Well it’s been a while since I shared my thoughts on all things NHL. I have had a busy summer and with my recent decision to buy a house, it’s been a bit nuts around here. With that being said, some extra time tonight gave me the opportunity to share my thoughts on a few things regarding the Bruins.
We all knew it was coming and finally the National Hockey League announced that the Bruins would host this year’s Outdoor Winter Classic at no better place than Fenway Park. The opponent? The Philadelphia Flyers. Ironically enough, I’ve been employed by both organizations. Albeit the Flyers never paid me because it was a summer internship, but I was there everyday during the summer of 2004 and it was the best experience of my life nevertheless.
I have heard many people say they think it’s dumb to the play the Flyers and it should be Montreal or Washington or even the Rangers instead. Well, I respectfully disagree. My reasoning is simple too. I’ll list them out…
Obviously Montreal is in the Canadian market where hockey is thriving. Yes, hockey is thriving in some parts of North America, but not all. It’s important the NHL has two teams south of the Canadian border to play against each other to keep US interest the highest possible.
Why not Washington with Alexander Ovechkin? Not a terrible point as he is the leagues most dynamic player to watch, except the Maryland and D.C. market doesn’t nearly have the television market that Philadelphia has. Ill prove this more in a bit…
The Rangers are a decent idea, but Boston and New York are closer in proximity than that of Philly and Boston. In addition, although the Rags are another Original Six, the Big Bad Bruins and the Broad Street Bullies have a bigger rivalry. The two names originated from playing one another and with the Bruins playing a new blue-collar style that GM Peter Chiarelli has implemented, it makes for a good game against the rough and tough style the Flyers play. Good, exciting games equal better TV ratings and more money in the NHL’s pocket in many ways. Which, is the name of the game… I mean business.
Alright, so there you have my opinion. Take it or leave it. Now back to rankings. According to DMA Rankings the Philadelphia market is ranked No. 3 with 2.95 million households (2.6% of the US) in North America. The Boston market is ranked seventh with 2.40 million households (2.1% of the US). Now, I understand that New York is ranked first, but Boston and Philadelphia together will cover the New York region. So, if my math would serve me correct, that would make 4.7% of Boston and Philly combined with 6.5% of New York’s equals approximately 11.2% of the US Television market. That represents approximately 12.7 million households in that area. Now these numbers are skewed because not every household would tune in, but it will be on NBC with coverage throughout the country. That gives me leeway by not counting all of the other top-10 markets that will have households watching the game live from Boston. From 2008 to 2009, the NHL saw an increase of 12% in the Neilson ratings. If I’m wrong and the ratings drop, you can give me a hard time, but I’m pretty confident this Winter Classic in the Fens will shatter last year’s mark. By the way, Washington is ranked ninth and its all politicians so I really don’t think that would help much. Besides if Obama watches, it will be from a warm suite within the friendly confines of Fenway. And if he does show up, I’ll be shocked.
My last topic is Phil Kessel. I’m getting sick of the stalemate but it is a business. It’s tough; he scored 36 goals last year and battled a shoulder a painful shoulder injury at the latter part of the season. Still, he’s young and it’s one season. His first three seasons he made $850,000 per year, so I think anything over $4 million this coming year is too much of a raise. He’s barely 20 years old so to make 4 million of course I’m going to disagree. Not to mention we’d have to make too much room for him to fit under the cap and that means sacrificing another part of your lineup. This team is strong, has plenty of depth and good breadth of young talent in Providence. I say trade Kessel if Chiarelli can’t sign him a two-year deal worth 3.5 million. He isn't playing this year until December anyway so why not do the two years. He should prove his worth and take a huge pay increase come 2012. The Bruins can still get good return out of him so I still say trade him if you need to make too much room for him. With Krejci, Bergeron, Savard, Wheeler, Lucic and Ryder in the mix and Sturm returning, Boston will have plenty of offense. Not to mention the newly acquired defenseman Derek Morris who should add some pop to the Bruins second powerplay unit as well as added offensive minded play on the back line. He better too because I really liked Aaron Ward and was a bit sad to see him go.
