Hockey Randomness

[nocera]

I immediately lost interest once the Pens were eliminated so quickly. I did not watch any other games in full. I just wasn't into fan-less summer hockey if the Pens weren't involved.

[faftorial]

I immediately lost interest once the Pens were eliminated so quickly. I did not watch any other games in full. I just wasn't into fan-less summer hockey if the Pens weren't involved.

I didn't care who won so no interest. If the Flyers or Caps, or even Bruins, were in the cup I'd be rooting against them.

[the wicked child]

I had no rooting interest in either team. The big problem for me was that as soon as Tampa scored last night, the game felt over. Dallas wasn't even getting a whiff of a scoring chance. The previous 2 games were way more interesting (of course OT will do that), but this one was pretty meh. After 2-0 I peaced out until the final few mins.

[Lemon Berry Lobster]

[Gaucho]

King Henrik will be bought out.

[meow]

They are going to have like $10 million in dead cap space...

[Jim]

They are going to have like $10 million in dead cap space...

$13M

[meow]

Seems bad

[mikey]

So that'll give them about $23 mil in free cap space this year I guess...

They have Strome and ADA re-sign and nothing else of note...

So, let me ask the group this...

Buffalo says, "we'll do Jack for 1st overall, straight up." and you're Rangers GM Jeff Gorton, who just bought out the most famous, decorated player to play for this team in 20 years, what do you say...?

[meow]

I’d whip it out. I’d whip it out and start stroking it.

[Lemon Berry Lobster]

They are in need of a diva replacement.

[mikey]

So you could get to...

Kreider-Eichel-Kakko
Panarin-Zbad-Buchnevich
Chytil-Strome-Kravtsov
Lemieux-Howden-Gauthier

You got Morgan Barron and the Russian (?) from Michigan State on the way...one of Karl Henriksson or Leevi Altonen should provide cheap depth eventually too...

Then a RD of: Trouba, Fox, ADA

You got Nils Lundkvist, Zac Jones, K'Andre Miller, Matthew Robertson on the way...

And then one of the top U24 goalies in the world (maybe the best) in Igor Shestyorkin...

Even if they go #1 for Jack, they still have the 22nd pick in this draft...if Gorton keeps it going like this, this team might actually make a liar out of Sam Rosen after all...

[willeyeam]

This playoff was not exactly a rousing success for TV ratings...

Game 6 (NBC) ended up with just under 3 million viewers (2.95 mil) making it the least watched game 6 (from what I could tell) since 1994 (where I couldn't find game 6 ratings, though given that it was one of the best series of all time and featured the New York Rangers, I imagine it also got more than 3 mil viewers)...

It's the least watched final game of the Final since 1998 (couldn't find the ratings for game 4 immediately) other than 2007 (Anaheim vs Ottawa, game 5, 1.8 mil)

For comparison:
2019: StL/Bost G6 (6.5 mil), G7 (8.7 mil)
2018: Wsh/VGK G5 (6.7 mil)
2017: Pit/Nsh G6 (7 mil)

It's also the only Final game that went up against Monday Night Football

[mikey]

Sure, and I'd be more inclined to look for reasons why the numbers are so if they weren't so obviously trending towards a disappointing Final anyhow...

It just wasn't a hit this time around...

For Saturday's game 5 on Sportsnet, it drew 605,000 people on English Canada TV...

Celebrity Family Feud hosted by Gerry Dee on Sunday on City drew 682,000...

Granted, a lot more people will watch Sportsnet+ streaming service for hockey and sports in general...but this is bad sign for one last TV score for the US...

[nocera]

I read a decent argument for "sports fatigue" being a large reason why the Final didn't get much of an audience. We went months without ANYTHING to watch. I think I actually turned on Korean baseball for a while. And then all of a sudden every sport to ever play was airing simultaneously. My paraphrasing isn't doing the original argument justice, but I can see fatigue being one of the causes.

[MR25]

That is an interesting point and can probably say that's why I watched maybe 10 minutes total of the finals.

Not just that we got hit with everything at once, but there were no hockey off days until the SCF. We literally had multiple games a night for a full month, and then the conference finals.

Personally, I think I just got burned out watching it every night straight.

[mikey]

I also considered that, and as much as I'm an NHL backer, it, too, doesn't hold a ton of water...

Mtl/Pit (which I can't remember if it was exclusive or not...were you guys able to watch it on AT&T Sportsnet or whatever?) did well in the U.S. and Canada...

But even Bos/TB averaged just about 1.3 mil across their series...Dal/Col averaged under 800k with the best player left in the playoffs having a historic run...

Both Conference Final series average about 1.05 mil...

Again, I'm forgetting when things went exclusive to the national broadcast...I think it was after the first round because I remember Rick Peckham calling Brayden Point's series OT winning goal to end his career...so, that means that Bos/TB was exclusive national and that should have been a bonanza really...and it did nothing...

Bos vs CBJ from last year topped 1.5 mil viewers in each game of the series last year, and those were non-exclusive games...game 5 got nearly 5.5 mil viewers counting local markets as well...this year, TB/Bos topped 1.5 mil viewers once...game 1, ~1.8 mil...

[mikey]

That is an interesting point and can probably say that's why I watched maybe 10 minutes total of the finals.

Not just that we got hit with everything at once, but there were no hockey off days until the SCF. We literally had multiple games a night for a full month, and then the conference finals.

Personally, I think I just got burned out watching it every night straight.

There were...

9/18
9/16
8/28
8/27
8/10
7/31

And that's not different than the normal play out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs anyhow...

As someone that has watched every minute of every game for the last several playoffs, this was the easiest one to digest for me because of the timing and spacing of games...they didn't have to fit them into the 7 pm to 10:30 pm ET window...they had (and had to) use the entire day...

[meow]

I know for me personally, it was tough to get into a game when there was still daylight at the start of the third period.

[nocera]

Bos/TB was second third round and I was already way over it. I'm assuming I'm not alone in that. Mtl/Pit was the very first round back so you had two strong markets plus the curiosity factor. It was simply a lot of hockey/sports to watch and the atmosphere wasn't there for me. It never really *felt* like the playoffs. And that's probably more of a comment on me as a fan than the quality of the play.

[mikey]

Yes it is (which is fine)...but it was very well done, imo...and it was largely good hockey...

[nocera]

Yes it is (which is fine)...but it was very well done, imo...and it was largely good hockey...

It helped me realize how much atmosphere adds to the lore of playoff hockey. Without a crowd, without a home ice "advantage," there just wasn't the playoff atmosphere. Both teams getting horns/goal songs reminded me of an ASG. If the Pens were in it, I definitely would've watched. Without them, there wasn't much incentive for me to give up my nights for it.

[Lemon Berry Lobster]

[nocera]

Sadly, Lundqvist’s career in New York will be most remembered by his "sad Lundqvist" pictures.

[Beveridge]

He could be had for cheap. If I'm the Avs or Canes, I've already made that call.