Penguins vs Red Wings in the media coverage war

[Mickeyisms Rule! 0]

I think that if I was a Pens fan, I would be pissed off at the constant reference to their team as "Sidney Crosby and The Pittsburgh Penguins."

It has a Disneyesque "Mighty Ducks of Anaheim" ring to it.

You play as a team.

You are identified as a team.

You win and lose as a team.

YOU DON'T SINGLE OUT THE "NEW FACE OF THE NHL" and tack his name onto every reference to the TEAM for which he plays.

Edited for ph4t f1ng3r5

Edited May 23, 2008 by Mickeyisms Rule!

[Cern 0]

This is all about the "story," from the announcers point of view. The young, plucky, Penguins are trying to unseat the perennial power, the Red Wings.

The ******* *OILERS* unseated the Red Wings. If the Wings are supposedly in that 'perennial power' position, why are they always too old, too European, too whatever? Why haven't they won every Cup from 97 to now? The media is doing little more than wanting their cake and eating it too, and I'm so freaking sick of having it forced down my throat, particularly in the last few years when Crosby is forced down with it too. As far as the media is concerned the Penguins ARE that power, because I struggle hard to find any kind of discussion about the series that suggests that there's another team Pittsburgh is playing against.

[YoungGuns1340 1]

VS: "Wow, Lidstrom made an unspectacular poke check! That's why he's a Norris winner, will always be a Norris winner, and why the trophy should be renamed the Lidstrom trophy! Let's watch that replay 8 more times from 3 different angles and comment about how great the pokecheck was for the next 3 minutes."

LGW: "Damn straight, Lidstrom is the best player ever!"

VS: "Wow, Crosby just shot the puck into the goalie's chest! That's why he's a Hart winner, will always be a Hart winner, and why the trophy should be renamed the Crosby trophy! Let's watch that replay 8 more times from 3 different angles and comment about how great the shot was for the next 3 minutes."

LGW: "HOW DARE THEY CROSBY SUCKS AND IS LAZY A DIVER!"

VS: "You know, it just goes to show you how great these players are. Lidstrom's pokecheck in the 1st period directly lead to this 3rd period goal because of the change in momentum by that single play. Likewise, because Crosby shot the puck 2 minutes into the game, it's the sole reason why Pittsburgh is winning 7-0 right now. Those players are amazing!"

Newsflash: NHL media coverage loves to fellate players for things that are ultimately pointless in order to hype the game.

The Red Wings have won 3 Cups already and have consistently been in the Top 3 for 15 years now. It's an old story that very few non-Detroit fans care about. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, is being captained by a guy who gets legitimate comparisons to Gretzky at age 20. Crosby will be the face of the NHL for the next 20 years, whether we like it or not. They're a young team, they're a fun team, and they've been through some major struggles in the past 10 years whereas Detroit has not. The franchise was almost moved, the team was absolutely dismantled, and the arena is one of the worst arenas in professional sports. The team deserves credit for their turnaround and the fans deserve that airtime for their devotion.

The media would like to see Pittsburgh win, and they should, because Pittsburgh is the bigger, better story.

Their team deserves credit for their turnaround?? Uhhhhh....WHAT? There are a lot of teams that deserve credit for improving. Not ones that suck complete and utter you know what for a few years that allow them to get top 5 picks like snickers bars from a vending machine. Take away Crosby and Malkin and they're again, a last place team. Sucking so bad that you get thrown in the draft lottery for the #1 pick year after year is not something you deserve credit for. Pittsburg has TWO First overalls, TWO second overalls, and ONE fifth overall. How do you build up that kind of young talent? Sucking.

And for the record, the Pens have more FIRST OVERALL PICKS on their roster than Detroit has first players who were picked by Detroit in the first round.

[Cern 0]

Look I definitely understand Crosby et al is talked about a lot, but there is a reason for that. For better or worse, HE IS THE FACE of the NHL and brings about a great shot of making the NHL have some form of popularity semblance in the United States again, even if it is small popularity.

I think it is a safe bet that many in here would like hockey to be more popular in the United States and have people like the sport as much as we do, or at the very least try to understand the sport. What is one of the better ways to do that? You pimp your most popular and well-known players. Crosby is one of those people.

You can't have it both ways to where you want the sport to be more popular but not hear anything about Crosby. He's going to be pimped by the league to try to make the sport more popular. Pimp the hell out of him for all I care if it makes the sport more popular, I don't pay any more attention to media or sports outlet more than necessary anyways so it wouldn't bother me.

