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I've read in a couple of places--who knows where!--that ESPN will renew, but at something like half the value of the contract that's running out. So at least there will be games, but even fewer of them, I'm sure. Depressing, but not too surprising...

"And the train conductor says, take a break..."

I watched NHL 2Night practically every evening my freshman year at college, the first year I had cable. Then it started jumping all over the place timeslot-wise, and I lost track of it. Unfortunate, because as you said, Buccigross is a very talented guy, and it'll be a shame not to have him dedicated to hockey next year.

While it's sad to see it go, hockey blogs (such as this one) and tsn.ca video recaps easily make up for its absence.

For what it's worth, a dissenting opinion on Buccigross:

Though I appreciate his enthusiasm for hockey, I've never been a fan. Eric's summation of the Buccigross appeal - "somebody who could have lived down the hall from me in my dorm at college" - is all too apt. His broad puns, pop music references and irreverant streak are pure college stuff. Buccigross is exactly the kind of media guy I would have been a big fan of until about the age of 30, at which point it all starts to wear very thin.

Listen,

I played hockey at a very high level in high school and Division III in college. I MET MY WIFE THRU HOCKEY.
I have made a good part of my living working with and for the NHL and The Washington Capitals and NY Rangers.

Hockey fans, the NHL and the NHLPA HAVE to wake up.
This sport is dying -- right in front of our eyes.

Figure out a better way to televise the sport, stop the cheap shots, severely penalize the fighting and for God's sake, if it doesn't make economic sense to enlarge the rink, get rid of the fifth player. I'M EVEN BORED WITH THE TRAP AND THE LEFT WING LOCK. The red line should go....YESTERDAY!

Everyone better gird for HUGE changes or we won't have hockey for other sports fans to kick around anymore.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Give it a rest, Mr. Grimshaw. We've been hearing "hockey is dying" since at least the 1970s (and probably before that, though I wouldn't have been around).

If you're bored by hockey, by all means move move on. The NHL may have peaked as a business. But the game isn't dying.

The game has grown geographically over the last 25+ years, due to the NHL's growth as a business. If the game has peaked as a business, that means the game has received the most exposure it will receive--EVER.

Which does NOT bode well for its future. I am a transplanted Canadian living in the USA, and I see how much repect the game gets down here--none. Buccigross is a good writer (and a nice guy, I've met him) but he's deluded if he thinks that the game is all fine and dandy, tra-la-la. The game is boring and clutch-and-grab, and every aspect of the game should be periodically reevaluated prevent the reactionary fixes Ken Dryden so apty describes in his Globe and Mail article here:
http://tinyurl.com/2fkaz

The league's got some good ideas on the table for putting some offence back in the game. They can be pushed further, though they shouldn't be pushed too far at once, and I think the red line is running out of future fast. So what's all the whining about--that major rule changes aren't being implemented in-season?

If the Mouse doesn't want to sell the game to American fans, it's part of the problem; leave it with women's bowling and World's Strongest Rectum competitions and cut a cheap deal with a network that's willing to partner the league and commit to the game. Personally I believe that expecting Americans to "respect" a game they don't dominate is a naive fantasy; yet, fortuitously, all kinds of niche-broadcasting markets, from digital cable to NHL.com's free radio broadcasts, are opening up for the marooned hockey freak.

Though if hockey is that important to you, I suggest living someplace it's taken seriously. Honestly, I do my best to sympathize with Canadians who move to another country, find to their exorbitant surprise that hockey isn't super popular there, and demand that hockey change so they feel more comfortable as an expatriate. But it's real hard.

What's wrong with a paradigm shift? Things change with any business to appeal to customers and partners in order to grow. The point that many seem to be missing is that the game can be brilliantly entertaining, but isn't. And that results in stunted or non-existant growth in markets where the NHL is presumably attempting to grow.

So you know what? If you're the NHL, you either get the hell out of those markets, or you figure out what will appeal to customers in the hard-to-reach markets... and I'll tell you one thing that will: a game that focuses on a fast-skating, puck moving game.

And in point of fact, Mr. Cosh, I suggest you resist extrapolating about how much bearing one's love for hockey has on where one chooses to live from a short paragraph about the NHL's attempted growth into a non-Canadian market, because it really makes you seem silly.

The idea that the game will grow in America if it changes and becomes more entertaining is flawed on two fronts.

1) While it could always use some tweaking and reconsideration, the game already is entertaining. I'm not interested in seeing the NHL bend over backwards in desperate hope of attracting a bunch of people who don't give a damn.

2) Aside from some regional pockets of highly dedicated fans (Boston, Minnesota, etc.) Americans have never watched hockey in large numbers. Not when Gretzky and the Oilers were dazzling everyone, not when Mario and the Penguins were at their peak. Never. And they most likely never will. The perceived quality of the entertainment has nothing to do with it.

I disagree with you on the first point, Jeff. I don't find the game to be terribly compelling with all the trapping and clutch and grab. The playoffs are a different matter, and while it's unrealistic to expect 82 games of playoff intensity, it shouldn't be unrealistic to expect an entertaining product during the regular season.

