“How’s Your Entertainment Factor?”

[Dreghorn2]

The NFL has three big advantages.

A smaller concentrated schedule, a culture of sports betting, and fantasy football.

They also are marketing masterminds having converted the NFL into a year round sport, with OTAs, free agency, the draft, training camp and their season and post season.

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

I miss the spontaneous fighting, but i'm not too concerned about it.

I do not understand where the body checking has gone. Skill players should be dominating in games with so little physicality, but the Bruin-Detroit game as an example was a snooze fest of poor offensive hockey.

If there is no checking where is the skill? Too many games these past few seasons throughout the league have neither, no skill, no aggression equals boring.

I've been reviewing box scores on NHL.com nightly searching for any game with even a roughing minor to build interest. The number of games where teams are registering 3-5 "hits" in a period is staggering, considering we know that is likely inflated as well.

It has turned into analytical systems based on positioning and nothing more. Players that never should have been in the NHL can thrive in a system based environment. Sadly that is the main criteria our management desires.

The OT in last night's Detroit game had ONE shot on goal (by Seattle).

Detroit repeatedly regrouped in their own zone and even passed back to the goalie once or twice to maintain "possession".

They were rewarded with an equally dull win in the SO with zero flash or entertainment.

 

[BB88]

Boston is boring.
They aren’t a contender nor are they heading in the right direction which would create excitement. They are on the decline with old crew.

They have zero exciting young players developing in the NHL.

So by either way by adding new younger skilled players this would be a much more entertaining team/product to watch

 

[BruinDust]

The NFL has three big advantages.

A smaller concentrated schedule, a culture of sports betting, and fantasy football.

They also are marketing masterminds having converted the NFL into a year round sport, with OTAs, free agency, the draft, training camp and their season and post season.

I didn't realize how big fantasy football was until the past few years. But many a hockey dressing room during football season the predominant talk is football and their fantasy teams. Way more than fantasy hockey. Gets on my nerves a bit as I'm not a football fan. I'll watch the Conference Championships and the SB, but I don't care who wins and do not support any NFL teams.

 

[Bruinaura]

I didn't realize how big fantasy football was until the past few years. But many a hockey dressing room during football season the predominant talk is football and their fantasy teams. Way more than fantasy hockey. Gets on my nerves a bit as I'm not a football fan. I'll watch the Conference Championships and the SB, but I don't care who wins and do not support any NFL teams.

I played fantasy hockey exactly once, years ago. I won, but all I remember about my team was that Lundqvist and Vokoun were my goalies

Way too much work to keep up with, for me.

 

[BruinDust]

I played fantasy hockey exactly once, years ago. I won, but all I remember about my team was that Lundqvist and Vokoun were my goalies

Way too much work to keep up with, for me.

I got one keeper hockey pool I joined a few years back my sister's partner runs it. Keep 5 players each year out of 16 then draft the remainder. The draft is always a lot of fun. My hockey buddies tried to get me to join their pool and I had to decline. One I can handle. Two? Forget about it..lol

 

[dafoomie]

It's the entire sport. Right down to the grass-roots level. Rules surrounding fighting in minor hockey are just getting stricter in stricter. It was suggested to me 15 years ago that ONE fight should result in the minor hockey player done for the season. I thought that was absolutely insane. I got week-long suspensions for throwing one punch with a glove on, and that was 20-25 years ago. Any fighting major was an automatic week suspension plus the incident could be reviewed for further discipline.

And advanced stats/analytics also plays a part. Moving forward it is going to be harder and harder for those "blood-and-guts" types to make the NHL. Teams are going to focus on analytics more and more to make judgement calls on players. The guys who added flavor to this league and this sport are being weeded out by these analytic darlings.

The sport is being gentrified. It was never the easiest sport for the working class to get their kids into but now the 75k/yr prep school parents are imposing their values on it.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Boston is boring.
They aren’t a contender nor are they heading in the right direction which would create excitement. They are on the decline with old crew.

They have zero exciting young players developing in the NHL.

So by either way by adding new younger skilled players this would be a much more entertaining team/product to watch

Wonder why they don't do that?

 

[Aeroforce]

I think a lot of the issues with the current NHL product simply stem from the playing of a game in a society for which it is no longer suited.

Couldn't have said this better myself!

