GMRwings1983

Why does the NHL not make a serious effort to market anyone but Crosby and Ovechkin? This HBO thing is just more proof of that. I know they're the two best players in the league and are the only household names in hockey amongst the general public. However, in other sports, it's more than just 2 players who are household names, and it's because those leagues try to make a real effort towards marketing those players. The NHL refuses to do so and I don't understand why. Isn't it better for the league if more players are marketed to the general public, instead of just showing Crosby and Ovechkin commercials all the time? I remember last year after the Caps and Pens were eliminated, I heard many sportswriters complaining that they stopped caring about the playoffs because the two best players were gone, and I was infuriated by their stupidity and lack of knowledge about hockey. At the same time, I realized the league was responsible for this indifference, because it wasn't trying hard enough to market any other players. I'm not saying the league should lay off these two superstars, but they need to acknowledge that there's other great stars in the game. That's what all the other sports leagues are doing and I think it will be better for hockey in the long run.

I was talking about people on this site when it comes to attention. No one here complains that he gets too much.

I never started this thread to promote our stars over Crosby. I was merely saying that the league needs to market other stars around the NHL. If that happens to include Hank or Pavel, than that's fine. I was thinking more of guys like Stamkos, Miller, Parise, Lecavalier. Also, I included Ovechkin in there with Crosby, but no one seems to talk about him.

Sounds like Doc has been hired as Bettman's publicist. Oh and I'm so glad this didn't turn into another Crosby thread.

Sammy skates faster backwards than any other player in hockey. That is, when someone challenges him to a fight.

They should have a Jim Carey award in the NHL.

I remember he was quite popular with the ladies when he was in Detroit. He had a pretty decent career and I was actually a little bummed when he left Detroit. He was a good utility player for us that could play both forward and defense. He was pretty solid in that 2002 Cup run, especially on that Larionov goal in triple OT.

Gaborik and Cogliano are pretty fast. On the team, he's the fastest I think.

Owens played well, but I'm just not ready yet to see someone else wearing Jason Woolley's number.

Does anyone have a problem with Salei wearing Probert's number? Personally, I wish they waited a few years to start handing it out again.

Wow, the crowd noise is just deafening.

I don't see what the big deal is. Chris Benoit used to do throat jestures all the time when he was wrestling.

If you live in Canada, then you have no idea how irrelevent hockey is to most Americans. Being an NHL fan, I'd love to see hockey become more relevant and have more recognizable players to the mass market. I'll still watch no matter what, but I think what I'm asking for is better for the game in the long run. Why keep it a niche sport, instead of making real efforts to grow the game to the public?

So who's going to avenge Franzen? We don't have an Enfo....... remember. Last thing we need is for Bertuzzi to try to kill someone again.

They're not the only players that are constantly amongst the league leaders in scoring. Besides, then you couldn't market defensemen or goalies, since their stats are different than that of scorers. I think people will know more hockey players once the league places an emphasis on that. They don't have to be better than Crosby or Ovechkin to get recognition. Otherswise, the NBA, NFL and MLB would only have a few players that the public can name.

I don't know about that. Marketing players with bad character traits seems to have worked out well for the other North American sports. No telling if that would hurt hockey or not, but I doubt it. I think a guy like Stamkos should be on the NHL's radar, as he may become the best player in hockey in a year or two.

A guy like Ryan Miller should be marketed more, being an American player. Same thing with a guy like Kane, even though I know many people (myself included) don't like him. The only time I see other NHL players being marketed or talked about is on the NHL Network commercials, but that hardly counts in the context of national marketing. It's amazing to me how many great NHL players there are (some who have played around a decade or so), that many casual sports fans haven't ever heard of, or just know nothing about. Guys like Thornton, Iginla, Lecavalier, Datsyuk, etc. are virtually unknown in the sports media world.

The NHL is going to be on the Spanish Channel.

O.K. I have to ask this. Are you Patrick Sharp by any chance?

He is singlehandedly responsible for us not winning the Cup in 1995, 1996, 2004, 2006 and 2009.

Pavel and Hank are way better defensively and are more apt to take the puck away in the neutral zone. Sedins aren't as good at that.

He's already punked out half the team.

Pavel and Hank.

Don't forget the LNAH guys.

Why doesn't this stupid franchise just use their most popular jersey that everyone likes, and not use the crappy ones that no one likes? What stupidity. Damn jersey sales. That's all they care about, no matter how crappy it looks. And of course, morons will go out and buy these jerseys, to perpetuate more of these jersey changes for the future. And once again, there's this obsession with stripes. Can we get rid of these retarded jersey stripes already? Seems like every team is using this style, even though it adds unnecessary designs to a jersey.