Also consider this. People that might have much hockey knowledge or have only tuned into the playoffs say in the conference finals. What is the first thing they might associate with the playoffs and hockey? Sidney Crosby or Pittsburgh. Whether we are tired of hearing about him or not, it's a good ice breaker to possibly get people to talk about other aspects or players in the sport. Hell I did exactly this last weekend when I went out to dinner, I was talking about both the NBA and NHL playoffs in general to the bartender and I told him I preferred NHL and the first thing he mentioned related to it was if Crosby and Pittsburgh were still in it. We had a good brief conversation on the other teams still in the playoffs, I told him about other players as well as Crosby, etc.

Don't use Sidney Crosby as a bad thing for the NHL, use him to start discussing the game with other people, AND THEN tell them there are other aspects/players in the game, etc.

Marketing and pimping Crosby like the NHL is doing is definitely a good thing for the sport.

And the Penguins deserve every bit of positive publicity. Because of Crosby, because Malkin has done so well in addition, and because this team was on the verge of not being in Pittsburgh a few years ago, but had a combination of luck as well as a product on the ice that eventually got better, and fast. I know we want the Wings to win obviously, but Pittsburgh is a feel-good story to more people in this country in general, and it'd probably be a better feel-good story if they won it all to more people in general outside of the Red Wings world. And that as well, would help make the game a little more popular to non-hardcore fans.

Should the NHL market differently or put their eggs in more than one player's basket? Perhaps so. Do I want the Red Wings to win it all? Without question. Just understand though how important Crosby and Pittsburgh are right now to the NHL's marketing efforts.

As a Canadian, I hate that everyone north of the 49th is getting shafted by the NHL in preference for Miami Beach and Atlanta. All the NHL is doing as far as I'm concerned is making itself increasingly clear it dosen't want Canadian/non-fringe interest in the game, because I'm not seeing a 'compromise' occuring here as much as a shunning. Which makes sense given the NHL's mindset - ultimately there are more people in the States that could potentially be turned onto hockey than those already tuned in. So we allow more and more 'potential' hockey markets in instead of ones chomping at the bit for easy, local access to the NHL because hey, why get instant and continuous profits in a hockey-crazed market when we can sit around with our thumbs up our assess for twenty years waiting for Atlanta to start giving a f*** about hockey? And now we get a diving whiner as the solitary face of the entire league. What a wonderful message being sent out to a population who already consider hockey a joke of a sport when we could use a player who actually has some class to his game like Ovechkin. The WHL feels more and more appealing every season since the lockout - I'd prefer obscurity to what the NHL is insisting on doing to the game.

Edited May 23, 2008 by Cern

[nkuehnl 0]

#1 Crosby will never be Gretzky no matter what anyone thinks, 2 different players in 2 different time. Besides Gretzky had 55 goals and 109 assists his 3rd year, and the next year he had 92 goals, if Crosby ever hits 60 goals ill eat my words, but ill say this he will never be a 60 goal scorer, he may hit 120+ points but it will be 90 As 30 Gs.

#2 The Red Wings had what was called the Dead Wings period, they couldnt make the playoffs to save their life so, dont say we dont know struggles, maybe not recently, but, we have.

#3 Your team wasnt built it was made by top 15 picks, your top 3 scorers were all 1-12 in the draft, ours on the other hand, well Franzen was 97th, and he was the highest pick of the 3, the wings used good drafting, they werent just handed the players like Pittsburgh was. As for being Dismantled, well we lost Shany, Yzerman, Hull, Lucky Luc, Scheinder, etc etc etc, any other team to lose players like that wouldnt be able to compete, but, The Wings have a system and scouts and can put together a good team no matter what the circumstances.

#4 They do deserve credit for their turn around, buttttttt, which team was dead last in their conference and then the very next year competed to play for the Stanley Cup the very next year without the likes of Hossa Crosby or Malkin? It wasnt the Pens.

#5 Crosby whines, so do other players, hell if i had a nickel for everyone who said Chelios whines id be a millioniare, donest make it untrue though. Get over it!

I'm a Wings fan, so Pittsburgh isn't 'my team.'

#1 Crosby is possibly the best young player the league has seen since guys like Lemieux and Gretzky. It's unlikely that anyone will ever come close to the points those 2 put up, but Crosby is already poised to put up 100+ a year and he's only 20 years old. He's the best player in the league right now and is finally a legitimate player to hold the title 'The Next One.' People like to root for superstars (see: Jordan, M., Woods, T., Gretzky, W.) and the media is doing the right thing by promoting a guy who could actually bring in new fans.

