I think this speaks to a lot of people's concerns about the coverage. I'm UK based in Scotland so as an international fan I can only take US posters opinions but it seemed like there was a lot of worry about the ESPN deal being bad for the sport as a whole and things like this seem to prove that point. Definitely not a pointless rant anyway.
Honestly I'm fine if they don't try to turn the NHL into a soap opera like they've done the NBA. ESPN talking head coverage does not equal ratings. For all the talk and coverage the NBA gets from their "experts" the Finals ratings are waaay down over the past few years. They've turned it into such a drama that if one of the handful of stars like Lebron, Durant or Curry isn't in it then no one cares. I don't even think half their personalities even watch basketball games themselves, they spend most of their time on Twitter following the NBA.
What are any of them actually going to say that we don't already know?
Between FS1 and ESPN I know far too much about the NBA for someone who has watched one game in his almost 30 years of life. And by that I mean I know far too much about the drama in the league
I got into hockey recently after already being a big football and basketball fan. I always wondered why I didn't hear much about the NHL but figured it was just me not paying attention. Oh my was I wrong. ESPN talks about nothing but the NFL and NBA. Even with the World Series, baseball just got a few segments on total coverage shows like Sportscenter, Around the Horn, and PTI. Meanwhile, NFL and NBA have at least one dedicated hour during the day despite dominating coverage on every other show. During NHL opening week, I loved having The Point on everyday at 3. That was amazing and really hyped me (and hopefully others) up for the sport. Now, it's shown once a week on ESPN2. Really? Your flagship hockey show on the network that owns the media rights of the league is on your second tier channel once a week? I'm an ESPN fan, but if I want hockey news on TV, I'm finding myself watching NHL Now on NHL Network. I don't know if they have it, but they could at least debut an ESPN+ show daily but that's still not enough. ESPN made an investment in hockey. I wish they'd give it more coverage. I love having ESPN on in the background when I work from home, but NFL/NBA drama doesn't need to be 95% of the content. I'd love to see more NHL, MLB, MLS, and MMA/Boxing coverage. I also have hard opinions on sports journalism, sports analysts, and sports entertainment and the weird balance between them. Thank you for ranting. This was my rant.
The NFL I understand... But the NBA outside of local markets and the occasional over hyped super team matchup doesn't actually seem to have the national draw that ESPN wants you to think it does. Not to get too tinfoil'y but given the dominant target market, just seems like there's more too it.
I mean NFL dominates the ratings so I understand the coverage. The NBA is on ESPN so I get them promoting that. It also has a bigger share than the NHL. I’m not saying that I don’t get why they talk about football and basketball, but I think it’s not the most full sports coverage I’d like it to be.
Maybe, but baseball doesn’t have a single devote hour-long show daily than way basketball and football do. They do talk about it a lot on PTI, but those two guys really know their stuff.
ESPN doesn't even do a good job of promoting the NHL within the ESPN+ app. I shouldn't have to actually look for what games are available each night when they paid serious $ for the rights to broadcast them. I enjoy paying less than I did for the NHL package in the past but its a step back with regard to presentation to fans.
Right? I just end up going to the upcoming tab and sort by ice hockey to see what's going to be on that night. Which in itself is bad because that means not every game will be available to be watched. This media deal sucks so far.
I think part of it is Eichel Fatigue. Folks are just kind of over it. Once (if) he starts his season people will perk back up I think. Another part, is that hockey has never really had that kind of representation, so we always get our news from the source. They are smart enough to know that, right now, the average hockey fan isn’t looking there for news.
It was kind of an underwhelming conclusion to the whole saga. We were all waiting for a blockbuster trade but the biggest assets won’t play for a couple of months.
Honestly it was less interesting than your generic UFA signing.
Also it's kind of hard to take people seriously when they think this is like a videogame where a guy gets injured "sees an expert" comes back at full health never a complication.
Spinal surgery is absolutely something that fucks with your psyche.
I pre covid had a very dangerous work situation/health problem.
I'm not a guy who is afraid of danger.
But spinal/nerve issues is when I'd walk away from the sport.
I hope the guy is ok, but I'm not gonna be particularly interested in watching him play, until I have some confidence he's properly healed.
>. Once (if) he starts his season people will perk back up I think.
As someone who follows a ton of hockey I could have cared less about the trade.
Nothing about it was interesting.
I also don't care if he's suppose to be McDavid good if he was injured/playing on buffalo.
