“Frozen Frenzy” - the NHL’s latest awful marketing attempt

[MMC]

Seeing the NHL making a big deal about an all day slate of games on a Tuesday, when many people will be at work or school just has me shaking my head at how bad the league is at promoting itself and putting together a product that will attract new viewers. Is anyone honestly excited about this? When Friedman first said they were planning this in one of his columns, I thought it might be fun if it were all day on a weekend, close to the end of the season when the eyes are on playoff races and no football, but doing this on a random Tuesday in October just makes me laugh at how lame this is. Not to mention the fact that none of the games are super compelling and that they’re going head to head with NBA opening night and NLCS Game 7

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[TheDoldrums]

There are only three games starting before the usual time of 7 eastern, the earliest being 6 so I don't think the school/work thing is a big deal.

The bigger error is scheduling this against the opening night of the NBA season, plus a NLCS game 7 in baseball.

 

[eojsmada]

Yeah...this being on a weekday really kind of mitigates the usefulness of this. The premise is fine, I guess....but you know the execution of it is going to be less than stellar. And I think Buccigross is probably going to make it hard to watch. He's good in spurts, when he's calling a game, but the intermission desk is just a whole level of "must not see" tv, for me.

 

[OilWagon]

I don't think every team needs to be playing but the idea of actually stagnating start times like the NBA does is very appealing to me. Usually you end up with multiple games on intermission at the same time

 

[MMC]

There are only three games starting before the usual time of 7 eastern, the earliest being 6 so I don't think the school/work thing is a big deal.

The bigger error is scheduling this against the opening night of the NBA season, plus a NLCS game 7 in baseball.

Not a huge deal, but you would think they’d want to do this on a weekend or holiday

 

[BobRossColton]

My biggest question, will they actually drop the puck at the start times.

 

[kranuck]

There are only three games starting before the usual time of 7 eastern, the earliest being 6 so I don't think the school/work thing is a big deal.

The bigger error is scheduling this special day against the opening night of the NBA season...and also a NLCS game 7 in baseball.

Let me guess, you don’t live in the PST zone?

It’s dumb. So is scheduling the defending champs at 11PM eastern against an Eastern team.

Did they put any thought at all into matchups because the best one seems to be Carolina vs Tampa. Other than a ton of cross conference games, few divisional games. What’s the big matchup of the night?

Why is this on a Tuesday? Why a random Tuesday in October?

There is never going to be a magical night where the NHL doesn’t face competition. Stop acting like there is.

 

[TheDoldrums]

There is never going to be a magical night where the NHL doesn’t face competition. Stop acting like there is.

right there is never going to be a night that isn't the NBA opening night with their biggest franchises playing and a game 7 to get to the world series, having it literally any day earlier ensured no basketball competition but I'm just acting silly.

 

[kranuck]

O

right there is never going to be a night that isn't the NBA opening night with their biggest franchises playing and a game 7 to get to the world series, having it literally any day earlier ensured no basketball competition but I'm just acting silly.

Yes you are, stop it.

Seriously, asking them to schedule around a particular MLB playoff game?

Maybe take a minute and think about just how absolutely ridiculous that is.

 

[Hamilton Bulldogs]

They're doing this BECAUSE there's basketball and baseball.

ESPN dosen't have the rights to either for tmo and wanted something to compete.

 

[HighLifeManIsHigh]

O

Yes you are, stop it.

Seriously, asking them to schedule around a particular MLB playoff game?

Maybe take a minute and think about just how absolutely ridiculous that is.

I mean, they could do it in November when there’s no MLB and it isn’t opening night for the NBA

 

[Gurglesons]

Seems fun to me. And I’m old and bitter.

 

[MMC]

Seems fun to me. And I’m old and bitter.

The idea is alright but the execution is awful. Random matchups on a Tuesday when the season is just starting and the storylines haven’t been established yet. Why not a weekend day in April with every game being a divisional matchup and stretched out over a much larger span than just 5 hours?

 

[Hisch13r]

Insane anyone would complain about this.

 

[kranuck]

Insane anyone would complain about this.

Not really, the lousy NHL marketing is brought up frequently. The schedule has been shit because they are accommodating this. A neat idea is being wasted with poor execution.

Lots of things to complain about on a hockey board.

 

[Mudz]

Insane anyone would complain about this.

Yeah it's a test. I'm curious to see how it turns out.

 

[enthusiast]

I don’t really care one way or the other about who else is playing on a given night but if this does it for people, all the best to them

 

[MikeyMike01]

They think they can copy RedZone without understanding what makes RedZone the best sports show in all of television.

 

[Oddbob]

Am I the only one who thinks this is a neat idea of staggering starts so there is hockey all night for one day?

 

[Pavels Dog]

The idea is alright but the execution is awful. Random matchups on a Tuesday when the season is just starting and the storylines haven’t been established yet. Why not a weekend day in April with every game being a divisional matchup and stretched out over a much larger span than just 5 hours?

They have one in january (a Saturday, games spaced out from 1 to 10).

Not to mention the fact that none of the games are super compelling and that they’re going head to head with NBA opening night and NLCS Game 7

That seems highly subjective. Speaking for myself, I don't even know what a "NLCS" is. NHL games are for hockey fans and I don't see why they should not have hockey games because some cricket or whatever it is happens to be on that same time.

The only thing I would agree with is that there aren't a ton of matchups that look super interesting on paper

 

[HanSolo]

Insane anyone would complain about this.

Well. As a west coaster who was very much looking forward to the Carlsson v. Fantilli game, I can think of at least one good reason to complain about a 3:30 start time given silly details like employment.

 

[deca guard]

i have no idea what this frenzy accomplishes besides wrecking monday n wednesday nites with only 1 game ? some washed up clown at nhl prob figured the word 'frenzy' would sound 'cool' to fans . or possibly it is some type attempt to put gambling fans in a betting frenzy which creates interest ? wtf knows with this washed up nhl group . mean while how about making nets 6'' wider and rinks wider to increase scoring ? the wider rinks giving talent / speed guys more space to enhance their production ?

 

[kranuck]

Am I the only one who thinks this is a neat idea of staggering starts so there is hockey all night for one day?

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone questioning the basic idea, just the execution.

It feels entirely like they decided to do this by taking a random week and stuffing the Monday and Wednesday games into Tuesday.

 

[deca guard]

i could see WEEKEND FRENZY where you have games starting in morning , say 11am est , both days . then starting every 2 hours til 10:30pm est . nothing amazing but better than games every 15 minutes on a weekday which does zilch

 

[deca guard]

i just realized the redwings start at 8;15 tonite which sounds good to me instead of an earlier start , so maybe this is a good experiment to see the different angles fans see on it . i just would have had an early n late game on both mon n wed