"Are You Not Entertained?"

[GordonHowe]

Mods, yours to move.

OT: Bear with me.

This is a league office intent on ridding the NHL of any and all physicality or emotion.

We saw a chippy, nasty tilt on New Year's Eve, yes?

We saw multiple scrums, after the whistle business, and Trent Frederic inviting Ben Chiarot to dance immediately after Freddie's goal.

And yet, as has been the case for a decade at least, watching NHL game highlights, or even TSN highlights, you would never know that was the case.

You would see, as I did in reviewing these highlights, goals and saves. That's it. No emotion. No physical play. No scrums, no hate. We're all gentlemen here.





Rather, Goals! Goals! Goals! To a lesser degree, save here, save there.

This is the "product" the NHL has been pushing since Bettman's arrival and the advent of CTE, which has exposed the league to culpability, and therefore financial liability. Hence, the gradual abolishment of fighting and removal of the game's nasty North American roots.

What the league wants is a game entirely drained of genuine emotion, physical play and bad blood. They want fancy Dan's and flashy goals, the more the better. They want European "hockey." Touch football, as it were.

Unless you watch a game, you don't know what actually happened, because everything has been sanitized.

You have to rely on Dafoomie or, if you're lucky, bits & pieces on YouTube.

Endless ticky-tack calls ("Breathing on opponent. Two minutes"); an absurdly tortuous "Coach's challenge" guaranteed to suck the life out of any building; a bad joke known as the "Department of Player Safety," the crass, crowd-pleasing shoot out.

Ladies and gentlemen, your NHL.

Are you not entertained?

All rights reserved. Rebroadcast of NHL games without the express written consent of the National Hockey League (TM) is strictly prohibited.

Click to read more...

 

[Aeroforce]

The issue with the league highlights has bothered me for many seasons. Years back there was a contentious game between Tampa and Vancouver, garnering lots of discussion on various platforms. When I watched the highlights, every bit of acrimony was eliminated.

The CTE is an issue, but I think it's also as much marketing to the younger crowd, who the league believes doesn't want old-time hockey. They would much rather have Michigan-goals going viral on TikTok.

I'll meet them in the middle. Some 70's era clips of bench-clearing brawls look cartooni-ish. It was great at the time, but it doesn't need to be revisited.

At the same time, trick-goals happen so infrequently that building a marketing campaign around them seems pointless. New fans can watch countless hours of hockey and never see one.

 

[GordonHowe]

The issue with the league highlights has bothered me for many seasons. Years back there was a contentious game between Tampa and Vancouver, garnering lots of discussion on various platforms. When I watched the highlights, every bit of acrimony was eliminated.

The CTE is an issue, but I think it's also as much marketing to the younger crowd, who the league believes doesn't want old-time hockey. They would much rather have Michigan-goals going viral on TikTok.

I'll meet them in the middle. Some 70's era clips of bench-clearing brawls look cartooni-ish. It was great at the time, but it doesn't need to be revisited.

At the same time, trick-goals happen so infrequently that building a marketing campaign around them seems pointless. New fans can watch countless hours of hockey and never see one.

Thank you for your response.

I could actually care less about "the Michigan." I have no problem with it.

Nor do I dream of returning to nightly bench-clearing brawls.

But I hope that despite Bettman and the league office/owners, the NHL game I've loved all my life somehow survives
their foolishness.

 

[Aeroforce]

I actually like the Michigan and hope Lauko tries it again soon.

I just see it in commercials for the NHL, but it happens so infrequently.

I think the league and players are adapting; but it won't happen overnight. Predatory hits are phasing out. And love 'em or hate 'em, the Florida Panthers crash and bang every shift.

It's about finding the happy medium in which the game is physical, but players aren't getting concussions.

John Tortorella was outspoken about this, and even referred to the NHL as the "No Hitting League."

