The 2009 NHL playoffs have been better than commissioner Gary Bettman could have hoped for | Ovechkin vs. Crosby The NHL has one of the best superstar rivalries in sports between Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby

Sitemap
Main Page
The 2009 NHL playoffs have been better than commissioner Gary Bettman could have hoped for. Going forward he will need more of the same and one more thing for success.

This season's National Hockey League playoffs have featured just about everything the league office and fans of hockey could ever have wanted. From marquee, superstar matchups to the revival of old franchises, this postseason has been just what the NHL needed. Ratings are up and the interest of fringe fans has been peaked, so how does the NHL maintain fan interest and increase it's national exposure?

Ovechkin vs. Crosby The NHL has one of the best superstar rivalries in sports between Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. Add in their supporting casts of Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Mike Green, Alexander Semin, Nick Backstrom and the like, and the NHL has the perfect formula for sustained success.

This season hockey fans saw Crosby's Penguins and Ovechkin's Capitals play an epic seven game series in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. While game 7 certainly did not live up to the billing that the rest of the series created, the ratings for the series were superb.

With Crosby and Ovechkin, the NHL has superstars the same caliber as the NBA's LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, or Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. The NHL has done a fairly good job thus far of marketing it's superstars, and needs to continue doing so.

Blackhawks and the Red Wings This season saw the revitalization of the Chicago Blackhawks, a franchise that has been dormant since the mid-1990s. The NHL got a huge boost this season with Chicago's revival, as it brought back a major television market and a large fan base. Chicago also boasts an impressive core of young talent with 21 year old captain Jonathan Toews and 20 year old winger Patrick Kane leading the charge. Marquee talents like Martin Havlat, rookie Kris Versteeg, Brent Seabrook, and Duncan Keith make the Blackhawks an even more appealing television draw. The Detroit Red Wings have been the most consistently successful franchise in sports over the last 15 years. In the NHL there is no team that enjoys more fan support and a more expansive base of fans across the nation than the Red Wings. They are, quite simply, the New York Yankees of the NHL.

The Wings have become a huge television draw, and their success goes hand in hand with the success of the NHL. The league got it's dream scenario last season in the finals with the experience and veteran skill of the Wings meeting the youthful star power of the Penguins, and the two teams will meet again this season, guaranteeing a good television draw for the second year in a row. Resuscitating the Canadian Teams Hockey's biggest fan base is in Canada. The Canadians are responsible for introducing the game to North America and are it's most devoted followers. Canadian markets like Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal are extremely important to the NHL.

Canada's NHL teams have been largely silent on the national stage in recent years, with the biggest offender being the Toronto Maple Leafs. The failure of Maple Leafs management to put a successful product on the ice has been a significant blow to the NHL, and if the league is going to be profitable going forward, it will need Toronto to turn it's fortunes around and become a marquee franchise again.
How to Buy an NHL Team

How to See an NHL All-Star Game

How to Buy Vintage NHL Programs

How to See the Stanley Cup Eastern Conference Finals



Bet Sports Poker Casino








Betting Poker Casino


Betting Poker Casino


Desing: Se 2008-2019 All Right Reserved