And, to be fair, it should be your concern how the NHL markets itself, because growing the game will ultimately result in a better product with a stronger base.

Your second point shows that there is all the more reason to try to attract these fans--there's a huge untapped fanbase there. The quality of the product as well as the marketing efforts have everything to do with why the game isn't watched. If the NBA heeded your "there's no reason to try because our product has never been popular with those people" maxim, then it would still be floundering (or even non-existent) because David Stern never tried to attract coporate dollars. Said coporate types were not interested in basketball, before Stern cleaned up the game's image, made it more entertaining, and marketed it more effectively.

Jeff B.

If hockey shouldn't change one iota to attract a new and diverse audience, how do you explain NASCAR passing the NHL like it was standing still. Look at NASCAR in the 70's and now. Completely overhauled on how it is PRESENTED and MARKETED to the audience. Are you of the opinion that incremental rednecks are consuming NASCAR -- or will you admit that the new consumption is coming from A and B
counties ABOVE the Mason-Dixon Line and WEST of West Virginia?

Clearly, twenty two sports going nowhere, fast. One changed, one did not. That leaves only one going nowhere.
I think we can all guess which one has been left in the dust.

And it hurts.

What is really hilarious is you guys working yourselves in knots over the NHL's popularity and success with a bigger audience. Are you on the league payroll? I have no problem with steps being taken to improve the game, but only for the sake of the game.

I'm a hockey fan, it's a great game, and I couldn't give a damn is all those folks in the so-called non-traditional areas never tune in to another game. Ask yourself why you care. You've been brainwashed by the NHLs' business agenda.

So what if NASCAR is bigger? Tell me why I should give a shit?

Jeff B.

You should give a HUGE s&$# because:

1) The high growth sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NASCAR) have changed BOTH their rules and on-air presentation to keep their sports viable.

2) The low/no growth sports (NHL, MLS, WUSA - oops - dead league) do nothing and watch consumption in ALL areas - attendance, TV ratings and merchandising shrink.

3) How many more national TV networks must the NHL ruin
before the league simply runs out of networks? They've already run through CBS, NBC (remember Peter Puck?),
ABC, ESPN, FOX, USA, SportsChannel America / Fox SportsNet) They ALL took a chance
on NHL hockey and got burned. Who's left -- HALLMARK,
LIFETIME and SPIKE TV?

4) The U.S. audience has spoken. They don't want NHL
Hockey as it is. So, like Baseball, Football, Basketball and
Motor Racing did at some point, you change.

You change and you change quickly if you want to survive.
There's a reason why you don't see any dinosaurs running around anymore.

My advice to you and the NHL; "Get with the program..and fast".

There's a difference--apparently I need to point this out--between trying new marketing ideas and changing the rules of a sport for the sake of some hypothesized business gain. Nobody here is against a more popular NHL per se, so the screams about "Don't you care about the future of the game?" are off point.

As is the example of NASCAR. I've been at pains to point out the curious coincidence that NASCAR has grown at the expense of open-wheel circuits which are open to Europeans and other foreigners; it is, at least arguably, a strong example of the point I made above rather than its opposite. (As far as the sport itself goes, it remains what it's always been: white boys driving fast in circles. Nobody felt the need to change its nature to earn it more "respect".)

I would rather watch a 0-0 NHL game than a 72-66 NBA game anyday!
Sure, The NHL has to change some rules, but there is no more compelling period in sports than the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Our problem in the U.S. is that everything has to be overhyped and overblown.
If your idea of sports is someone standing at home plate forever watching his home-run ball, or some idiot in shorts and more tattoos on his arms than you can count slam the ball into a basket, thats fine. Better yet, when they talk about their game, some of these guys can't even put 3 intelligent sentences together!!
Even with all it's flaws, and there are many, it's hard to match the skill and speed of the NHL. I laugh at people when they say they can't watch the game on television because "they can't follow the puck". Even when I first started watching the game on TV 33 years ago, my only problem is that I had a 13" black & white TV, but I never had a problem following the game .

So keep watching the 3rd annual nose-picking contest or some of the other crap that ESPN shows. If you can't get past the fact that there is a better sport out there that's not an 'American game', it's your loss!

As a author of a book on hockey, it seems clear to me that the game has suffered so many catastrophic setbacks that are all, in some way, attached to each other: expansion has diluted talent - diluted talent has resulted in lower scoring - lower scoring has paralleled lower TV ratings - low ratings have forced the NHL to attempt rule changes, none of which have worked, thus further disgracing the game. Furthermore, the increase in butterfly goaltenders + the inability for the average NHL player (who is no longer as skilled as the average player in the 21-team NHL) to lift shots to the upper corners of the net, where butterfly goalies can only be beat, have conspired to reduce scoring at this alarming rate. That is my best analysis of the situation, a sad one to say the least.

where will hockey fans get a show like this one....it was great....no sports shows ever do hockey....the right way....it will be missed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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