 

[Ozzy Osbourne]

Physical, tough hockey with a fight or even two is by far the most entertaining. I didn‘t mind the days of the 2:42 seconds per game guy like Tony Twist and Link Gaetz, but it was actually foolish to have two guys fight just to fight.
Somewhere between that and now would be great. I’m not sure I blame the league for toning down the violence due to concussions, but the league is actually quite boring. I’m not a UFC fan, but isn’t it very popular? People like a little violence every now and then. We still talk about “The Dallas Game” and what a great memory it is.
I don’t remember fans turning away when Billy O’Dwyer, Jay Miller and Lyndon Byers jumped on the ice and hit everything that moved. We have no such entertainment now. We have been “taught” that only goals are exciting while the sport gets more boring. The fact that many of us long for even one guy to handle the rough stuff while our GM seems only too happy to buy in to the leagues no-hitting agenda says that we can forget about a return to what we call ”Bruins hockey”.
Overall I would have to say that I am rarely entertained.

 

[smithformeragent]

The regular season does and has done little to entertain me over call it the past 5 years.

Might just be the stage of life I’m at, but even when the Bruins were setting records last winter, I wasn’t fully engaged in the product.

It feels very generic and lifeless.

It was good to see some nastiness against the Red Wings last night which piqued my interest.

In general, very little intensity to these regular season games. Very low entertainment factor. “They” say the product has never been better. From a technical standpoint, I’m sure they’re right.

 

[Aussie Bruin]

Sportsnet do a slightly better job with their highlights packages than the NHL. They tend to be a minute or two longer and often if there was a fight or a big hit or some other nastiness worth seeing they will show at least some of it. Still somewhat sanitized but you do get a bit more of the flavor of each game. The NHL's vids are scoring chances and goals, that's it. Zero context, basically an AV version of looking up the box score. As a means to market the product, they do a poor job.

The NHL is in an interesting place in the sense that pretty much every other major sporting league in the world has had the hate beaten out of it. You strongly sense that the people who run the NHL have their noses to the wind and want to follow that trend, but in many ways really don't know how, and I think many of them also have a nagging sense, whether they want to admit it or not, that the portion of the fanbase that believes that if you take the truculence out of the sport you damage its very core are right. Hence we get a half-baked product because the administrators haven't really settled on any firm and coherent plans about how the game should be played and presented, and we get silly contradictions like the desire for more goals and speed/skill plays and finicky officiating that sees many otherwise good goals called back and kills the flow of games and the ability of the best players to show off their talents in sustained even strength play.

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

The NHL must be chasing the NFL offense only, no touching QBs.

Chasing the NBA where scores are now 150 due to repetitive 3 pointer shots.

It believes soft, artificial, offense-only is the way to profit.

Fighting on the way out, hitting beginning to follow. A lacrosse style goal being about all the NHL has to cling to these days. Officials who are not worthy of ECHL levels, and have no grasp on the context of a game, utterly overwhelmed. A DoPS led by Parros of all fools where the only consistency is inconsistency.

Catering to predictable scripts via game management and whatever it was we saw in 2019 vs Blues or last postseason with Florida until the Vegas series.

The league desperately needs rivalries but fears them instead.

 

[quietbruinfan]

The league has definitely sanitized the game and taken much of the fighting, and some of the hitting, out of it. What we now have is a rather emotionless but paradoxically somewhat more dangerous, regular season game of shinny. The playoffs are physical and an entirely different animal to the regular season. (The league still knows violence and high pace sells.)
The skills of the players are better than ever, the speed of the game has increased substantially without the red line, but the code of frontier justice is about gone and the league is much more dangerous and worse for it.
Players lack respect and concern for one another. It is a symptom of a societal problem that shows in a huge increase in hits to the head , from behind etc. The NHL knew this was coming as they have all but phased out the charging penalty over the last 40 years! But, I think the game has bitten off more than it can chew in terms of recklessness, danger and injury....It's a quality product but it has become, mostly thoughtless, dangerous, chippy and ugly.

 

[smithformeragent]

Oh and the countless f***ing plugs for the gambling.

Constantly in your face before, during, and after the game.

It’s exhausting.

It’s clear that this is where all of this is headed when it comes to pro sports.

38 y/o me be like:

 

[Hookslide]

Mods, yours to move.

OT: Bear with me.

This is a league office intent on ridding the NHL of any and all physicality or emotion.

We saw a chippy, nasty tilt on New Year's Eve, yes?

We saw multiple scrums, after the whistle business, and Trent Frederic inviting Ben Chiarot to dance immediately after Freddie's goal.

And yet, as has been the case for a decade at least, watching NHL game highlights, or even TSN highlights, you would never know that was the case.

