obsenssive*
Guest
Is it wrong to say that the reason the main stream society in the United States largely ignores hockey because it is seen as "un-american"?
In 1999-2000 12% of the NHL was American. Now a decade later its almost doubled to 22% in 09-10. That is good progress, yet it's still quite small. American stars have emerged, like big buff, pavelski, kane, kesler, brown, dubinsky etc. who hopefully can change the tides.
however, American teams mostly rely on foreign talent to score goals and win games.
I have seen many a broadcast from a US market where they talk incessantly about the "americans" in the particular game. *coughVERSUS* almost mental gymnastics when its obvious that the majority of the players are for instance french canadian, or slavic, or scandinavian. they seem to try to divert the audience attention away from these non-anglo names by "promoting" even obscure american players, like that Chris Clark is from Connecticut, said THREE TIMES in a single game last week on versus.
so for americans: would an increase in both the number of US players and stars in the NHL affect its popularity there?
In 1999-2000 12% of the NHL was American. Now a decade later its almost doubled to 22% in 09-10. That is good progress, yet it's still quite small. American stars have emerged, like big buff, pavelski, kane, kesler, brown, dubinsky etc. who hopefully can change the tides.
however, American teams mostly rely on foreign talent to score goals and win games.
I have seen many a broadcast from a US market where they talk incessantly about the "americans" in the particular game. *coughVERSUS* almost mental gymnastics when its obvious that the majority of the players are for instance french canadian, or slavic, or scandinavian. they seem to try to divert the audience attention away from these non-anglo names by "promoting" even obscure american players, like that Chris Clark is from Connecticut, said THREE TIMES in a single game last week on versus.
so for americans: would an increase in both the number of US players and stars in the NHL affect its popularity there?