All-Purpose Hockey Thread II

From AP. Is this a good thing for the league?

NEW YORK (AP) _ Video-sharing site YouTube will show clips of NHL games, its first agreement with a professional sports league.
The agreement reached Wednesday will allow users to see video highlights of this season's NHL regular-season games, within 24 hours of the original broadcast.
The service will become available this month.
"The partnership will enable the NHL to expose YouTube's vast audience to all of the excitement and drama of the new NHL," said Doug Perlman, NHL Executive vice president of media. "What a great way to showcase the talent of our athletes."
The NHL also will have its own Web channel on the site. The deal allows revenue sharing from advertising, and YouTube will help identify and remove illegally posted NHL clips.

 

NHL + Youtube.com = Something already better than Versus

 

Smacks of desparation.

"The partnership will enable the NHL to expose YouTube's vast audience to all of the excitement and drama of the new NHL," said Doug Perlman, NHL Executive vice president of media. "What a great way to showcase the talent of our athletes."

Does the NHL really think some kid is searching YouTube for NHL highlights? I mean, what key words would you have to type in order to find a highlight even by mistake. And even then, what kid is going to watch it out of curiosity?

I mean, I'm an NHL fan and I'll use to look up past highlights just for kicks.

But this won't generate any new viewers and fans.

Once the NHL comes to terms with the fact it's a fringe or niche sport, they will be much better off.
Stop looking for new fans that simply aren't there and cater to the ones you have - you know? the ones you're pissing off by eliminating fighting, and manufacturing fake scoring (i.e. power-play goals).

I'm all for the "new rules," which are, in fact, the old rules simply being enforced. But don't call penalties that simply are not there. And it's happening at the lower levels. I was at a junior game where the puck flipped up onto the net's mesh on the back. And the ref was so busy watching for a hold/hook/high stick, he let the play continue even though it's supposed to be whistled dead. Instead, he made a phantom hold call and gave the attacking team a penalty. If he'd have whistled it down, got a face off in the offensive zone, there was probably a BETTER CHANCE at a goal being scored. Idiots.

Someone should lock Bettman in a room and force him to watch ESPN Classic Canada or the NHL Network for a week, viewing games gone by from the 1980s. Take a look at the room on the ice, the room in the crease.

SHRINK GOALIE PADS EVEN FURTHER!!! MAKE THE ICE SURFACE BIGGER!!! (or, as Don Cherry said two weeks ago, make equipment less like body armour)

 

Fighting will eliminate itself eventually. Nobody wants to take up cap space with a one dimensional goon.

 

Bigger ice isn't a solution to anything. And besides it'll never happen.

The game is as good as it's been in about 20 years, since the Oilers days. In the pre-lockout era, the hockey was virtualluy unwatcheable. No, make that totally unwatcheable.

 

I agree. But it's still not AS WATCHABLE as it once was. Say, 1980s, pre-super-fast-expansion.

Bigger ice is a solution though. Bigger players on same small ice means less overall room to move. Bigger ice with bigger plays means more room to move. It's all relative.

And you're right, it'll never happen.

 

I don't understand why anybody would have a problem with the NHL and YouTube.

Unless you live in Canada, where you can find NHL highlights as easy as you can find water, they aren't so easy to come by. So, the league links up with a popular web service trafficked my millions?

Doesn't sound so dumb to me.

 

Judge rules Penguins' Malkin and others are allowed to remain with NHL teams.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=Atzh5vEynvJTCeOOeUrzEfB7vLYF?slug=ap-penguinslawsuit&prov=ap&type=lgns

 

I agree. I mean, Sportscenter, ESPNews and whatever form of ESPN programming is the largest and most accepted outlet for sports highlights in the U.S. But they only show NHL highlights when something amazing happens or if they need to fill time. And they eliminated NHL2Night, so there isn't an NHL-only show any more such as Baseball2Night or College Gameday.

This provides an outlet for current fans and potential fans to see the product. It's an attempt to inject the product into a relatively untapped market.

Also, YouTube isn't just people putting clips of their Madden 2007 highlights or their Star Wars tributes online anymore. Government whistle blowers use it as an outlet now. It's a constantly evolving media. This is just the next step in evolution.

To suggest that the NHL just sit back realize it's "place" in the totam pole of sports is foolish. This is about exposing the product and growing it.

 

You're not listening to my point. Again, even you make mention of who will watch clips on YouTube: PEOPLE WHO ARE ALREADY HOCKEY FANS.

It's satisfying the already-in-place fans who are pissed because ESPN and FSN et al don't show highlights.

This does nothing, absolutely NOTHING, to generate NEW INTEREST and NEW FANS.

Good idea by the NHL, I guess. If anything, all it does is ensure it doesn't lose anymore American fans. But I still don't see this creating new fans.

Seriously, they'd be better off putting a team back in Winnipeg, back in Quebec City and somehow finding a way to put a new team in the Maritimes.

 

I also mentioned potential new fans.

I could understand your argument if the NHL struck a deal with www.obscurevideohighlights.com. But this is YouTube. This is perhaps the hottest site on the Internet. It is the "ESPN" of video highlight Web sites if you will. It's going to get exposure.

 

And in real hockey news, Leafs score late in the third to tie Boston at one each. Then they lose in OT.
And Ottawa is now in last place in the division.
Couldn't happen to a bigger collection of pukes. nicer bunch of guys.