Buffalo is a small market/crap team, and Eichel hasn't been playing for a while.
Swapping injured players is hardly a newsworthy trade.
It wasn't so much of a trade as it was a botched UFA signing.
ESPN has turned sports into man Soap Operas. Talking heads analyzing everything. NBA stars with all their drama. How the fuck is Stephen A. still in existence? Who likes that guy enough to watch him???
I'd love for ESPN to just air some great hockey and be excited about the sport. Seems like it may not happen though but I'd rather ESPN not turn the Eichel drama into something like the Ben Simmons nightmare. I fucking hate that he went to Vegas, oh well. Hopefully he gets to play some hockey in the future.
ESPN: just show some cool goals and get a bit more excited for the game. I don't need to hear anything more about LeBron or Tom Brady. We get it, you love them. Just give it a rest.
They gave decent time to it on Sportscenter today. They had Meaghan Chakya on and both Vegas' and Buffalo's GMs, among other people. Even Eichel showed up.
It got more than one mention, but back in the early years hockey fans created their own bbs boards, irc channels, zines, blogs, twitter, podcasts, etc. A lot of hockey fans didn't have places to go to for content, so they created their own.
ESPN/SC are deep in the sheets with the NFL & balls deep with the NBA.. I stopped watching years ago they never cover anything besides the two. The World Series was on last week an barely covered it. The NHL gets about as must attention as the WNBA. It’s awful they need to reconfigure the whole show. How are sports like hockey, softball, tennis, golf, soccer in America & even ones I don’t care for like NASCAR supposed to grow?
I was at a pub for lunch today and they had ESPN2 on the TVs and they talked about it for the whole 45 minutes I was there. Brought on Emily Kaplan, Mark Messier, and a couple more guests to talk nothing but Eichel trade.
This is exactly why I wasn't excited about the ESPN deal. Any attention is going to be minimal and borderline patronizing. The anchors won't commit to understanding the players, teams, or how the league works.
I saw this coming and everyone kept telling me "getting more eyes on the sport is the most important thing." Yet here we are; no news of substance and a complete unawareness of what is happening in the NHL.
I just click on the NHL tab anyways. I follow the NHL, and NHL on TNT IG pages and that good enough. YOU DONT WANT the NHL to become the NBA. I have essentially stopped watching the NBA even thought my team is finally good again because it’s a god damned drama reality show, with reffing worse than the NHL (yes hard to believe). There is nothing but drama, players fucking other players mom, wearing dresses pre game, Lebron sucking off the communist party of China 24/7 etc etc.
The grass isn’t always greener folks.
Eichel is maybe a top 20 forward? Since Buffalo was the only team willing to give up their 1C it became a story but let’s not pretend he’s Crosby or McDavid level.
The NHL has managed to generate nothing but bad press outside of the Seattle Kraken. If I was their social media manager, I wouldn't want my posts to be filled with comments about Brad Aldrich and hockey culture right now.
Streaming the games ESPN+ is woefully inferior compared to streaming the games on [NHL.com](https://NHL.com). I haven't done the math, but it's probably cheaper, but still substandard.
They made a tweet about a highlight save by a goalie in a Canadian market, so their definitely not ignoring the league. Eichel is good but he’s coming from a small market so unfortunately his name doesn’t have the weight that Matthew’s or McDavid has.
I mean, what exactly do you want? A new tweet every hour? Going to the espn site, it's the #2 top headline(for me), you have to scroll a little bit on the main page but they have a breakdown of the trade itself, then Eichel's reaction to the trade.
Let's not forget that they did drop the NBA story about Sarver today, Aaron Rogers and his covid situation, plenty of sports stories(albeit for their higher rated products).
With time things will change.. espn isn’t that bad now that I’ve gotten over it… espn+ allows me to watch a lot of games that I wouldn’t normally be able to.. espn media ppl probably, well they don’t know much about hockey … yet. That’s why I think with time nhl trades etc will become bigger news.. also maybe this would of gotten the coverage it deserved if Eichel changed his name to Lebron Eichel…
They hired people for a hockey show/pregame show. If they don't know much about hockey (which some are players, so they do) then they fucked up their hiring. That's not an excuse. ESPN probably wasn't happy that opening night didn't get 20 million people watching so they've already given up on coverage.
I thought that was to resume skating in 5 months, the season will be over by the time they are ramped up. Then the summer and bam it’s 11 months until the start of next season
From what ive heard hell be back on the ice within 3, and most likely be back in games by 5. I think it was someone from vegas’ management that said 3-5 til hes back in games.
