The NHL has a PR problem....

[mfw13]

Two game 7's.....one epic, one involving a Original Six franchise that has not won a playoff series in 15+ years, and almost no media coverage.

Nothing on ESPN's front page.
Nothing on SI's front page.
Nothing on the Ringer.

Instead, everyone is writing about the NBA, specifically Damian Lilliard's shot to win a Game 5 of a lopsided playoff series between two small market teams.

Click to read more...

 

[Conrad McBenis]

Two game 7's.....one epic, one involving a Original Six franchise that has not won a playoff series in 15+ years, and almost no media coverage.

Nothing on ESPN's front page.
Nothing on SI's front page.
Nothing on the Ringer.

Instead, everyone is writing about the NBA, specifically Damian Lilliard's shot to win a Game 5 of a lopsided playoff series between two small market teams.

NHL doesn't make ESPN money... not sure what is so shocking about this.

It's an American news outlet.

 

[Dolemite]

ESPN only covers sports it has contracts for.

 

[Five Alarm Fire]

ESPN has no incentive to promote the sport, and hasn't since the TV deal expired.

 

[Beauner]

ESPN sucks donkey ass and I don't even know what the Ringer is

 

[Frosty415]

Basketball is just more popular

 

[Kranix]

Espn doesn't care about the NHL, so that's why NHL is below College Lacross and Fishing on their sports drop-down.

 

[Note Worthy]

ESPN only covers sports it has contracts for.

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner.

 

[CBJ VGK]

I literally haven't watched more than 5 minutes of ESPN in the last 5 years. Nor have I listened to any of the crappy radio shows , as well, whet

F those networks. Let them cater to the NBA and NFL.

 

[Ceremony]

NHL doesn't make ESPN money... not sure what is so shocking about this.

It's an American news outlet.

ESPN only covers sports it has contracts for.

ESPN has no incentive to promote the sport, and hasn't since the TV deal expired.

ESPN sucks donkey ass and I don't even know what the Ringer is

Basketball is just more popular

Espn isn't in bed with the NHL, so that's why NHL is below College Lacross and Fishing on their sports drop-down.

None of these posts explain or contradict the premise of the thread, which is to say the NHL is bad at marketing.

 

[jw2]

Basketball tv stations don't cover hockey??

 

[SI90]

Unfortunately in the states it’s just like that. Sucks for us hockey lovers but the game is fine and doing well.

 

[Kevin27NYI]

Don't care.

 

[not a troll]

I couldn't find anything on the Home Shopping Network either.

 

[Svechhammer]

one involving a Original Six franchise that has not won a playoff series in 15+ years

The rest of the sports world really doesn't care about the Original Six. Hockey would be better off de-emphasizing it and focusing more on building the entire brand as a whole. In fact, the emphasis on the Original Six and turns a lot of unaffiliated people off toward the league.

 

[Makar Goes Fast]

meanwhile in canada the first story on tsn and sportsnet will be the leafs until august.

 

[razor8]

The NHL is a small fish in a big pond. Why is this so difficult to understand? It's a niche sport. There's many reasons for why. Some of them are: you need ice to play, it's way more costly to play than other sports, and let's face it; there's way too many games in the regular season.

 

[benedictTavares]

If the NHL was smart they would sign a TV deal with ESPN to show 20 games or so a year on the channel. This would push them to cover the NHL more and help with exposure.

 

[MattMartin]

Why watch the NHL when dunking a basketball and 1/2 court shots are so much more entertaining

 

[not a troll]

If the NHL was smart they would sign a TV deal with ESPN to show 20 games or so a year on the channel. This would push them to cover the NHL more and help with exposure.

Don't think NBC would like that...

 

[CapnZin]

Two game 7's.....one epic, one involving a Original Six franchise that has not won a playoff series in 15+ years, and almost no media coverage.

Nothing on ESPN's front page.
Nothing on SI's front page.
Nothing on the Ringer.

Instead, everyone is writing about the NBA, specifically Damian Lilliard's shot to win a Game 5 of a lopsided playoff series between two small market teams.

NBC has most of the viewing rights and I’m pretty sure it’s the only media outlet that has a contract with the NHL.

The NHL probably has the least coverage in the USA due to this. NHL playoff games occurred on USA and CNBC as the alt channels to NBCSN and NBC. MLB has ESPN, FOX, FS1, TNT, and one of the major outlet. NBA has ESPN (first coverage), TNT, and a major outlet. NFL has every major outlet, FOX, ESPN, and others.

Smaller media outlets like Bleacher Report, Yahoo, TheScore, hell and even Barstool only focus on basketball and football because of coverage, the market, and money.

NHL is getting bigger in the US, but still has a lot of room to grow in comparison. I am getting tired of getting 4 alerts from BR saying Joel Embiid says hi to Beyoncé and that the Kardashians are infiltrating the Sixers.

 

[Huck Cheever]

We don't need fake fans anyway

 

[48g90a138pts]

Meh, I never watch espn, I don't go to si for sports news and I've never heard of the ringer. Not a big loss, but yes Bettman is doing a crap job and can't wait till he's retired.

 

[jgatie]

The very last place in the world I would go for hockey coverage is ESPN. Haven't watch that lame ass, quasi-political "sports" channel since Buccigross was calling Ray Ferraro "Chicken Parm".

I've got the NHL Network, and their coverage is great.

 

[Note Worthy]

Why watch the NHL when dunking a basketball and 1/2 court shots are so much more entertaining

Also, why watch the NHL when you can watch the NBA and see two, maybe three teams at the most, have any shot at all at the championship since the beginning of the season.