You would see, as I did in reviewing these highlights, goals and saves. That's it. No emotion. No physical play. No scrums, no hate. We're all gentlemen here.





Rather, Goals! Goals! Goals! To a lesser degree, save here, save there.

This is the "product" the NHL has been pushing since Bettman's arrival and the advent of CTE, which has exposed the league to culpability, and therefore financial liability. Hence, the gradual abolishment of fighting and removal of the game's nasty North American roots.

What the league wants is a game entirely drained of genuine emotion, physical play and bad blood. They want fancy Dan's and flashy goals, the more the better. They want European "hockey." Touch football, as it were.

Unless you watch a game, you don't know what actually happened, because everything has been sanitized.

You have to rely on Dafoomie or, if you're lucky, bits & pieces on YouTube.

Endless ticky-tack calls ("Breathing on opponent. Two minutes"); an absurdly tortuous "Coach's challenge" guaranteed to suck the life out of any building; a bad joke known as the "Department of Player Safety," the crass, crowd-pleasing shoot out.

Ladies and gentlemen, your NHL.

Are you not entertained?

View attachment 793817 View attachment 793822

All rights reserved. Rebroadcast of NHL games without the express written consent of the National Hockey League (TM) is strictly prohibited.

Nice points you made. Betteman, brought that NBA mentality with him, show the high flying dunks no defense league, now look what they have for a product. I cannot remember the last time I watched a basketball game. Baseball took a similar path, home runs, home runs, the bunt whats that ,hitting behind the runner all extinct. NHL do not take the same path.

 

[BruinDust]

The league has definitely sanitized the game and taken much of the fighting, and some of the hitting, out of it. What we now have is a rather emotionless but paradoxically, somewhat more dangerous, regular season game of shinny. The playoffs are physical and an entirely different animal to the regular season. (The league still knows violence and high pace still sells.)
The skills of the players are better than ever, the speed of the game has increased substantially without the red line, but the code of frontier justice is about gone and the league is much more dangerous and worse for it.
Players lack respect and concern for one another. It is a symptom of a societal problem that shows in a huge increase in hits to the head , from behind etc. The NHL knew this was coming as they have all but phased out the charging penalty over the last 40 years! But, I think the game has bitten off more than it can chew in terms of recklessness, danger and injury....It's a quality product but it has become, mostly thoughtless, dangerous, chippy and ugly.

Today's players do not know how to protect themselves. They play under the assumption they won't be hit.

Our own Matt Poitras was guilty of this yesterday at the WJC. Late in a shift, tired, came across the blueline with possession. Instead of dumping the puck in an bracing for the oncoming hit, he decided to maintain possession and do a quick cut back where the oncoming defender still completed his check as it was too late to change course, and Poitras got rocked. Yeah the guy got a 2 min. minor for boarding. Wouldn't matter much if Poitras was seriously injured (which he could of been).

Earlier in the game, Morgan Geekie's younger brother Connor drilled a German defender with a perfectly clean hit.....by NA professional standards. Under IIHF rules, a hit to the head is a hit to the head. No gray area, no room for interpretation. Geekie basically got tossed because he's a larger player compared to the 5'11 defender he planted, and that defender did nothing to try and brace for the oncoming hit which was clearly coming straight towards him. We've taken all responsibility away from the player with the puck and put complete onus on the player trying to obtain the puck.

Now you have USA hockey basically eliminating "finishing your check" with it's recent rule changes on body checking. As soon as the player releases the puck, he cannot be legally hit. They don't need to brace for contact, because it's now illegal, at least in theory. But in reality you will never completely eradicate hits laid just after the player gets rid of the puck, the game is just too fast. So instead you'll just have a generation of players who don't know how or when to brace for contact.

A couple weeks ago I was watching a Penguins game and Sidney Crosby finished a hit on a Carolina D-man down in the corner of the Penguins offensive zone. Didn't knock the defender down or anything, but it allowed Crosby to beat that defender to the front of the net, where Crosby was available for a nice deflection goal. Someone needs to explain to me what was wrong with that play? How that particular play is somehow dangerous in minor hockey at checking levels?