#2 The Red Wings haven't been the Dead Wings in 20 years. Pittsburgh is ~5 years removed from being dismantled and nearly relocated. Detroit has been a Top 3 team for ~13 years now and nobody outside of the Detroit fanbase cares anymore. Do you really think people want to see Detroit hoist ANOTHER Cup? They don't, and that's why VS/NBC are subtly pulling for Pittsburgh.

#3 How can you talk about Pittsburgh being handed players while mentioning Yzerman, Hull, and Robitaille in the same paragraph? Hull and Robitaille were bought and Yzerman is the result of Detroit being a terrible team. Why are Shanahan and Schneider legitimate earnings for Detroit, while Crosby/Malkin/Fleury are simply flukes? Moreover, Holland has had the money to spend to make this team a contender every year. Pittsburgh lost their players (Jagr, Straka, Lang, etc) because of monetary issues, not because the team decided to conspire to tank so that they could pick Crosby, Malkin, and Fleury.

#4 The media took the side of Pittsburgh in the ECF because the Flyers are the villains of the NHL. However, if Philadelphia had actually won that series, I guarantee that we'd be hearing nothing but "Mike Richards, blah blah blah, RJ Umberger, blah blah blah" instead of "Sidney Crosby, blah blah blah, Evgeni Malkin, blah blah blah." Philadelphia is certainly a better story than Detroit, but they didn't make the finals now did they?

#5 Who cares if Crosby whines? Gretzky whined, Lemieux whined, Chelios whines - what does it make a difference? Zetterberg dove a lot this season, does that somehow negate the fact that he's an amazing player?

The amount of people that hate Crosby just because he's popular is astounding.

I want Detroit to win, but I see absolutely no reason why the media should be focusing on them. Pittsburgh is the better story by far.

[Cern 0]

#1 Crosby will never be Gretzky no matter what anyone thinks, 2 different players in 2 different time. Besides Gretzky had 55 goals and 109 assists his 3rd year, and the next year he had 92 goals, if Crosby ever hits 60 goals ill eat my words, but ill say this he will never be a 60 goal scorer, he may hit 120+ points but it will be 90 As 30 Gs.

Crosby is welcome to be called the next Greztky. Unless he starts getting justifiably called the next Bobby Orr it dosen't impress me all that much.

Edited May 23, 2008 by Cern

[nkuehnl 0]

Their team deserves credit for their turnaround?? Uhhhhh....WHAT? There are a lot of teams that deserve credit for improving. Not ones that suck complete and utter you know what for a few years that allow them to get top 5 picks like snickers bars from a vending machine. Take away Crosby and Malkin and they're again, a last place team. Sucking so bad that you get thrown in the draft lottery for the #1 pick year after year is not something you deserve credit for. Pittsburg has TWO First overalls, TWO second overalls, and ONE fifth overall. How do you build up that kind of young talent? Sucking.

And for the record, the Pens have more FIRST OVERALL PICKS on their roster than Detroit has first players who were picked by Detroit in the first round.

They were forced to get rid of Jagr, Straka, Lang, Morozov, and many more because of issues within the city/state. Their fans stood up when the team was almost moved. Lemieux stepped in with his own money to keep the team in Pittsburgh. Their fans continued to show up even when the team was horrible, even when the team was on the brink of relocation, even though their arena is the worst in the NHL by a fair margin.

High draft picks don't instantly make you a contender. Columbus, Atlanta, Phoenix, Chicago, Florida, and many other terrible teams prove that. Pittsburgh completely redefined their game in order to compete defensively. The players, the coaching, the management, and the fans all deserve credit.

Luckily for the NHL, nobody subscribes to your idea that terrible teams should always be terrible. That's why the draft is set up to promote this kind of parity, where terrible teams with 0 future can turn it around to be a legitimate contender in under 5 years.

[Cern 0]

#5 Who cares if Crosby whines? Gretzky whined, Lemieux whined, Chelios whines - what does it make a difference? Zetterberg dove a lot this season, does that somehow negate the fact that he's an amazing player?

Lemieux, Chelios, and Zetterberg aren't the solitary poster child of the NHL. Sidney is. For someone who is the one and only player-ambassador for the entire league, I would hope he'd carry himself with a little more class. Instead he justifies the overwhelmingly prevailing notion among the US of hockey being a joke.

