NHL should post puck drop time

[Man Bear Pig]

It generally only annoys me when it is a game against the Canadiens since they seemingly need to insert a pre-game ceremony that last ~ 30 minutes before every game.

The Habs honour something or someone seemingly every night. Although it also seems like a lot of American teams have those random nights too. "On this Tuesday night in mid November we honour the brave men and women of our armed forces who fought valiantly in the West Chilean war that lasted 42 hours in the year 2013. Nobody died but let's honour our fallen anyways". Needless to say I have no clue what things like this have to do with hockey. I also think we should get rid of anthems entirely but that's just me.

 

[Eternal Leaf]

I usually record the start and sit down to watch at 7:20 PM (assuming a 7 PM start).

Allows me to skip forward to when the game actually begins.

 

[Atas2000]

It is an annoying way to make tune in to the most useless pre-game segment. Also it does bother casual fans a lot. I've seen people zapping away for a movie or something to not come back to a NHL game because "they were still singing".

 

[Rcknrollkillnmachine]

The Habs honour something or someone seemingly every night. Although it also seems like a lot of American teams have those random nights too. "On this Tuesday night in mid November we honour the brave men and women of our armed forces who fought valiantly in the West Chilean war that lasted 42 hours in the year 2013. Nobody died but let's honour our fallen anyways". Needless to say I have no clue what things like this have to do with hockey. I also think we should get rid of anthems entirely but that's just me.

Agree with the anthems ban. I always mute it as I await the puck drop.

At a push have them in the play-offs and play a tape version/full brass band with no vocals rather than the usual singer boring folks to tears with their rendition.

 

[justafan22]

Regular season games are usually 7-8 minutes past the hour/half hour game is scheduled.

If it's a HNIC/playoff game, it's usually not until 7:15 it's started

 

[Nemesis Prime]

Generally tune into HNIC at about 7:10.

But yeah, anthem singers are the worst. Especially that asshat for the Bruins who has to hold every vowel in every word 10 seconds longer than necessary.

 

[SchwenningerWildWing]

As a european I find this always quite amateurish. Why not make all those pregame stuff before the start time so that the start is at the announced time.

 

[Ovie's Neighbor]

Also, the Super Bowl never starts remotely close to ”on time”.

This thread is hilarious

That is just simply false. The super bowl kickoff time is always super close to the posted time of 6:30. Last year actual kickoff was 6:36 and the year before that 6:35. Compare that to the Stanley cup finals last year that were supposed to start at 8 and would routinely start at 8:30/8:40.

 

[ElGuapo]

Would be so happy if this happened. Just drop the puck at the 7:00 sharp or whatever time the game starts and get the national anthems and other bullcrap done before that.

Yep. We don't need the previewy crap they put on between 7 and when the puck drops. All these games already have preview shows.

 

[Juicy Pop]

"Bingo ... its a business" isn't an excuse for a business to treat its customers like ****.

The next time you get sawdust in your burger instead of meat ... bingo its a business. People seem to forget.

What a horrid analogy.

It only works if instead of the hockey game you were promised, they instead decide to host an NBA D-league game.

 

[tony d]

I agree, they could change this to better reflect puck drop time.

 

[Trap Jesus]

I feel like it's always 7 minutes after in regular season unless there's a special ceremony. I think playoffs throws everything out the window.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

In soccer, when they say 3:00, we are literally kicking the ball for the first time at 3:00. Not a minute later.

Was coming to post this. The quality of the Premier League product is top-notch. The game starts when it says it's going to start, they play for 45-50 minutes, have a 15 minute break, and play another 45-52 minutes until the game is over. It's very viewer friendly... and, selfishly, the early AM start times are much appreciated for parents with young kids.

 

[Machinehead]

Was coming to post this. The quality of the Premier League product is top-notch. The game starts when it says it's going to start, they play for 45-50 minutes, have a 15 minute break, and play another 45-52 minutes until the game is over. It's very viewer friendly... and, selfishly, the early AM start times are much appreciated for parents with young kids.

Granted, just for the sake of fairness, I must posit that ads on the jerseys help all of this along a ton, and nobody wants to see that.

But I agree. I can't get enough Premier League.

 

[MikeyMike01]

The puck needs to drop at 7:00.

Here's what happens to the casual fan: they see the game is on, they put it on, 10 minutes later it still hasn't started, and they move to another channel and never come back.

One of many things that professional sports leagues do correctly and the NHL cannot.

 

[jetsforever]

It's hard to do it exactly with the pre-game stuff varying, I think it's fine as is

 

[Iapyi]

The Habs honour something or someone seemingly every night. Although it also seems like a lot of American teams have those random nights too. "On this Tuesday night in mid November we honour the brave men and women of our armed forces who fought valiantly in the West Chilean war that lasted 42 hours in the year 2013. Nobody died but let's honour our fallen anyways". Needless to say I have no clue what things like this have to do with hockey. I also think we should get rid of anthems entirely but that's just me.

So true. They are full of themselves. It'll be hilarious when they run out of #s to give out to players.

 

[PensandCaps]

Stop with the dumb anthems who cares about being patriotic in a sporting event. So stupid

 

[Mandar]

My goodness....I guess when people have run out of things to complain about, some kind of outrage has to be manufactured.

Really? Puck drops at 7:10, and all these "casual" fans are turning the channel....and no one knows what to do with the prescious 10 minutes? The NHL is lying to everyone, and they can't get it right....cause European soccer kicks off right on the minute?

Come on...please take on another cause, because this is just silly. Unreal....10 freaking minutes....

 

[Drake1588]

Those wondering why people can be so naive as to expect the league and broadcasters to do this are outright ignoring that in FIFA, NFL, MLB, NBA, MLS and other leagues, this is common practice. The issue is that you DONT actually know when the game will start, given that every building has a different practice, and each night might have the pre-game ceremonies go 10, 15, or 25 minutes. So you sit there waiting. You want to attract new fans? What do you think millennial fans today don't want to be doing for 15 minutes after the supposed game starts?

Publish a puck drop time, and work back from there to begin your pre-game festivities. Simple to do. The OP is right. It is doubly important in the playoffs, as more teams start to copy Vegas from last year and the pre-game ceremonies grow more elaborate.

 

[Lebowski]

General rule of thumb is that games start 15 minutes later than the announced start time, or so I thought.