Lord Stanley's Finals:New Jersey V. Anaheim

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The Double D series. (in name and plaing preference)

First time Griffiths has seen double d's in his life :wink:
 
haha, thats what I'm saying zoner

Come on join us, we will be the Double C and Z team!
 
ROMP IN THE SWAMP Part One:

Tuesday, coming to a screen near you.

You'll pay for the whole seat, but you'll only need the armrest.
 
:laugh:

I think Chizip is confusing two different things, as mentioned in the other thread. Yes, two big market American teams are great for the NHL. But, no, two swamp trolling teams are not good for the NHL. Ideally, the NHL would want two excting teams in the finals, and it would be even more ideal that they both be American. So I still fail to understand the point of the reduncency of your argument.
 
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Michael Griffiths said:
lmao.

Chizer, no, my point is that the ratings are suffering in a big way right now (regardless of two American teams making it to the finals) because of the defensive, dragging to a stand still hockey that's being played. Yes, two American teams in the finals is much more economically viable for NHL, but just imagine how much more viable it would be if people actually cared? That's my point. :wink:
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Like the majority of people in the States have a clue on what you are talking about!?!

They will see hard hits - and the people in these two major markets know only one thing - THERE team is in the finals. That alone is enough motivation to watch.

Reaffirm my point: NHL DREAM.
 
zonelistener said:


Like the majority of people in the States have a clue on what you are talking about!?!

They will see hard hits - and the people in these two major markets know only one thing - THERE team is in the finals. That alone is enough motivation to watch.

Reaffirm my point: NHL DREAM.
Click to expand...
You don't think the rest of the country matters when it comes to ratings? What about the Canadian market, where pretty much everyone is a knowledgable hockey fan? You don't have to be an expert, anyway, to know entertaining hockey from swamp hockey.
 
a good article

Final four shows Cup can't be bought

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Terry Frei

Already, we've been hearing the talk about how the surviving teams in the NHL's final four guarantee a ratings disaster for the conference finals and the Stanley Cup finals -- at least in the United States.

The Wild, with the lowest payroll in the league, is the top remaining seed in the West.
There's some basis for that, despite the potential for a Cup finals matchup between teams considered part of the New York and Los Angeles markets.

Curiously, given the promises and expectations cited when the franchise was moved to the Meadowlands, the Devils never have been embraced by the New York market, in which they run a poor third behind the Rangers and Islanders -- if they register at all.

They're New Jersey's team, and sometimes that's even hard to argue given the apathy represented by so many empty seats in the regular season, playoff non-sellouts and championship parades held in a parking lot.

Likewise, the Ducks won't draw the attention of the entire Southern California market, either -- and that's not even to say that the Kings would.

The guaranteed absence of the Western Conference's marquee teams, Detroit, Dallas and Colorado, is a shocker.

And having the Flyers, who perhaps are more popular in New Jersey than the Devils, in the final four would have helped in terms of drawing a larger "natural" viewing audience of fans watching their favorite team.

Perhaps the drama of having a fresh matchup in the Cup finals might mitigate the impact on the ratings, but that's largely beside the point. In this case, what's bad for ratings in both the conference finals and especially in the Stanley Cup finals can be good for the game.

The final four, crashed by the Wild on Thursday night in the latest display of amazing resilience that gives new meaning to the phrase, "My God, don't these guys know when to quit?", generally represents novelty. Considered together, the conference finals entrants provide further confirmation that while payroll is a significant down payment on the Cup, the championship can't be flat-out bought.

The Wild's payroll is lower than the combined salaries of Peter Forsberg and Joe Sakic. The fact that it looked at times in the first round as if the Avalanche's two superstar centers were accompanied by the Hershey Bears emphasized the Wild's team concept, albeit with Marian Gaborik as the focal point.

That's a heartening element in the overall picture, though it helps show that the upcoming collective bargaining agreement negotiations are as much about the owners asking the players to save them from themselves, as they are about trying to create parity and competitive balance in the league.

Beyond that, at least in the case of Minnesota and Ottawa, the stories -- the NHL returning to the State of Hockey, and the franchise fighting through bankruptcy in the Canadian capital -- provide dramatic backdrops.

The finals have had unlikely entrants in the past few years, but neither Florida in 1996 nor Carolina last year got there with upsets that approach the magnitude of what the seventh-seeded Mighty Ducks and sixth-seeded Wild have pulled off in the first two rounds.

They didn't get to the final four because of the fundamental weakness of their conference, as was the case in the past with the Eastern Conference's Cinderella stories.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere is threatening to become the first goaltender to steal the Cup since Patrick Roy did it with the Canadiens in 1993. That alone makes the Ducks intriguing, and as Anaheim advances, the relative awakening of the rest of the roster bodes well.

Regardless of which team -- Devils or Senators -- advances, the Eastern representative will be favored. But given how either Minnesota or Anaheim will have played to get there, it won't be one of those familiar final walkovers.
The Wild? In a sporting world in which the term "unbelievable" has been devalued through overuse, what they have accomplished in the first two rounds might not be "unbelievable."

How they have done it, though, certainly is.