[Cern 0]

Their fans continued to show up even when the team was horrible, even when the team was on the brink of relocation, even though their arena is the worst in the NHL by a fair margin.

Uh, no they didn't. Pittsburgh was dead last in the league for game attendance until after the lockout.

[nkuehnl 0]

Lemieux, Chelios, and Zetterberg aren't the solitary poster child of the NHL. Sidney is. For someone who is the one and only player-ambassador for the entire league, I would hope he'd carry himself with a little more class. Instead he justifies the overwhelmingly prevailing notion among the US of hockey being a joke.

You act like his whining is stomping around the ice and throwing a temper tantrum. He complains about calls and sometimes dives. Every single player in the history of the NHL has done this. Crosby also has 0 control about who wants to call him an "ambassador." He's 20 years old, for christ's sake.

[Cern 0]

You act like his whining is stomping around the ice and throwing a temper tantrum. He complains about calls and sometimes dives. Every single player in the history of the NHL has done this. Crosby also has 0 control about who wants to call him an "ambassador." He's 20 years old, for christ's sake.

He could, gee, I don't know, refuse the occasional advertising promotion? Tell people "Hey you know what, my numbers are pretty good, but I don't think you give players like Ovechkin enough credit, maybe you should try turning to him for a couple things. Hell, I even lost the Calder trophy to him"? He's given more than enough of a podium to speak from, he just needs to SPEAK UP instead of bending over and taking it all for chrissake. He can't force people to follow what he says but he could at least make an effort to try. Instead it's just yet another rubber stamp for a drink-gatorade-and-score-on-Toskala ad, yet another complete and utter failure to stir up any variety into the promotion of the league.

Edited May 23, 2008 by Cern

[nkuehnl 0]

Uh, no they didn't. Pittsburgh was dead last in the league for game attendance until after the lockout.

2002: #15 92.3% capacity

2003: #18 87.0% capacity

2004: #28 70.0% capacity

2006: #16 93.2% capacity

A one year dip when the Penguins were being threatened by relocation in the midst of a 58 point season. 70% capacity at a time like that is phenomenal, especially when taking into consideration that ticket prices didn't drop and the Mellon Arena has some of the worst sight lines in the league.

Do you get this upset when you see Tiger Woods doing a Gillette commercial? The PGA marketed the hell out of that guy and golf is amazingly popular despite being terribly boring to watch on TV. What about Michael Jordan and his numerous commercials? What happens when Crosby turns down the Gatorade commercial and they decide they don't want to do a NHL ad if Crosby isn't a part of it? There's no legitimate reason for Crosby NOT to appear in those ads, other than the few schmucks on the internet who rush to their keyboard to yammer away about how overhyped a 19 year old MVP winner is, and trust me when I say - nobody cares about those people.

Edited May 23, 2008 by nkuehnl

[ThreeRiversFan 0]

2002: #15 92.3% capacity

2003: #18 87.0% capacity

2004: #28 70.0% capacity

2006: #16 93.2% capacity

A one year dip when the Penguins were being threatened by relocation in the midst of a 58 point season. 70% capacity at a time like that is phenomenal, especially when taking into consideration that ticket prices didn't drop and the Mellon Arena has some of the worst sight lines in the league.

And now 64 straight sellouts....with a 3 year waiting list for season tickets.....

[ThreeRiversFan 0]

Look...the Pens players...all they wanna do is play hockey....they dont solicite this coverage...they arent media whores....and yes...that includes Sid...

Hate the media....I too believe its overblown....but dont hate the team...its not their fault

[Cern 0]

2002: #15 92.3% capacity

2003: #18 87.0% capacity

2004: #28 70.0% capacity

2006: #16 93.2% capacity

A one year dip when the Penguins were being threatened by relocation in the midst of a 58 point season. 70% capacity at a time like that is phenomenal, especially when taking into consideration that ticket prices didn't drop and the Mellon Arena has some of the worst sight lines in the league.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?year=2004

Pittsburgh 2002 = 22nd

Pittsburgh 2003 = 25th

Pittsburgh 2004 = 30th

Compare that to the Lightning this year, who had an absolutely abysmal season yet still had a top-ten home-ice following. You can't even use Mellon Arena's small size as an excuse - Rexall Place is even smaller yet the Oilers eased into the top half of the league in attendance the same year the Penguins were hitting rock bottom. Pittsburgh abandoned their team until the rational notion of moving the franchise dropped on them.