Body-checking serves a purpose in this sport and to me is an integral part of the sport itself. I see it all the time at a adult rec level now. Guys who can dangle their way up the ice that if they were threatened with body contact, wouldn't have a chance to perform their flashy dekes and toe-drags. They can do those moves because there is no fear of getting rocked. I'm not advocating for body-contact at the adult rec level, just trying to illustrate how hockey with body contact is vastly different than hockey without it. Even the adult rec level has become WAY to sensitive to body contact and any sort of emotion.

The NHL has done a good job to reduce those blindside hits like the one that ended Marc Savard's career. But I feel we are and have been developing a generation of players who don't know how to anticipate or brace for contact in a contact sport, and overall, the sport is becoming more dangerous, not less, despite the ongoing crusade to eliminate emotion completely out of sports and society in general.

Wishing everyone here a happy new year!

 

[sarge88]

The amazing thing about this thread/topic is that there have been 10 or so responses, all articulate, from fans of varying ages and demographic, all generally agreeing with the original point…and I would guess that if every member of this forum were forced to comment that 75-80% would agree as well, yet the league continues to market toward the 20-25% who disagree.

 

[Dr Hook]

The league brought in Bettman because revenues were not anywhere near on par with other major sports in the U.S. and hockey was very much a niche sport. And if we are honest, watching those games from the 70s, things I watched as a kid, it's kind of embarrassing, and easy to see why the sport was not catching on outside of its core markets.

That said. it seems like it has gone too far in the rush to get away from that image. But really, it hasn't been a rush, has it? It's been over 30 years now since Bettman has been at the helm, and we are seeing the fruits of the slow, steady change to soccer on ice and the diminishing of the things that made hockey unique among sports.

I would submit that the real change that is now driving this 'evolution' is the players. A generation of North American players now have grown up and learned the sport in the age of Bettman, and they are not bringing the same attitude and skillsets to the sport. They don't miss the old days of hockey because they have never know anything else. Who is left in the league that played when Bettman was not commissioner? No one and they've all come up well after his regime and direction was solidly entrenched.

Pushback against a sanitized sport is growing smaller and smaller with time. It makes me sad, but life is change, and I still love the sport and watching it, even if what I enjoy is different from how it was 20 years ago.

 

[smithformeragent]

Nostalgia is a powerful thing.

For me, nothing will top the late 80s/early 90s.

Playing NHL 94 all summer long on Sega Genesis.

Getting Pro Set hockey cards for Christmas.

Game of the week on Fox with the robots.

My dad commenting on how “boring” the game had become and how faceless the players all looked with helmets on as he yearned for the days of the 70s, telling me how the Bruins would have won 4 or 5 Cups had it not been for the WHA.

Me rolling my eyes at him.

And alas, here we are.

 

[bruinsfan1968]

How can any professional sport make progress towards the future, if the majority of it's fans are stuck in the past!.
Progression is a natural order of things, the past is all memories some very good and some not so good.
You live and learn from the past, you apply them to the present and adjust for the future.
The NHL is not any different, yes the game has changed, so has the kids playing the game, so embrace the present and look to the future.
The game is still entertaining regardless of what the people stuck in past have to say about it.
Hell, I loved the past history of this great game, but you have to let go at some time, otherwise you don't grow as a person.

 

[Bruinfanatic]

Oh and the countless f***ing plugs for the gambling.

Constantly in your face before, during, and after the game.

It’s exhausting.

It’s clear that this is where all of this is headed when it comes to pro sports.

38 y/o me be like:
View attachment 793848

Yeah they advertise the shit out of it but players can’t even bet on other sports,kind of stupid really.

 

[smithformeragent]

How can any professional sport make progress towards the future, if the majority of it's fans are stuck in the past!.
Progression is a natural order of things, the past is all memories some very good and some not so good.
You live and learn from the past, you apply them to the present and adjust for the future.
The NHL is not any different, yes the game has changed, so has the kids playing the game, so embrace the present and look to the future.
The game is still entertaining regardless of what the people stuck in past have to say about it.
Hell, I loved the past history of this great game, but you have to let go at some time, otherwise you don't grow as a person.

NHL course corrected coming out of the lockout to eliminate the clutching and grabbing of the Trap Era.

MLB eliminated the shift and instituted the pitch clock.

