Apologies to Bryan for posting right after him, but I have something quick I need to saw.
I know that nobody really watches network news for sports scores in this age of the Internet, 4 ESPN channels, and a bunch of other local sports channels that have scrolling scores constantly on the bottom.
That said, someone in my house was watching Channel 11's nightly news, and they said, "Coming up: We know who the NL MVP is, more on the Giants steamrolling the Ravens, and the Rangers and Islanders both in action!"
We come back from break. They lead with a 90 second story on the National League MVP (that's baseball, by the way) and why it was wrong and who really should've won it. Then, they do a 90 second story on the Giants game from yesterday that was analyzed to death all of last night and probably most of today.
Then, we get a sort 10 second clip of Henrik Lundqvist making the final save in tonight's shootout win over Ottawa, and he says, "And the Islanders hosted Vancouver and won in a shootout, also."
End of newscast.
So to recap... a long story on two teams who aren't from New York who play a boring sport that ended 2 weeks ago. Then a story on a game from last night (which I'm fine with, football is now America's sport and it was a big game for a great team). Then, a clip of a save, a celebratory stick-in-the-arm-and-gloved-fist-pump, and a quick sentence on another game that also went on today.
I know hockey isn't big here. I'm not oblivious. But how is the sport supposed to grow when a St. Louis Cardinal gets 45 times more airtime than Long Island's only sports team and 9 times more play than the 2nd best team in the NHL who also happen to play in NY?
Just makes me mad. Quick! Someone contact Neil Best!
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And a quick aside to what Bryan said about me liking defensive hockey: I think great defensive hockey is incredibly enjoyable. Great saves, shot blocking, aggressive backchecking, up and down, back and forth hockey with breakouts and breakaways. However, neutral-zone trap hockey is horrific.
I've e-mailed Neil Best a few times. He's actually an ardent supporter of hockey. I complained to him about the lack of pre-season Islanders games, and essentially said I was preaching to the choir. Nice guy.
ReplyDeleteYeah he's a big hockey fan. I think he broke in as a hockey reporter so he always tries to throw a hockey tidbit or two in his column but he knows where the money is. I remember reading that he still plays pick-up hockey a lot with other reporters.
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