NBA Ugliness

[frankthedm]

This story bring back fond memories of Midway's Archrivals game.

If anything, hockey could be played as non-contact much more easily than basketball. The interesting thing is that when hockey is played non-contact, it's a much better game.

And a lot less fun to watch.

Blood on the ice makes it twice as nice.

You can have your skaters with Athletic and Skill focus skating. When i see hocky I expect to see blokes with Power Attack & Weapon Focus Stick.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My Dad, an MD, disagrees...

He calls things like lacrosse & basketball contact sports, and things like football (American/Canadian & Aussie Rule), hockey & rugby collision sports...

Soccer is a non-contact sport. Baseball is a non-contact sport.

 

[Ranger REG]

Baseball is a non-contact sport.

Tell that to the catcher.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hey, just because a sport is called "non-contact" doesn't mean you can't have horrific collisions...

I've seen some nasty ones in Soccer, too, including broken limbs.

The difference is that such player-to-player intersections are much rarer. I'd wager there are fewer nasty "plays at the plate" or "hard slides" in a baseball team's monthly schedule than in one game between the Avalanche and Redwings.

 

[GlassJaw]

And a lot less fun to watch.

If that's the case, then why is the NHL implementing rules to speed up play, increase scoring, and reduce fighting?

 

[Ranger REG]

If that's the case, then why is the NHL implementing rules to speed up play, increase scoring, and reduce fighting?

Because they got pressure from the stupid broadcasting media, who think football games should not last longer than three hours with no overtime period.

Better to let NFL have their own network and broacast games for as long as the game is being played. The other network can go fill some "dead" air, or maybe broadcast bocce ball events.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Part of the reason the NHL caved on this is because its a financially weak league with a bad salary structure, and their work stoppage didn't help things.

Their ratings were so low they lost their major network contracts.

Unless they made the game more "family friendly," (fewer fights) and while keeping excitement up (higher scoring, fewer ties), they weren't going to work their way back up the network food chain.

Meanwhile, the work stoppage resulted in a lot of stars playing in leagues that played under International rules. Oddly enough, the Europeans liked returning to the bigger rinks and fewer thugs, and some were making noises about not returning to the NHL- better a long career at 70% NHL salaries and a retirement without a bunch of arthroscopic surgeries than full NHL salaries and gimping around for the rest of their lives, they reasoned.

And ratings in those other leagues were rising...as was Olympic Hockey.

So, with the prospect of losing some of their stars, the NHL decided to make their game a bit more like the international game...though the size of the rink is still smaller.

 

[GlassJaw]

They also did it to try to attract new fans because they certainly weren't doing it with the product they had on the ice the past few years.

 

[frankthedm]

If that's the case, then why is the NHL implementing rules to speed up play, increase scoring, and reduce fighting?

Because not enough normal people appreciate "Bumfights on Ice".

 

[GlassJaw]

Because not enough normal people appreciate "Bumfights on Ice".

I would argue that if you do appreciate "Bumfights on Ice", you aren't normal to begin with.