JWill?

Who are the popular / notable players left who transcend regular nhl fans?
Seriously. Name 3

Marchand
E. Karlsson

Chara?

I guess I don't get the question, I took it as people that extremely casual (playoff only types) NHL fans might know

Couture and Big/Little Joes.

MacKinnon should be and will be after the Avs make the finals.

Marchand, Bergeron, Pastrnak, Chara.

Seguin.

Essentially you're saying that casual fan knows nobody outside Crosby/Ovi. Which may be true. But thats the NHL's fault then, isn't it? Bettman's been lucky recently with Crosby, Ovi and major market teams winning every year. The last time a team with no star power and no fanbase won was 2006 or 2007.

NHL should be marketing it's stars. No Crosby/Ovechkin is good for the sport.

re: ratings

St.Louis is actually a strong nhl market perennially iirc, like Buffalo
imagine if they go on a run...

Jumbo? Chara? Burns? Karlsson? yeah not a year for that huh
(then again, "no one" knew Doughty, or Kopitar, or maybe even Quick & Brown etc until they won, so)

but yeah, one of those years they definitely have to focus on building up some new stars depending on what happens


Avs: MacKinnon is a superstar. Rantanen is a gd beast. Landeskog & Barrie are good. Makar is a stud. the cursed former #1 pick Erik Johnson could be a story if they keep succeeding.

Sharks: Jumbo is the most accomplished player without a rang? he & Burns are good and total characters. Erik Karlsson is fun as hell. Pavelski & Couture are super solid players. Meier is a star. TMNHertl is big time BACK. Evanander Kane is a dickhead. Vlasic has had a good career.

Blues: Tarasenko is sick. O'Reilly has been one of the most underrated players itl forever. Pietrangelo is quite good. Schenn is good. Schwartz is good but cursed. Perron is solid and has been on like 20 teams. Parayko is good. their racist goalie seems solid.

Stars: Seguin is a star. Benn has won a scoring title. Klingberg is sick. Radulov is rad. Heiskanen is a prodigy. Zuccarello is small. Ben Bishop is big. Spezza has a funny laugh.

Bruins: Bergeron & Chara are the endbosses of this era. Pastrnak is a sicko. Krejci can still play. McAvoy is good. Coyle & Krug are good pros. Rask is elite. feel like i'm forgetting someone but idk...

Blue Jackets: Panarin is sick. Werenski is a maestro. Seth Jones might be the most underrated dman in the league. Dubois is a star. Duchene is talented & performing in a contract year. Atkinson is good. Bobrovsky is the #1 cop on the force. the coach is a loud idiot.

Islanders: BARZAL is a starzal. Eberle is big time BACK. Bailey, Nelson, Lee, Leddy, etc are good players. last ride for solid vets like Filppula & Boychuk? Beauvillier could be good. their coach is a pumpkin & GM goes to bed at 2pm.

Hurricanes: Aho is a star. Slavin is the current most underrated dman in the league? Hamilton is hilariously polarizing. J Staal has been solid forever. Foegele is having a playoffs so far. Teuvo & Nino are good. Faulk is entertaining at both ends. Pesce is good? Svechnikov is a star, so hopefully he comes back. JWill is Mr Game 7. their coach scares everyone. the owner & team overall gets the hater$ APOPLECTIC.

good post

Slavin coming out party

That was a good post...I’m looking forward to seeing MacKinnon do more work. He’s electric with the puck.

No casual fans might have know the key players before the Kings won the cup, but they certainly know LA, the large and popular city, so when a LA team makes it to the finals of any sport, people will jump to the bandwagon or will feign some form of interest. Plus, I imagine the viewership had to be better for the Kings/Blackhawks series (both times) and Kings/Rangers series, just on the backs of the reputation of the cities itself and the sports history in general, rather than the players on the team.

i don't think big markets really move ratings is the US for hockey like ppl think they do

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanle...vision_ratings

worst ratings since 2008 was for Kings/Devils by a mile
best ratings was for Blackhawks/Bruins in 2013
Bruins/Canucks did better than Red Wings/Penguins
Rangers/Canucks g7 is the 7th highest rated game ever?

save for 2012 (3m), they've done between 4-5.8m every year since 2008
Bruins/Blues would probably be the best from what's left this year
but i mean, Denver, Dallas, San Jose, Brooklyn, Ohio, Carolina ... could be worse

needs to be rigged for Boston-St Louis for sure

Lets use Bill Simmonds as an example. Boston homer and former season ticket holder for the Kings. Immersed in sports, but hasn't watched hockey in years.

How many non-boston players could he name? A couple of SJ guys. Seguin. EKarlsson?

Lots of good players as 72o pointed but nhl lacking star power in this years playoffs.

Simmons SUCKS

#AmericasTeam

San jose reppin the Swedes hard

The Stanley Cup finals will not be lacking star power when Nathan MacKinnon gets crowned the new elite star of the NHL. Guy is seriously coming with fire.

Admittedly, I haven't watched much hockey over the past few years, but I've never really noticed McDavid do anything relevant. MacKinnon on the other hand absolutely dominated Calgary. A real force on the ice. I think he could be the next elite Canadian hockey star, and a RANG + CONN SMYTHE could go a long way for that.

Under Siege 3 Starring Sergei Bobrovsky

Bob saving them

Tough to get up to playoff intensity after all that time off.

lol bahston

I blinked and missed 2 goals

where did that come from?

lol 2 trash goals from a team that has been completely dominated

columbus hockey