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Wow, your 0-2 today. Tell me one sport who doesn't broadcast 1 o'clock playoff games and ill take back calling you an idiot.
What lazy person gets up past 11 anyways? If your a night shift worker, which I suspect your not, otherwise you would have said this in your blog, then I understand.

QUOTE(#1):

Originally posted 12:41 AM ET  05.03 by Steveo16220 says: Hello Boston

Wow, your 0-2 today. Tell me one sport who doesn't broadcast 1 o'clock playoff games and ill take back calling you an idiot. What lazy person gets up past 11 anyways? If your a night shift worker, which I suspect your not, otherwise you would have said this in your blog, then I understand.

The NFL, NBA and college basketball never ever show 1:00 playoff games

QUOTE(#1):

Originally posted 12:41 AM ET  05.03 by Steveo16220 says: Hello Boston

Wow, your 0-2 today. Tell me one sport who doesn't broadcast 1 o'clock playoff games and ill take back calling you an idiot. What lazy person gets up past 11 anyways? If your a night shift worker, which I suspect your not, otherwise you would have said this in your blog, then I understand.

Go ahead call me an idiot since the NHL is last in the big 4. Its teams continue to lose money. The NFL does tend as does baseball to move prime time games up till later in the day. Make an event out of it. Think of Sunday night football and the flex schedule. Furthermore I was right about the time break being a bad idea. It doesn't allow for a fan of one team to stay watching the next game. It isolates the viewer ship far too much.

You yourself said TV at 11 AM or 1 PM sucks. So given the NHL is struggling to increase it's image/viewership, does it really make sense to try and compete with primetime TV? Or does it make more sense to compete with whatever crap is on on a Sunday afternoon? A casual viewer is more likely to stop on the Pens-Caps game at 1 as opposed to 8 PM when their favorite show's on.

The real issue is, other than in DC and Pittsburgh, had the game gone into a lengthy OT, NBC would have cut away to show the Kentucky Derby. **** was Bettman thinking when he signed off on that? Would the NFL allow CBS to cutaway from a Steelers-Pats playoff game in OT? Would the NBA allow it to happen to a Celtics-Cavs matchup this year?

On a similar note, last year, the Penguins started showing their playoff games on a jumbotron outside the arena during home games. Created a great atmosphere around the arena. But this year, NBC put a stop to it. Again, great negotiating Bettman. Yeah, your ratings may drop a couple of a tenths a point, but you get to cutaway before every commercial break to a sold out arena with thousands of people standing OUTSIDE watching the game. That's the type of guerilla marketing the NHL needs, but you allow NBC to squash it, and for what, the $3 million a year NBC gives you? Let me translate that. That's about $100,000 a team, which basically pays one minor league player.

It all boils down to this. The NHL wants the Americans to embrace hockey like they do football and baseball - it's a pipe dream; it will never happen. So basically what Bettman is doing is dissing the true hockey fans to try and persuade non hockey fans to watch the games. The same goes for all these rule changes they keep trying to come up with to attract more viewers. I know I'm speaking for all the true Canadian and American hockey fans - leave the game alone - we love it the way it is. The leauge has done too many things already to get more fans south of the border. Just like baseball and basketball up here in Canada; it has a big following, but it will never draw fans like hockey does.

Maybe your Mother runs it, what is her nickname "The W**re".

The time is not the biggest deal as is the break between games. I have noticed this often in games. At least here in Canada. I watch a game and then I get a 30 minute break for news so I switch on a movie and never go back. When I watch sports I like to watch game after game after game. It is kind of like drinking beer. Having one beer, then waiting for 30 minutes and then having another makes me tired, giving me a headache. Having beer after beer after beer.... I go on for awhile... is more fun. The NHL has always been pretty clueless on how to market itself. They miss too many small details that the NFL doesn't.