- Post added 2012-10-25 at 06:19 PM ----------
I think there is a better than 50% chance Obama owns and occasionally wears an Ovechkin jersey around the White House.
Sorry but Hockey is not a great sport to watch on TV, especially to learn the game from. You miss far too much of the action because you can't see anything but whats going on right at the puck, and tbh thats half of what makes the game great live is being able to see something coming before it happens. Football, Basketball and Baseball do not have that issue as all the action is on a specific event and everyone is roughly in the same area.