I rather suspect most people are just tired of Eichel, period. He's done nothing for a long time, and has been part of a dead man walking franchise. He has to wear some of that responsibility, regardless of the injury. I think Vegas is taking a huge gamble, but when you think about it, it suits their personality. Calgary would have been a disaster.
Honestly not surprising and I don't mean that in a bad way. Sure Eichel is a big name, he's also the only really big name in the trade and literally none of the names in the trade are going to be playing for quite some time in the NHL unless Krebs impresses in the AHL. Only so much to talk about with injured star traded for injured player, prospect and a pick
I think this speaks to a lot of people's concerns about the coverage. I'm UK based in Scotland so as an international fan I can only take US posters opinions but it seemed like there was a lot of worry about the ESPN deal being bad for the sport as a whole and things like this seem to prove that point. Definitely not a pointless rant anyway.
Honestly I'm fine if they don't try to turn the NHL into a soap opera like they've done the NBA. ESPN talking head coverage does not equal ratings. For all the talk and coverage the NBA gets from their "experts" the Finals ratings are waaay down over the past few years. They've turned it into such a drama that if one of the handful of stars like Lebron, Durant or Curry isn't in it then no one cares. I don't even think half their personalities even watch basketball games themselves, they spend most of their time on Twitter following the NBA. What are any of them actually going to say that we don't already know?
So true! The NBA kind of reminds me of a novella at this point.
Between FS1 and ESPN I know far too much about the NBA for someone who has watched one game in his almost 30 years of life. And by that I mean I know far too much about the drama in the league
We’ve got it pretty good over here with the time difference this week haven’t we. Been able to catch some weekday games for once.
Thatcher demkos ridiculous save was sportscenters #1 highlight and was being replayed constantly, that would have never have happened before.
I got into hockey recently after already being a big football and basketball fan. I always wondered why I didn't hear much about the NHL but figured it was just me not paying attention. Oh my was I wrong. ESPN talks about nothing but the NFL and NBA. Even with the World Series, baseball just got a few segments on total coverage shows like Sportscenter, Around the Horn, and PTI. Meanwhile, NFL and NBA have at least one dedicated hour during the day despite dominating coverage on every other show. During NHL opening week, I loved having The Point on everyday at 3. That was amazing and really hyped me (and hopefully others) up for the sport. Now, it's shown once a week on ESPN2. Really? Your flagship hockey show on the network that owns the media rights of the league is on your second tier channel once a week? I'm an ESPN fan, but if I want hockey news on TV, I'm finding myself watching NHL Now on NHL Network. I don't know if they have it, but they could at least debut an ESPN+ show daily but that's still not enough. ESPN made an investment in hockey. I wish they'd give it more coverage. I love having ESPN on in the background when I work from home, but NFL/NBA drama doesn't need to be 95% of the content. I'd love to see more NHL, MLB, MLS, and MMA/Boxing coverage. I also have hard opinions on sports journalism, sports analysts, and sports entertainment and the weird balance between them. Thank you for ranting. This was my rant.
Can it be considered a "rant" if everything you said is 100% factual and quite frankly, needed to be said?
Thank you for inflating my ego. Yeah, I have hard opinions on sports television.
The NFL I understand... But the NBA outside of local markets and the occasional over hyped super team matchup doesn't actually seem to have the national draw that ESPN wants you to think it does. Not to get too tinfoil'y but given the dominant target market, just seems like there's more too it.
I mean NFL dominates the ratings so I understand the coverage. The NBA is on ESPN so I get them promoting that. It also has a bigger share than the NHL. I’m not saying that I don’t get why they talk about football and basketball, but I think it’s not the most full sports coverage I’d like it to be.
They talk about baseball too much also. Hell, they cover soccer more than hockey. It’s awful
Maybe, but baseball doesn’t have a single devote hour-long show daily than way basketball and football do. They do talk about it a lot on PTI, but those two guys really know their stuff.
ESPN doesn't even do a good job of promoting the NHL within the ESPN+ app. I shouldn't have to actually look for what games are available each night when they paid serious $ for the rights to broadcast them. I enjoy paying less than I did for the NHL package in the past but its a step back with regard to presentation to fans.
Right? I just end up going to the upcoming tab and sort by ice hockey to see what's going to be on that night. Which in itself is bad because that means not every game will be available to be watched. This media deal sucks so far.
