Rack the Quack Attack

[Shoalzie]

They were one of the best teams coming out of the gate along with Buffalo and they caught fire at the right time when some might've forgotten about them. Congrats to the Ducks...a team brilliantly put together with great veteran leadership, a top notch tandem in net as well as on defense and arguably the best collection of young forwards in the league. This team can easily defend their title next year...interesting to see what Selanne does now and Giguere is a free agent and many teams will be backing the money truck to bring him in, a la Khabibulin after the 2004 championship.

[Qbert]

YEP

Rack the QUACKs

[Blitzkrieg]

The Ducks just hammered home the final nail in the NHL's coffin. Aside from the fact that the Ducks actually are a good team, they're the Ducks. They play in Anaheim. Anaheim is as barren of a wasteland as the surface of the moon. In fact, I would say that the NHL would be better off if the gay-assed Ducks played on the moon. At least then the novelty of a team called the Ducks would spark the interest of astronomers.

Am I the only person that saw this?


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com//2007/ ... .ratin.ap/

Saturday night's Game 3 equaled NBC's lowest rating ever for a prime-time program. Ottawa's 5-3 victory over Anaheim received a 1.1 national rating and a 2 share, the network said Tuesday. That matched a rerun of The West Wing on July 23, 2005, which also drew a 1.1 rating.



War a Canadian NHL commissioner.

[Shoalzie]

That was mentioned in another thread...it is pathetic to see how few people are watching these games. The only thing keeping this league alive is the solid attendance figures they're getting but at the expense of the fans because prices are still way too high.

I've been against this for a while but I think the league needs to sell out a little to marketing and try to get their big names out there more. Putting Crosby in a couple of RBK ads isn't cutting it. No casual fan knows who any of the top plays are anymore with Gretzky, Messier and Lemieux long gone. The other thing I find so stupid is how they only show hockey commercials during a broadcast. If no one is watching the games, no one is seeing these ads either. Spend some money and market your game at all times during the day.

This series actually featured some big names in hockey circles but no one flipping the channels know the difference between Teemu Selanne and Shamu the killer whale. NASCAR has become a powerhouse because of its marketing approach. Make these guys more accessible and out there because doing the quiet and mild approach with showcasing their stars isn't drawing in new viewers. Unfortunately, most people these days would just assume watch fat guys dancing on some reality show than sit through a hockey game.

[Laxplayer]

On another note this may be good for the NHL...I mean the Ducks winning. Now it forces the Kings to actually get off their a$$es and do something to make their product better. Good hockey in a city like LA can only mean good things. At least I hope so. The problem with the NHL is still (as people have mentioned before) their marketing sucks. My wife worked the 3 games in Anaheim and she said it was an absolute blast. The fans were totally into it, there was enthusiasm like she's never seen before, it was loud etc....nothing but great things to say about the atmosphere, but the problem continues to be that who the hell knows who any of these guys are and how come they can't market it. Not to mention how many people have Versus?
If you're at a game in person it's still the best sport to watch live but it's very hard on TV.

[SoCalTrjn]

These arent Disneys Ducks.
This franchise has local ownership that has a desire to win for their fans because thats what the Samuelis are... fans
This team played old time hockey, they lead the league in PIMs and fighting majors and showed the world that you can win playing tough nose, hit everything in the other colored sweater, hockey.
There is a reason that Anaheim had 2 teams int he top 10 of the ESPN pro sports franchise rankings, the city and the teams owners get it. Build a great team, play with passion and make it exciting and the fans will come in droves.

Up north they will never and I mean NEVER do a god damn thing with the Anschultz Entertainment Group owning the team, same thing with that Carpet bagger at Chavez Ravine.
The Kings are miserable, the owner is an Avalanche fan as he and his wife are at every Avs home game and have the name and logo of his company all over the Pepsi Center. His corporation bought the Kings to get a foot in the door of Southern Californias sports market and he turned that foot in the door in to Staples Center, Home Depot Center and what will soon be a fortune in office buildings and hotels in the Downtown area.
The Kings management has done nothing but lie to their fans for the nearly 12 years since AEG took over.
They started by padding the injury reports for years by keeping players like Adam Deadmarsh and Jason Allison on the injury lists the season after they had career ending injuries or refused to play for the Kings. They kept minor league players on the NHLs injury list as well just so they could have a built in excuse to their fans.
When the fans stopped buying that line they began with the "salary cap" cry and promised their fans that the team just needed a salary cap to be competitive in the league even though they had one of the highest ticket prices and the highest concession prices in the league and still managed more than 16,000 fans a game.
Since the salary cap came in to being the team has gotten worse
It doesnt matter that the Samuelis showed that other team in Southern California how to succeed in hockey, that franchise has no desire to win and their fans deserve better