Fall behind 3-1 against Colorado, even have general manager Doug Risebrough musing that the Wild can't play any better than they did in some of the losses? No problem. Fall behind in Game 7 on the road? No problem.

They pulled it all off again in the Vancouver series.

So the roles are reversed this time, in the sense that the East followed form, with the top two seeds reaching the conference final. Regardless of which team -- Devils or Senators -- advances, the Eastern representative will be favored. But given how either Minnesota or Anaheim will have played to get there, it won't be one of those familiar final walkovers.

And if the U.S. television ratings are terrible, so what? After all those experiments, from NBC's Peter Puck to Fox's blue streak, it should be obvious: If nobody is watching in Topeka and Fargo and even Milwaukee and Cincinnati, who cares?

Allowing the compelling stories to draw in those who care about this game is better than hiring Monica Lewinski to work on the television broadcast, or sending the two teams to a South Pacific island, building a refrigerated outdoor rink and staging the Cup final as "Survival 23." In the U.S., that might get ratings -- no, it WOULD get big ratings, and what does that say about us? -- but it also underscores the fact that ratings aren't the end-all.

This isn't trying to portray the NHL as the intellectual equivalent of an award-winning, four-hour documentary on the Renaissance that nobody watches, but at least as a sport that should both accept and also revel in -- rather than fret about -- its relative niche status.

Those who care, care a lot.

That's always been the basis of the NHL's unique -- yes, unique -- popularity. Raw numbers, whether drawn from Nielsen ratings or readership surveys, should be accompanied by multipliers representing passion.
Click to expand...
 
And just to add, once again, since you guys seam to love the reduncy so much, when did I say that two American teams in the finals was not an NHL dream? Of course it is! But it would be a much bigger dream if at least one of them had the ability to draw a pulse.
 
you made it sound like ottawa vs the ducks would be a big ratings grabber, but new jersey vs the ducks would be terrible, while in the states the better ratings will be from a new jersey vs ducks finals
 
yes you are saying exciting teams would bring back all the fans to hockey and make it the #1 sport in the world and everyone would be gaga over it. but the ducks and devils with their damn traps and swamp hockey are ruining it forever and there will be no one left to ever watch hockey!!!!
 
I was going to mention soemthing about the fact that Anaheim and NJ are kinda third rate in first rate markets, but it is true.

And, really Griffdawg, people in Tulsa and Cincy really will not have a clue on what is slow "swamp" hockey and "fast" hockey. Trust me. I am currently living in a "basketball" city. Very few people could tell you the difference here. It all looks fast on ice skates when you compare it to basketball.
 
i will repeat my points griffdawg

hockey's biggest problem right now is promotion, not stlye of play

the NHL is seriously lacking in that area, people don't know who the stars are or care. so anybody outside a city with a team could care less about hockey.

style of play is one of their least concerns right now.

my other point is ratings dont matter that much anyway. big ratings dont mean something is good, and bad ratings dont mean something is bad. hockey has its niche of die hard hockey fans who are better than fans in any other sport.
 
zonelistener said:
I was going to mention soemthing about the fact that Anaheim and NJ are kinda third rate in first rate markets, but it is true.

And, really Griffdawg, people in Tulsa and Cincy really will not have a clue on what is slow "swamp" hockey and "fast" hockey. Trust me. I am currently living in a "basketball" city. Very few people could tell you the difference here. It all looks fast on ice skates when you compare it to basketball.
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That's also not my point. I'm saying that if someone were to sit down and watch a hockey game (regardless of how familiar they were to the sport), and up and down, fast paced, hard hitting game would be much more compelling than watching players ice the puck and fall on pucks every 20 seconds.
 
Michael Griffiths said:

That's also not my point. I'm saying that if someone were to sit down and watch a hockey game (regardless of how familiar they were to the sport), and up and down, fast paced, hard hitting game would be much more compelling than watching players ice the puck and fall on pucks every 20 seconds.
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Agreed...if this was REALLY happening.

Give it some credit...and get used to it. Now that success has been seen - it will run rampant through the league. Hockey is forever changed!
 
Chizip said:
i will repeat my points griffdawg

hockey's biggest problem right now is promotion, not stlye of play

the NHL is seriously lacking in that area, people don't know who the stars are or care. so anybody outside a city with a team could care less about hockey.
Click to expand...
On the first point, I simply disagree. Their promotion could be better, but if the product isn't good, many people would rather watch something else, end of story.

On the second point, that's just it, Chizer: people don't know who the stars are anymore because they aren't allowed to show off their skills. There's so much clutching, grabbing, defensive systems, icings, holding, that the stars look ordinary out there, and fans can't even make them out anymore (unless it's the regular season).
 
Wayne Gretzky calling New Jersey a Mickey Mouse Franchise... hilarious.

The Anaheim Mighty Ducks becoming a hockey power... baffling.

A Mickey Mouse Franchise in the Finals against a team owned by Disney... priceless.

Hehehe... I'm just like one of those clever fans who wants to get on sportscenter. Aren't I friggin' witty?
 
I am one of those witty fans that got on the Sportscenter opening credits with a witty sign at a sporting event!

One of the greatest accomplshments of my life.
 
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