T1B

Carolina vs Buffalo
Edmonton vs Anahiem

Could you get 4 teams that are less marketable to the NHL? They are small market and don't have flashy super-stars. Balanced gritty teams don't attract non-hockey fans to tune in.

Oh well....

-Less marketable = Less revenue for the NHL
-Less revenue for the NHL = The less the salary cap will increase
-The less the salary cap increases = The more competitive small market teams can be

As an oiler fan, I don't see why I would want the NHL to succeed, so I'm loving this.

What's the point of having teams in these markets if the league is going to dread seeing them this deep in the playoffs? If they wanted only major markets in the finals every year, than have only major markets in the league. You can't have it both ways...the biggest cities aren't going to have the best teams every year. Plus, these league has never market around individuals...other than Gretzky, Lemieux and now Crosby...I don't worry about the superstar factor. You've still got quality players like Niedermayer, Selanne, Smyth, Pronger in the West and lots of young guns in the East...Staal, Briere, Connolly, and Afinogenov. You've got 4 relatively unknowns in goal but three of them are young and potential stars. I'm glad we have these clubs in here...not a lot of championship experience in the group, there will be a lot of hungry players who've never won battling it out for the cup. Damn the people that want to complain about which teams are here...that's not up to anyone to determine that. That's why they play the games.

Love to know how Anaheim is a small market.

Cross Traffic wrote:Love to know how Anaheim is a small market.

It's a small market in terms of hockey fans. There are probably more hockey fans in Edmonton than all of SoCal.

I imagine that the American tv ratings for the next two rounds will rank right up there with Joanie loves Chachi reruns

NBC doesn't have anything else to bank on other than deal or no deal during June....LOL

The only reason those four teams (and the other 21 teams not named Detroit, Colorado, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and NYR) aren't "marketable" goes back to when Bristol had the TV contract--those five markets were given the lion's share of the nationally-televised games and heavily pushed because of either market size OR the personal favor of certain Bristoleros, while the rest of the League was given dismally short shrift because they just flat had no patrons at the Worldwide Leader in Poker.

Eventually, it became a lesson in Propaganda 101--if you tell a lie enough times, eventually people will start to believe it; the lie, in this case, being that only the "Big Five" teams are worth watching and that there's nothing good about any of the other 25 teams in the League.

I've seen some hate-filled Nashville-Columbus games (and Battles of Alberta, and Battles of Ontario, and even Minnesota-Dallas games) that were a hundred and ten times more exciting and fun to watch than Detroit/Colorado Part Eleventy-billion--but you'd never know it from the way that the Lance Armstrong Network (and Bristol before them) pushed the Big Five.

JD wrote: It's a small market in terms of hockey fans. There are probably more hockey fans in Edmonton than all of SoCal.

BFD. The "market" comprises anyone with a pulse and a disposable income to spend on an evening of entertainment within a reasonable distance from the arena.

In Anaheim, that's a hell of a lot of people. Legal ones, too.

Degenerate wrote:BFD. The "market" comprises anyone with a pulse and a disposable income to spend on an evening of entertainment within a reasonable distance from the arena.

In Anaheim, that's a hell of a lot of people. Legal ones, too.

We're mostly talking about TV audiences, and those hell of a lot of people aren't watching, and have no plans to start.

About the arena, no matter the size of the market, you're still only gonna get 18000 or so in there. Or less, as is usually the case in Anaheim. Funny to see thousands of Flames jerseys in the crowd when the camera panned the arena in Game 6 of the first round.

I don't think attendance will be an issue...the NHL had a resurgence in fans packing rinks this year. Canadians will watch...that's probably not a big concern of the NHL marketing department either. I think the big concern is seeing if people in the States from outside these cities watching the games. Like NYC for instance...I think more people will watch Yankees and Mets games and the NBA playoffs than watch the NHL playoffs with the Devils and Rangers out of it. In Detroit, the Tigers are red hot and the Pistons still in the NBA (at least until tonight)...with the Wings out, are Detroiters watching these games? I will because I love the NHL. I don't worry about who's left...they're good teams if you're playing this late.