[KronwallCRUNCH 5]

Look...the Pens players...all they wanna do is play hockey....they dont solicite this coverage...they arent media whores....and yes...that includes Sid...

Hate the media....I too believe its overblown....but dont hate the team...its not their fault

Sorry, but that's not going to happen.

I, for one, like the fact that the Pens are getting all of the hype..I actually think that it will play into Detroit's favor. The Wings can just go in there, fly under the radar, and take care of business while the Crosby media circus is going on. There's also going to be A LOT of focus on M.A. Fleury, and a lot of pressure. This is all fine with me!

[Cern 0]

And now 64 straight sellouts....with a 3 year waiting list for season tickets.....

17000 fairweathers 64 games in a row. You must be so proud.

[Cern 0]

Look...the Pens players...all they wanna do is play hockey....they dont solicite this coverage...they arent media whores....and yes...that includes Sid...

Hate the media....I too believe its overblown....but dont hate the team...its not their fault

If all Crosby wanted to do is play hockey he'd say no to all - hell, SOME - of these endorsements. Unless he's being shackled and forcibly dragged into the studio so he can spend all day posing in his clothing line, saying he dosen't solicit this coverage is nonsense. What, he dosen't earn enough money on the ice to survive as is? He dosen't even need to worry about room and board, he bunks with Lemieux.

[nkuehnl 0]

17000 fairweathers 64 games in a row. You must be so proud.

Detroit totally sold out every single game in the 80s. Free car giveaways? Nope, never heard of those.

My figures came from ESPN by the way, you just apparently don't understand the difference between total attendance versus arena capacity attendance.

Also, you really want to talk about attendance?

Detroit couldn't even consistently sell out as President Trophy winners:

94.2% average capacity places them at 16th in the league for attendance.

Edited May 23, 2008 by nkuehnl

[KronwallCRUNCH 5]

17000 fairweathers 64 games in a row. You must be so proud.

Meh. Irrelevant.

[Cern 0]

Meh. Irrelevant.

That's the worst thing about it, the NHL dosen't even give a f*** just so long as it means bigger numbers.

[Cern 0]

My figures came from ESPN by the way, you just apparently don't understand the difference between total attendance versus arena capacity attendance.

What part of PITTSBURGH - 30 (read: DEAD. *******. LAST) are you completely incapable of understanding? Congrats, you can now fill a tiny arena with bandwagoning ******* who draw blank faces at the mention of Lemieux because the draft rewards terrible teams. It's like Calgary circa 2004. No thanks for me.

Edited May 23, 2008 by Cern

[Cern 0]

What happens when Crosby turns down the Gatorade commercial and they decide they don't want to do a NHL ad if Crosby isn't a part of it?

Oh man, the Gatorade (Coca-Cola?) corporation is going to be absolutely f***ed if it isn't capable of doing an ad featuring a sport the vast majority of people in America couldn't care less about anyway! Get out the red ink, accountants, Gatorade is going into financial freefall because 30 seconds of still images wasn't produced!

Edited May 23, 2008 by Cern

[Icteria virens 11]

Their team deserves credit for their turnaround?? Uhhhhh....WHAT? There are a lot of teams that deserve credit for improving. Not ones that suck complete and utter you know what for a few years that allow them to get top 5 picks like snickers bars from a vending machine. Take away Crosby and Malkin and they're again, a last place team. Sucking so bad that you get thrown in the draft lottery for the #1 pick year after year is not something you deserve credit for. Pittsburg has TWO First overalls, TWO second overalls, and ONE fifth overall. How do you build up that kind of young talent? Sucking.

And for the record, the Pens have more FIRST OVERALL PICKS on their roster than Detroit has first players who were picked by Detroit in the first round.

this is a great post and I don't see why more ppl don't get it. Look, they're good, they deserve to be in the Finals, but they've been good for one or two years. When they've been good for 15 years and won 3 cups and pos. a 4th in 11 years like Detroil and have had to draft 30 overall in the first round how many years in a row I'll be impressed.

any team can do it for a year or 2, see Tampa Bay, Carolina, Anaheim. also see Edmonton and Cal-gary. People can chide us for early PO exits but 2 of the 3 years the team we lost to went to the cup finals, at least one of those teams lost in a game 7. Tell me a Toronto or Chicago fan wouldn't want 3 cups in 11 years in exchange for a few early exits.

The decision to draft Crosby andMalkin could;ve been made by a chimp.

[sdogg1m 3]

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Edited May 23, 2008 by sdogg1m