Wouldn't work, we'll need to extend Kucherov after we trade AA and Hartman for him.EK for Scmaltz, Seabrook and a 1st would be awesome.
The NHL is really weird with how it regards the US and Canada. I get that they are different markets, but the league acts like US fans would never watch anything with the Canadian teams. It's why you get the Oilers and Leafs barely on nationally while we get the MFing Saberes 10 times a year. It's so stupid. US fans want to watch good hockey, regardless of where the teams are. I know I'd much rather watch Edm/Tor than Phi/Buf, but it's "Rivalry night on NBC Sports. Lets see if either of these bad teams can claw their way back into the playoff picture."
It's not the NHL. It's NBC.
And it's about ratings. Ratings are used to determine the pricing for advertising during commercial breaks. While certainly, diehard fans across multiple markets would watch Canadian teams in action, you get bigger hits from the audiences involved in the game. And if Toronto and Edmonton are on, NBC can't use ratings in Canada in their advertising pricing for US advertisers.
Same reason Sportsnet/HNIC tries to put as many Canada vs Canada matchups on big nights like Friday and Saturday. It doesn't matter how many people in Chicago watch the Toronto vs Chicago game, they can't take those numbers to Canadian advertisers.
If you're wondering 'why does this archaic split in advertising audiences exist in an increasingly global market', well that's a rant for another day. God willing, by the time the baby boom and gen X die off, everybody will have already cut the cord, and traditional television models will die with them.
And who signed the deal with NBC sports, multiple times?
The league refuses to sacrifice in the short term for the growth in the long term.
Sure, but it's not as though other companies than NBC wouldn't operate the same way. ESPN doesn't give any more of a **** about Canadian ratings for the exact same reasons. What channel would you put it on if not one of those 2?
For the NHL, it makes the most sense to sign whichever deal offers you the most money up front.
For NBC, they're a standard short-sighted media company. Long term it makes more sense for them to try and build fans by showing them the best, most exciting teams, market be damned. They'd probably recoup more of their investment that way. But they're not behaving in any way that's different than most tv companies.
If NHL wanted to be bold, they'd sign a deal with Netflix. But that would compete with their own streaming option.
that i didn't know.The best part about Henrique's goal was he walked the guy Jersey traded him for.
for this discussion, i know more changes are on the horizon. i can see that. the game, the excitement of the game, the game i grew up with will be changing. some for the good, injuries and speed with execution of plays. man those plays are just amazing and beautiful to watch, esp if you can really see it develop.I wouldn't be okay with hitting being removed from the game. There would be so many penalties when guys just ran into one another.
I would be OK with them removing the "finish your checks" kind of thing. Sometimes guys get hit in the corners so late.