Since we're discussing the entertainment factor, I'll also add I not only find the games dull, the television broadcasts are equally milquetoast. Jeremy Roenick, Mike Milbury, and Don Cherry were all guys I never clicked away from. Cherry's rant against Carolina's post-win Storm Surges, and the response by Canes fans were both - awesome! And "Bunch of Jerks" is now part of the vernacular.

The comments that led to their dismissals? The punishments far exceeded the crimes.

I know he's a polarizing figure, even on this board. But I applaud Jack Edwards for grasping at its core, this is entertainment, or at least it's supposed to be.

 

[mar2kbos]

They need to just build the team to the blue print identity of the big bad Bruins DNA. Stop trying to say the game has changed and it’s small guys and speed now. It really isn’t. The ones that win the Cup usually have a good blend and St Louis beat the Bs with physical play and we couldn’t match that. Sweeney went way over board with undersized skilled players and its been the bane of issues for years now. Most tolerated because they were winning games but we all sensed this hole and it has yet to be filled.

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

Ok, so taking this in a bit of a different direction:

Much has been made about analytics and pace of play in Major League Baseball. The way the game is played at the pro level, and all the way down to the youth levels has changed. Many yearn for the old days.

Meanwhile, the National Football League has also had to evolve and change for many of the same reasons the NHL has had to; player safety. The NHL is not going to suddenly encourage more fighting and collisions. Football has legislated the kickoff out of the game and made hits to the head and roughing the passer points of major emphasis. Scoring is up, but people are still watching and the NFL is still king?

So does the NHL product suck?
Does the Bruins' product suck?
Do some of us just have nostalgia glasses on for an era gone-bye?

The kickoff rule equates with the new hybrid icing. Hits to the head? Roughing the passer? Those don't ruin the game - increasing safety isn't the issue.

Which of these is changing the game? The NFL is still extremely physical. The NHL is running away from physicality and emotion while the NFL still largely embraces it.

 

[aic90]

I think this is a really good point. There have been lots of leagues in different sports around the world that have fallen for the financial and commercial temptations of having more teams, which assuredly makes more money but generally has diminished the quality of teams by stretching the available talent pool too thinly and inevitably leaving at least a couple of teams each season who are outright awful, damaging the quality of the product. The English Premier League has enormous financial imbalances between its richest and poorest teams, but one thing at least they've stuck fast to is having only 20 teams, when they could easily have expanded. The on-field action is better for it.

It definitely feels like the NHL has started to exceed its limits. Even 30 teams was arguably too much purely from a quality point of view but it probably struck a good balance between protecting the standard of the competition and giving the league a truly continental spread and solid commercial base. Now we're creeping over that I think we're seeing that the rosters of many teams are starting to suffer as a result. We've reached 32 and there's no going back unless circumstances are really dire, since to do so would be an admission of failure and decline, but at least it has to be hoped that any further new teams come about purely by transfer of existing franchises, not wholly new entities.

Interestingly (maybe), I think I’d argue that having a couple of awful teams actually is “healthy.” Obviously not for the awful teams (especially if it’s always the same ones); but for the league in general. It shows separation/“rewards” for quality.
Total parity in and of itself should not be considered “good.” Case in point: who thinks it’s healthy that Vegas reached the championship round in its FIRST YEAR? What does that actually say about the overall quality of the league? To me it says just about every team is average. Blah.

 

[PlayMakers]

I think one’s viewpoint on this topic might vary according to how many years they’ve watched the Bruins. Many have seen the old style AND the new style. Some have seen only new. So, when you say “out of touch” what does that really mean? Maybe to bring it more current, if someone who only recently watched claimed the more recent SpongeBob episodes were as good as or better than the older original ones, would you say they’re “out of touch”?

Age definitely plays a factor. The teams we loved growing up tend to leave an impression. They're called "formative" years for a reason. If you grew up on big, bad Bruins or even the 2011 Bruins then that's your baseline for what hockey should be.

 

[TheReal13Linseman]

Age definitely plays a factor. The teams we loved growing up tend to leave an impression. They're called "formative" years for a reason. If you grew up on big, bad Bruins or even the 2011 Bruins then that's your baseline for what hockey should be.

Even though I’ve been watching for 50+ years, that 2011 team was electric and that playoff run magical.