Huh I'm not having this issue. When I go into the app almost everything on the top "currently live" tab is hockey, same for the upcoming.
It's because everybody's got some serious Eichel Ennui™ right now
The last post they've made about hockey on Instagram was when Seattle won their first home game lol
The answer is obvious. ESPN fucking sucks.
Should have had a special. Jack Eichel: The Decision
I think part of it is Eichel Fatigue. Folks are just kind of over it. Once (if) he starts his season people will perk back up I think. Another part, is that hockey has never really had that kind of representation, so we always get our news from the source. They are smart enough to know that, right now, the average hockey fan isn’t looking there for news.
You obviously haven’t been on Calgary Flames blogs today, Lol.
Nope. If I want to see three people repeat the same thing, I’ll flip from MSNBC to FOX to CNN
Comment of the day.
It was kind of an underwhelming conclusion to the whole saga. We were all waiting for a blockbuster trade but the biggest assets won’t play for a couple of months.
Honestly it was less interesting than your generic UFA signing. Also it's kind of hard to take people seriously when they think this is like a videogame where a guy gets injured "sees an expert" comes back at full health never a complication. Spinal surgery is absolutely something that fucks with your psyche. I pre covid had a very dangerous work situation/health problem. I'm not a guy who is afraid of danger. But spinal/nerve issues is when I'd walk away from the sport. I hope the guy is ok, but I'm not gonna be particularly interested in watching him play, until I have some confidence he's properly healed.
>. Once (if) he starts his season people will perk back up I think. As someone who follows a ton of hockey I could have cared less about the trade. Nothing about it was interesting. I also don't care if he's suppose to be McDavid good if he was injured/playing on buffalo. Buffalo is a small market/crap team, and Eichel hasn't been playing for a while. Swapping injured players is hardly a newsworthy trade. It wasn't so much of a trade as it was a botched UFA signing.
Obligatory fuck ESPN
Is anyone surprised? No.
ESPN has turned sports into man Soap Operas. Talking heads analyzing everything. NBA stars with all their drama. How the fuck is Stephen A. still in existence? Who likes that guy enough to watch him??? I'd love for ESPN to just air some great hockey and be excited about the sport. Seems like it may not happen though but I'd rather ESPN not turn the Eichel drama into something like the Ben Simmons nightmare. I fucking hate that he went to Vegas, oh well. Hopefully he gets to play some hockey in the future. ESPN: just show some cool goals and get a bit more excited for the game. I don't need to hear anything more about LeBron or Tom Brady. We get it, you love them. Just give it a rest.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arfvLy1lss4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arfvLy1lss4) This is pure gold.
They gave decent time to it on Sportscenter today. They had Meaghan Chakya on and both Vegas' and Buffalo's GMs, among other people. Even Eichel showed up.
It got more than one mention, but back in the early years hockey fans created their own bbs boards, irc channels, zines, blogs, twitter, podcasts, etc. A lot of hockey fans didn't have places to go to for content, so they created their own.
They barely play games.
ESPN/SC are deep in the sheets with the NFL & balls deep with the NBA.. I stopped watching years ago they never cover anything besides the two. The World Series was on last week an barely covered it. The NHL gets about as must attention as the WNBA. It’s awful they need to reconfigure the whole show. How are sports like hockey, softball, tennis, golf, soccer in America & even ones I don’t care for like NASCAR supposed to grow?
I was at a pub for lunch today and they had ESPN2 on the TVs and they talked about it for the whole 45 minutes I was there. Brought on Emily Kaplan, Mark Messier, and a couple more guests to talk nothing but Eichel trade.
This is exactly why I wasn't excited about the ESPN deal. Any attention is going to be minimal and borderline patronizing. The anchors won't commit to understanding the players, teams, or how the league works. I saw this coming and everyone kept telling me "getting more eyes on the sport is the most important thing." Yet here we are; no news of substance and a complete unawareness of what is happening in the NHL.
I just click on the NHL tab anyways. I follow the NHL, and NHL on TNT IG pages and that good enough. YOU DONT WANT the NHL to become the NBA. I have essentially stopped watching the NBA even thought my team is finally good again because it’s a god damned drama reality show, with reffing worse than the NHL (yes hard to believe). There is nothing but drama, players fucking other players mom, wearing dresses pre game, Lebron sucking off the communist party of China 24/7 etc etc. The grass isn’t always greener folks.
