The NHL announced today that a new 24/7 reality series will debut on December 15th, featuring the two clubs participating in this season’s Winter Classic: The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals. Historically, behind the scenes footage and access to intimate details of the game has not done much to spur fan interest, and I’m betting on that trend to continue here.
The NHL, and Gary Bettman in particular, seem to have a love affair with two of the premiere athletes in the sport in Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and Washington’s Alex Ovechkin, but could they be barking up the wrong tree in trying to develop this rivalry?
Both players have their fans. Both players have their detractors as well, with Ovechkin having an undeserved reputation of being a reckless, selfish player, and Crosby having an equally undeserved reputation of being a whiner. Since their arrival into the league at the start of the 2005-2006 season, both have been continually shoved down the fans throats with marketing, endorsement deals and promotions. From Ovechkin’s antics on the golf course and the All Star games to Crosby’s Gatorade and Reebok deals, the NHL seems determined to make these two into the face of hockey.
As for being rivals, the league is hyping and making it out to be more than it actually is. Both players have respect for each other, and aside from one highly entertaining seven game series, these two clubs have rarely lived up to the hype. They’re not even in the same division. They’re not even the best rivalry in hockey. And yet they remain the main attraction, the headliner in any slate of games on a given night.
Many fans cried foul at the announcement of the Pens – Caps Winter Classic, because it will be Crosby’s second time participating in the event, the first being against the Buffalo Sabres at Ralph Wilson Stadium in 2008. In the interest of fairness, many people feel that there are better combinations (Isles / Rangers anyone?) and venues that could be used, spreading the event around in as many areas as possible before repeating clubs.
It’s understandable that southern clubs are not a good choice to host the and while Washington has yet to participate, this game is being hosted in Pittsburgh, a town whose fan base has already come back with the club’s recent winning history and new arena. The Islanders fan base is starting to come back with the drafting of John Tavares, and they are a club that is in dire need of some publicity and fan support to facilitate a new arena on Long Island.
What began as a celebration of the grassroots nature of the beautiful game is being turned into a corporate shill and ratings cash grab for Bettman and company. As they continue to push for a new television contract with ESPN to carry games in the US, they are constantly using new measures to try and boost that final number at the end of the day. Use marketable stars who could showcase the skill of the game, while pushing the good vs evil angle by giving the good guy home ice advantage. Sounds almost like a movie script, doesn’t it?
I feel that my viewpoint on this could be somewhat skewed by being a Canadian. Yes I was awed by Crosby’s goal at the 2010 Olympics, and while I do like him as a player I would rather watch my Maple Leafs or even a team from Western Canada before watching the Penguins. I have no interest in the Capitals or Ovechkin as they are a one dimensional team.
Being a Leafs fan, I am used to the local media bombarding us day in and day out with Leaf coverage, even of the most trivial variety. But even here, in the most hockey crazy city in the world, the players are entitled to some privacy. The media has its limits, and while many Leaf players are involved in promotional work and public appearances both during the season and in the off-season, it’s nowhere near the level that the NHL is taking with this approach.
Having said that, I’m leaving it up to the reader in this case. Hopefully I can get some commentary from my American counterparts on how much Sid vs Ovie really adds to the Winter Classic and whether they merit having cameras document the two clubs in the days leading up to the game. Do we really need a 24 / 7 broadcast of hockey players going about their daily routines en route to an almost anticlimactic showdown?
I, for one, have no interest in seeing Max Talbot shaving or finding out whether or not Alexander Semin wears briefs or boxers. I don’t care if Ovechkin puts a picture of Fleury up over his practice net or if Brooks Orpik has pictures of Nicklas Backstrom taped to his punching bag. This is not as big as they are making it out to be, and when faced with monumental hype and expectation, there’s no way the game will ever live up to it’s billing.
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Born and raised in Northern Ontario but currently living in Toronto, Tyler wouldn't have it any other way. Home to his two favourite sports teams, Tyler revels in the day to day sports experience that is Toronto. 
Considering how scripted and fake the NHL results look sometimes, a reality TV show seems only fitting.
Even I started to question the legitimacy of it when I noticed that every team in the Winter Classic and cup final since 2008 has been in the same geographic region of the US…. Detroit, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Buffalo….
That’s 3 winter classics and 3 cup finals… all featuring the same 6 teams…. coincidence?
Well it’s not like they’d take a marketing opportunity and have teams that already have fans. Plus Pittsburgh and Washington are such media meccas. Why would you have what has turned into a yearly marketing blitz staged in someplace that people have heard of, like Madison Square Gardens, Yankee Stadium, or any of the many other spots in New York, when you can have it Pittsburgh, known for…..rust? Closed down steel mills? Steelers? Certainly not historical hockey, or what this game is supposed to represent.
Oh good I was worried the NHL was going to let a week go by with advertising the hell out of the league’s only two stars. Thank you for saving us from such a fate NHL!
Wow no crybaby reference? Damn I’m shocked. Must have some mature commenters here.
While I’m a penquins fan (jokes about only being so for the last five years can be saved; I’ve heard them all before), I agree that this is typical lazy marketing by the NHL, which fits into their lazy officiating, lazy expansion policy, lazy ownership screening, and so on, and so forth. I’m sure it’d be a big surprise by Mr. “What’s a Puck?”, but there’s other stars out there other then Crosby and Ovechkin. At least, he’d realize that if he knew anything about the league that he was in charge of.
“I feel that my viewpoint on this could be somewhat skewed by being a Canadian”
That says it all right there. As a Washington fan I love seeing this. Some back behind the scenes look at what the players that we follow do before gametime would be awesome. Really who wouldn’t want to see that?
For 24 hours a day? It’s not just going to be what they do before game time. Hell, in my neck of the woods you can watch the team practice and everything. We have huge exposure to the Leafs, but not to the level that they’re planning on taking this supposed ‘rivalry’. They’re trying to manufacture something that isn’t really there.
Next year, they’ll decree that Washington belongs in the Atlantic Division
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Well they could substitute them for the Islanders, then we can have an entire division of teams that suck on a yearly basis. Not like anyone would notice.
Here’s a preview; they do their daily thing like you and me, then go to the arena an hour or two before gametime, get dressed and get their equipment on, go to the ice and warm up, the anthem(s) play, and then the game starts. Some cream-puff questions and predictable answers will be sprinkled in between to keep folks interested.
That should save a bit of time.
Folks that have to deal with losing teams like the Leafs. Forty years of suck has to do something to their sanity.
Nice of you to take a dig at the Leafs rather than comment on the topic at hand…. Unless you are questioning my sanity over my questioning of whether this reality show is really going too far and trying to push something that isn’t there.