NHL


I've had 2 games spoiled for me, thanks to Google notifications. No matter how much I've tried to stop notifications.

The 2nd game, I saw it and swiped it away and thought it said 5-4 Oilers. So i sat down to watch it thinking "well at least the Oilers are 2-0 up now." I was so confused when the Panthers won :lol:
 


Brutal for the Oilers.

I do wonder if Bettman's push to popularize the NHL in the states at the expense of further expansions for Canada and failing to do anything about the various tax loophole issues is going to lead to a death spiral for the sport. Television revenues are dropping and traditional sport is not capturing the interest of the youth as much as it did when I was a young lad.

Not seeing any Canadian team win for over three decades might just lead to young Canadians putting the dollars into something else and I highly doubt the Fairweather Florida fans who were leaving the Finals games early will still be there in ten years when this team is in a rebuild.
 
Efcjake said:
Brutal for the Oilers.

I do wonder if Bettman's push to popularize the NHL in the states at the expense of further expansions for Canada and failing to do anything about the various tax loophole issues is going to lead to a death spiral for the sport. Television revenues are dropping and traditional sport is not capturing the interest of the youth as much as it did when I was a young lad.

Not seeing any Canadian team win for over three decades might just lead to young Canadians putting the dollars into something else and I highly doubt the Fairweather Florida fans who were leaving the Finals games early will still be there in ten years when this team is in a rebuild.
Click to expand...
It's a big problem for this sport world wide. It's quite expensive already from the wee juniors and for example here in Finland we've seen already for 15 or so years that those boys who'd suit the sport best ie "working class" chaps won't even get a chance to start, let alone stay within the sport till the "real" practicing starts. That has lead the "daddy pays" spoiled brats to take over. In this town there are nice areas with half the houses having goals & nets in the yard but no-one's actually practicing their wristers... Too hard, PS5 is much more entertaining. No pond-hockey going on anymore either. The player pool is shrinking and the level of the game declining. My nephews played 'till they were 15 and it was sad to notice that at their age we (I'm born in '74) were more skilled on skates, had better shots with our wooden sticks (Titan, KOHO...) and were in better over all condition.

It's a dying sport.
 
Efcjake said:
Brutal for the Oilers.

I do wonder if Bettman's push to popularize the NHL in the states at the expense of further expansions for Canada and failing to do anything about the various tax loophole issues is going to lead to a death spiral for the sport. Television revenues are dropping and traditional sport is not capturing the interest of the youth as much as it did when I was a young lad.

Not seeing any Canadian team win for over three decades might just lead to young Canadians putting the dollars into something else and I highly doubt the Fairweather Florida fans who were leaving the Finals games early will still be there in ten years when this team is in a rebuild.
Click to expand...
Salary cap is a bigger issue. Teams lock up players on bad contracts are are crushed for years unable to get out*. Sure, maybe FA don't want to sign for Winnipeg or Ottawa, but Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal should have absolutely no excuse for signing players because they are world class cities. Ok, the tax issue hurts and I have an extreme fondness for Texas, but no Canadian kids grow up playing in a backyard rink or laboring in junior hockey to fulfill their lifelong dream of playing in Vegas, Dallas, or Miami. Pure nonsense applied to cover up gross ineptitude managing the front office of these big Canadian teams.

And while I'm at it, if they cared about the future of sport they'd all make sure Toronto gets a 2nd team.

/back on topic, Dallas Stars 2026 Stanley Cup Champions, who's in with me?

*I'm not anti-cap, but every other sport except maybe NBA has was for teams to get out of burdensome contracts. All NHL teams can do is trade bad contracts to teams that are even worse who'll eat a contract while accumulating draft picks. That's a broken system.
 
Bwana said:
It's a big problem for this sport world wide. It's quite expensive already from the wee juniors and for example here in Finland we've seen already for 15 or so years that those boys who'd suit the sport best ie "working class" chaps won't even get a chance to start, let alone stay within the sport till the "real" practicing starts. That has lead the "daddy pays" spoiled brats to take over. In this town there are nice areas with half the houses having goals & nets in the yard but no-one's actually practicing their wristers... Too hard, PS5 is much more entertaining. No pond-hockey going on anymore either. The player pool is shrinking and the level of the game declining. My nephews played 'till they were 15 and it was sad to notice that at their age we (I'm born in '74) were more skilled on skates, had better shots with our wooden sticks (Titan, KOHO...) and were in better over all condition.

It's a dying sport.
Click to expand...
That's already been the case here for a long while but it was at least easy to be a fan. The cost of the TV packages and the blackouts are killing interest up here.
 

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