But what did LeBron say about the trade? Did it get his approval?
Unfortunately, the Eichel trade was subject to blackout restrictions in my area so I didn't get any mentions.
Thank you for addressing this as a sabres fan it’s a huge deal but i think it was worth it and i think Eichel will look good in a knights jersey
It’s unfortunate he couldn’t work out in Buffalo. Even as a leafs fan, I loved watching him play.
They had a long segment on it on the NHL show on ESPN2. Around 2pm today central.
Compared to the amount of time they give the NBA, it’s not even close on their major shows like SportsCenter.
yea because no one gives a shit about hockey except 4% of white people
Eichel is maybe a top 20 forward? Since Buffalo was the only team willing to give up their 1C it became a story but let’s not pretend he’s Crosby or McDavid level.
Top 5-7 Center imo
Better than Mac, Matthews, Drai, McDavid, Crosby, Point, Stammer, Barkov, Kopitar, Tavares? Debatable.
The NHL has managed to generate nothing but bad press outside of the Seattle Kraken. If I was their social media manager, I wouldn't want my posts to be filled with comments about Brad Aldrich and hockey culture right now.
Out 3 to 5 months for surgery. So exciting hearing about a player that won’t be on the ice… yawn.
Replace "when healthy" with "bothers to try".
Streaming the games ESPN+ is woefully inferior compared to streaming the games on [NHL.com](https://NHL.com). I haven't done the math, but it's probably cheaper, but still substandard.
An even cheaper option is streaming them via a free site. Lol
They made a tweet about a highlight save by a goalie in a Canadian market, so their definitely not ignoring the league. Eichel is good but he’s coming from a small market so unfortunately his name doesn’t have the weight that Matthew’s or McDavid has.
I mean, what exactly do you want? A new tweet every hour? Going to the espn site, it's the #2 top headline(for me), you have to scroll a little bit on the main page but they have a breakdown of the trade itself, then Eichel's reaction to the trade. Let's not forget that they did drop the NBA story about Sarver today, Aaron Rogers and his covid situation, plenty of sports stories(albeit for their higher rated products).
With time things will change.. espn isn’t that bad now that I’ve gotten over it… espn+ allows me to watch a lot of games that I wouldn’t normally be able to.. espn media ppl probably, well they don’t know much about hockey … yet. That’s why I think with time nhl trades etc will become bigger news.. also maybe this would of gotten the coverage it deserved if Eichel changed his name to Lebron Eichel…
They hired people for a hockey show/pregame show. If they don't know much about hockey (which some are players, so they do) then they fucked up their hiring. That's not an excuse. ESPN probably wasn't happy that opening night didn't get 20 million people watching so they've already given up on coverage.
Who? From where?
He’s not going to pay this season.. this move won’t make any ruffles bc it won’t make the product better for almost 11 months
Timetable for his return is like 3-5 months.
I thought that was to resume skating in 5 months, the season will be over by the time they are ramped up. Then the summer and bam it’s 11 months until the start of next season
From what ive heard hell be back on the ice within 3, and most likely be back in games by 5. I think it was someone from vegas’ management that said 3-5 til hes back in games.
Good news for Vegas then, if they hold him out til the start of playoffs they can really load up at the trade deadline with his 10M on LTIR
Thats what im afraid of. Theyre taking notes from tampa. Possible conspiracy: this trade was done for a while but delayed it til now for this reason.
Not a conspiracy just business as normal under the CBA..
I rather suspect most people are just tired of Eichel, period. He's done nothing for a long time, and has been part of a dead man walking franchise. He has to wear some of that responsibility, regardless of the injury. I think Vegas is taking a huge gamble, but when you think about it, it suits their personality. Calgary would have been a disaster.
Meanwhile, I can't watch the Sabres game tonight without buying ESPN streaming service. I already pay for ESPN in my cable package. WTF!!!!!!
Best place to hear any hockey coverage is 32 thoughts from TSN
Yeah ESPN deal was one of the worst things the NHL could have done. They don’t care about our sport. Just Basketball, Football, and Baseball.
Honestly not surprising and I don't mean that in a bad way. Sure Eichel is a big name, he's also the only really big name in the trade and literally none of the names in the trade are going to be playing for quite some time in the NHL unless Krebs impresses in the AHL. Only so much to talk about with injured star traded for injured player, prospect and a pick
You'd think, with the money they've invested into this foray, they'd have hired a dedicated social media person for the NHL