That’s it for now…more in the future!
We all knew it was coming and finally the National Hockey League announced that the Bruins would host this year’s Outdoor Winter Classic at no better place than Fenway Park. The opponent? The Philadelphia Flyers. Ironically enough, I’ve been employed by both organizations. Albeit the Flyers never paid me because it was a summer internship, but I was there everyday during the summer of 2004 and it was the best experience of my life nevertheless.
I have heard many people say they think it’s dumb to the play the Flyers and it should be Montreal or Washington or even the Rangers instead. Well, I respectfully disagree. My reasoning is simple too. I’ll list them out…
Obviously Montreal is in the Canadian market where hockey is thriving. Yes, hockey is thriving in some parts of North America, but not all. It’s important the NHL has two teams south of the Canadian border to play against each other to keep US interest the highest possible.
Why not Washington with Alexander Ovechkin? Not a terrible point as he is the leagues most dynamic player to watch, except the Maryland and D.C. market doesn’t nearly have the television market that Philadelphia has. Ill prove this more in a bit…
The Rangers are a decent idea, but Boston and New York are closer in proximity than that of Philly and Boston. In addition, although the Rags are another Original Six, the Big Bad Bruins and the Broad Street Bullies have a bigger rivalry. The two names originated from playing one another and with the Bruins playing a new blue-collar style that GM Peter Chiarelli has implemented, it makes for a good game against the rough and tough style the Flyers play. Good, exciting games equal better TV ratings and more money in the NHL’s pocket in many ways. Which, is the name of the game… I mean business.
Alright, so there you have my opinion. Take it or leave it. Now back to rankings. According to DMA Rankings the Philadelphia market is ranked No. 3 with 2.95 million households (2.6% of the US) in North America. The Boston market is ranked seventh with 2.40 million households (2.1% of the US). Now, I understand that New York is ranked first, but Boston and Philadelphia together will cover the New York region. So, if my math would serve me correct, that would make 4.7% of Boston and Philly combined with 6.5% of New York’s equals approximately 11.2% of the US Television market. That represents approximately 12.7 million households in that area. Now these numbers are skewed because not every household would tune in, but it will be on NBC with coverage throughout the country. That gives me leeway by not counting all of the other top-10 markets that will have households watching the game live from Boston. From 2008 to 2009, the NHL saw an increase of 12% in the Neilson ratings. If I’m wrong and the ratings drop, you can give me a hard time, but I’m pretty confident this Winter Classic in the Fens will shatter last year’s mark. By the way, Washington is ranked ninth and its all politicians so I really don’t think that would help much. Besides if Obama watches, it will be from a warm suite within the friendly confines of Fenway. And if he does show up, I’ll be shocked.
My last topic is Phil Kessel. I’m getting sick of the stalemate but it is a business. It’s tough; he scored 36 goals last year and battled a shoulder a painful shoulder injury at the latter part of the season. Still, he’s young and it’s one season. His first three seasons he made $850,000 per year, so I think anything over $4 million this coming year is too much of a raise. He’s barely 20 years old so to make 4 million of course I’m going to disagree. Not to mention we’d have to make too much room for him to fit under the cap and that means sacrificing another part of your lineup. This team is strong, has plenty of depth and good breadth of young talent in Providence. I say trade Kessel if Chiarelli can’t sign him a two-year deal worth 3.5 million. He isn't playing this year until December anyway so why not do the two years. He should prove his worth and take a huge pay increase come 2012. The Bruins can still get good return out of him so I still say trade him if you need to make too much room for him. With Krejci, Bergeron, Savard, Wheeler, Lucic and Ryder in the mix and Sturm returning, Boston will have plenty of offense. Not to mention the newly acquired defenseman Derek Morris who should add some pop to the Bruins second powerplay unit as well as added offensive minded play on the back line. He better too because I really liked Aaron Ward and was a bit sad to see him go.
That’s it for now…more in the future!