You can never “go back”, but there are ways to recapture the heart of what a sport “should be”.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Fans were pissed when they eliminated the "thumbs down" for gladiators. Then they banned the lions.

Season tickets dropped significantly as a result.

Just like now, signs of an empire in decline.

 

[Sheppy]

To think that it was just 10-12 years ago I’d leave work 5 minutes early to rush home to watch a Bruins/Habs game because you just knew it would be a barn burner filled with emotion and hatred for one another.

That’s something I miss greatly. Today I feel like players are just going through the motions for the most part.

Despite the Bruins record and them being on top of the east for the most part, I’ve probably only truly been entertained by 2-3 games this year, which sucks.

Give us more divisional games and axe one of the two games against western conference teams. Give me another game against Montreal, Toronto, Florida etc over a game against Arizona.

I’ve learned to accept the fact that the one dimensional goon is gone, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss the occasional game. Watching the Leafs 4th line of McLaren and Orr terrorize teams was hilarious.

 

[BB79]

Look at the penalty log from the Ducks game last night. 3rd period got chippy, blowout game. Zegras and Draisaitl both got misconducts, Zegras for spearing. I watched the game recap on NHL.com....nothing, just goals. WTF

 

[Hookslide]

To think that it was just 10-12 years ago I’d leave work 5 minutes early to rush home to watch a Bruins/Habs game because you just knew it would be a barn burner filled with emotion and hatred for one another.

That’s something I miss greatly. Today I feel like players are just going through the motions for the most part.

Despite the Bruins record and them being on top of the east for the most part, I’ve probably only truly been entertained by 2-3 games this year, which sucks.

Give us more divisional games and axe one of the two games against western conference teams. Give me another game against Montreal, Toronto, Florida etc over a game against Arizona.

I’ve learned to accept the fact that the one dimensional goon is gone, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss the occasional game. Watching the Leafs 4th line of McLaren and Orr terrorize teams was hilarious.

If you have been entertained by only by 3 games this year than you have only watched 3 games, and you fortunate that you caught those 3 games........I do agree with your take on divisional games.

 

[Sheppy]

If you have been entertained by only by 3 games this year then you have only watched 3 games, and you fortunate that you caught those 3 games........I do agree with your take on divisional games.

Nah, entertaining games with this Bruins team are few and far between.

We’re geared to think average games are fantastic now.

 

[Gordoff]

Sportsnet do a slightly better job with their highlights packages than the NHL. They tend to be a minute or two longer and often if there was a fight or a big hit or some other nastiness worth seeing they will show at least some of it. Still somewhat sanitized but you do get a bit more of the flavor of each game. The NHL's vids are scoring chances and goals, that's it. Zero context, basically an AV version of looking up the box score. As a means to market the product, they do a poor job.

The NHL is in an interesting place in the sense that pretty much every other major sporting league in the world has had the hate beaten out of it. You strongly sense that the people who run the NHL have their noses to the wind and want to follow that trend, but in many ways really don't know how, and I think many of them also have a nagging sense, whether they want to admit it or not, that the portion of the fanbase that believes that if you take the truculence out of the sport you damage its very core are right. Hence we get a half-baked product because the administrators haven't really settled on any firm and coherent plans about how the game should be played and presented, and we get silly contradictions like the desire for more goals and speed/skill plays and finicky officiating that sees many otherwise good goals called back and kills the flow of games and the ability of the best players to show off their talents in sustained even strength play.

NHL is like a tractor trailer being driven by committee. Bettman is the guy working the brakes and accelerator, the owners working the clutch.

 

[sarge88]

How can any professional sport make progress towards the future, if the majority of it's fans are stuck in the past!.
Progression is a natural order of things, the past is all memories some very good and some not so good.
You live and learn from the past, you apply them to the present and adjust for the future.
The NHL is not any different, yes the game has changed, so has the kids playing the game, so embrace the present and look to the future.
The game is still entertaining regardless of what the people stuck in past have to say about it.
Hell, I loved the past history of this great game, but you have to let go at some time, otherwise you don't grow as a person.

progress doesn’t always mean improvement.

You can acknowledge the fact that players are faster and more skilled today while at the same time understanding that for many (most?) fans there is a yearning for a more physical/meaner/tougher style of play.