Pretty strong rumors that the next Winter Classic will be on January 2 with the Flyers hosting the Rangers at the Philadelphia Phillies ballpark.
A couple of thoughts on the Winter Classic. Yet again, NBC takes a hit off the East Coast Crackpipe by featuring two Northeastern teams. I was hoping they’d pick Detroit and feature the Red Wings against another Western Conference team, preferably one that isn’t from NBC’s usual suspects.
At first glance, I’m not really that excited about the matchup. I’ll have to see what the Rangers and Flyers do in the off season to improve their teams. I can’t get too excited about watching a Rangers team that performed like they did in the 1st round of the playoffs or a Flyers team that played goalie roulette and laid an egg against the Bruins.
I’d really like to see NBC try to get some more teams into the mix. Obviously, there are only some NHL cities that can host the game, but any team can be the visitor.
I’ve also heard some discussion about moving the game to the week between the NFL conference championships and the Super Bowl. I like that idea. The game wouldn’t even compete with the Pro Bowl.
I’m assuming you meant geographically? Because both teams are in the Atlantic Division
Detroit will get another shot, but don’t hold your breath about them straying too far from the regulars. The WC is a ratings gimmick and they’ll continue to pick the teams that draw the biggest ratings (excepting Canadian teams, because Canadian ratings don’t count as far as NBC and Comcast are concerned).
The WC is meant more to garner interest from casual or non-fans than it is to cater to those who are already fans, as well as earn advertising revenue, so it will continue to be the same teams until something happens that enables them to promote another team/player.
The biggest complaint I hear about it from fans of the teams that keep getting overlooked is that it’s not fair that this team or that hasn’t gotten a WC yet while certain teams have already had 2… but there’s nothing that says every team gets one.
As to this particular match up, it includes two of the teams I hate most in the world and will once again be skipping watching it and all of its surrounding hype/reality shows.
That’s a shame – 24/7 was GOLD. I’m so hoping they do it again – I don’t care WHICH teams are involved. Seriously, you missed a good show.
It should be REALLY entertaining with Sean Avery involved.
Nope, but there was some rumblings in a couple of papers about buying out the remainder of his contract. He makes quite a bit of money for the numbers he produces and he was a healthy scratch during the year. Though rechecking last year’s stats, he only seems to have been scratched a few times. Just a feeling I have.