 

[bb74]

NFL has Pop Warner, High School JV and Varsity, College stadiums jammed with 100,000 screaming kids on parents' (or student loan dollars) and then the NFL. It is a human condition and you can be big, tough, and fat (DL/OL), fast (DB/WR), Crazy (RB/TE), or prom Queen (QB) and everyone can find a spot if you are athletic enough.

Hockey is the total opposite. It's a selective sport from the get go physically, economically, and socially. Just too hard to play for the masses and so many more constraints than any mainstream game. That's why soccer is the world sport. You don't even need shoes, just some old ball and a dirt lot and you can be Pélé. To be McDavid you need 200 bucks of gear second hand, parents that shuttle you to the local rink, ice time, and another 6-8 people in the same situation to create the measuring stick.

It's always been the LF sport and will be until the next ice age.

 

[TimThomas24]

You must of missed the Dave Lewis era.

Remind me what year and roster that was?

 

[smithformeragent]

Remind me what year and roster that was?

06/07

Chara and Savard’s first season.

 

[KillerMillerTime]

Boston is boring.
They aren’t a contender nor are they heading in the right direction which would create excitement. They are on the decline with old crew.

They have zero exciting young players developing in the NHL.

So by either way by adding new younger skilled players this would be a much more entertaining team/product to watch

I'm sorry, but a team with 63,88,37,71 and 73 isn't boring. Sounds to me your a front runner. That was an exciting game last night.

 

[TimThomas24]

I'm sorry, but a team with 63,88,37,71 and 73 isn't boring. Sounds to me your a front runner. That was an exciting game last night.

Outside of those guys its an incredibly dull roster. Its like watching the New Jersey Devils lol

 

[EvilDead]

The NFL has three big advantages.

A smaller concentrated schedule, a culture of sports betting, and fantasy football.

They also are marketing masterminds having converted the NFL into a year round sport, with OTAs, free agency, the draft, training camp and their season and post season.

It's also a league that is getting kind of bloated and the product on the field is getting worse and worse by the year. It also obvious that the ownership nepotism has led to the fish to rot from the head as scummy people like Dan Snyder engage in less than scrupulous behavior.

 

[Gnome17]

I agree that its not exciting watching as it has been, and for me it is a mix of the physicality being lower and the Bruins being less interesting after their last finals. In the mid 2010s I felt the same thing, after the Lucic era. Then it picked up again. Boston will always be my nr1 team but the past 2 reg seasons ive found myself watching more Oilers games. Mcdavid is a lot of fun to watch.

 

[KillerMillerTime]

Outside of those guys its an incredibly dull roster. Its like watching the New Jersey Devils lol

Thats true of even TB. Take away Stamkos, Point, Kucherov, Hedman and Palat and they aren't exciting

 

[KillerMillerTime]

Outside of those guys its an incredibly dull roster. Its like watching the New Jersey Devils lol

Watch Pats-Bills last night? That was more boring than
Wings vs Bruins. Made my eyes and ears bleed.

 

[MarchysNoseKnows]

Watch Pats-Bills last night? That was more boring than
Wings vs Bruins. Made my eyes and ears bleed.

My favorite football game I’ve seen in a long time lol

 

[304]

I'm late to the party here, but this thread is incredibly relevant to my current fandom.

I've had season tickets for 13 years, which has been an amazing stretch for the Bs. 2008-2011 I went to nearly every game, then moved to California for a few years. I would make sure to always go to the Bruins games in LA/Anaheim. I continued to watch every game on TV. When I came back 5+ years ago we decided to share our tickets amongst close friends, so I go about twice a month. However, this year has been the first year I have ever said "hmm, I have the tickets for the Tuesday game next week, maybe a friend wants to go instead?" The gameday experience has gotten stale and more expensive. Which is too bad because the upgrades at TD Garden have been fantastic.

I rarely watch games at home unless it's background noise. The games are boring and feel meaningless. The NESN broadcast is HORRIBLE. The Black Friday game on ABC felt like the Super Bowl by comparison.

Am I becoming less of a hockey fan? Nope. I know this because I have watched every single one of my alma mater's hockey games this season; either on TV or in person. The Bruins games have a preseason feel to them where I'm just waiting for the playoff push so it's like something is on the line. I get the vibe that the players are going through the motions as well.