The sport might not be "classy." But many of the people involved in the sport absolutely are.

Hockey players and coaches are easily the nicest, best and downright classiest guys I have worked with in my experience in the four major sports. And pretty much everyone who has worked in all the sports will say the same thing.

NHL Playoff ratings are about the strongest they have ever been. We have pretty much moved beyond the "NHL desperately NEEDS to get back on ESPN" phase. Remember that? So popular a sentiment even 2-3 years ago. I remember debating about it on here. But it's just not a valid idea anymore. (or not nearly as much anyway).

And these super-strong ratings for the NHL playoffs are with some of the media-darling teams all getting knocked out early such as PIT, BOS, DET, CHI. All of those teams are pretty much automatic ratings-generators...and none were in the 2nd round. How much better would the ratings have been if it were DET/CHI instead of PHX/NSH?

NBC-SN still has some growing to do. But they have done a great job and are clearly well on their way.

The NHL vs. NBA ratings comparison will get really interesting if one of them has NY vs LA for the finals while the other gets stuck with something like IND v OKC. (NBA will probably have BOS or MIA...so that will bail them out).

ya, agree 100% microbob. Gotta love these people who realize that hockey is more than just a game and use their fame and resources to give back to the community. Even on the ice theres a way to play hard and physical, yet still do it in a classy way. On the other end of the spectrum there are people like raffi torres and matt cooke in the past.

Brian Burke is a scumbag. Who else would block an assistant from moving to a better job?

Action - Some of the toughest customers and enforcers on the ice that I've met or known personally have mostly been REALLY terrific guys in person.

It's almost become a cliche for the tough-guy on the team to also be one of the nicest/classiest off of it. (not referring to Torres or Cooke. No idea about either away from the ice).

Have the ratings really been that good given the matchups we're seeing? How do they compare to the last few years?

NBC has done a great job though, I agree. Full playoff coverage is something I don't think any other sport can boast, and even non-hockey fans are well aware of how amazing the NHL playoffs are. Hopefully more of them get hooked and stick around for the regular season.

ROMAN CERVENKA

sucks

Must've misread his surname as "Cechmanek"

Hey cwice, how does it feel knowing that Marty Brodeur has played more playoff games in his 20 year career than the franchise you are bandwagoning has played in its entire 45 year existence?

well if Geddy's account was hacked, the guy sure did his homework...

WhiteGoose, I'm only kidding with you, we're having a party, I just came home and I haven't seen you in a long time and I'm breaking your balls, and you're getting ****ing fresh. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you.

I completely understand. My balls need a good breaking anyways. I also just got home for a couple days from the cottage. It's like I've forgotten how to post without 2p2 and without the internet :thumbdown:

Did you go cottaging?

Just giving him the standard welcome, bro.

It's too bad ratings are at their strongest when the quality of hockey is at an all time low.

Let's see if the higher ups can manage to screw everything up again and follow strong ratings with a lockout/strike.

I agree, I don't mind them being classy off the ice. I just needed to rant about the overuse of the word classy in hockey circles.

As a Canadian who moved to the USA in the past couple of years, I love versus and now NBC Sports. I've always had access to versus and the NHL network has showed CBC HNIC in the past, so I could watch the games.

I'm not a big ESPN fan because well I'm Canadian and I don't like most American sports, namely baseball and basketball. And football is so broadly covered that I don't need ESPN to get my fix of that.

Also, I don't really care about ratings, if we catch the NBA, as long as we have good coverage so I can watch it, that's all that matters to me. With NBC Sports, now we have that. I just hope they don't grow too much and eventually put hockey on the back burner.

Oh how I've missed you, Stephen Sea Weiss.

As someone who's been following Cervenka for years (ever since his debut for my hometown team) I'm really excited for him, he could be a huge star in Calgary, I think his style suits NHL very well, prob a top 5 non-NHL player over the last 5 years

Dudley is allowed to go to the Canadiens after the draft. He has intimate knowledge of the prospects the Leafs are looking at as well as draft and trade strategy. Taking that info to a division rival who is picking two spots ahead of the Leafs is a little much.

interesting. same could/was said about radulov, yet every talking head is ready to kick him back out of the nhl.

Well, the difference is Radulov is the biggest ******* in all of sports maybe, his problems arent caused by lack of skill or performance

I was actually looking forward to your opinion on Cervenka because you've probably seen more of him than anyone else on these forums.

I'm cautiously optimistic. Anything over 50 points next year would be gravy.

This. Huge "buyer beware" sticker on his forehead now. Not sure if anyone takes a chance on him this summer.

I mean, how stupid can he be, really? He's in line for a huge payday with a great playoffs, and he was probably the Preds' best player against Detroit, and then he goes and ****s everything up by becoming an unwanted distraction. Whether or not his previous reputation as a selfish flake was warranted is tough to say, but he certainly didn't help matters with this episode.

Also this. Shouldn't be hard to understand, really.

I think people are over reacting. He broke curfew. I'm willing to bet he didn't know the seriousness of breaking curfew and that Poille would actually bench him for 2 games. Benching them for the 2nd game because they won the first game was dumb.

Nashville is going to forever suffer as a result. They should have shut up and played him and traded him in the off-season for max value.

They basically pissed away all of his worth by benching him and making him a stand out that nobody wants. Its horrible asset management.

The players would have gotten the message if they traded him in the summer. Ruining their playoff chances by benching him would piss me off if I was a Predator player.

I wasnt referencing just this, he has a huge history of acting terribly, cheap shots, no discipline etc. He repeatedly tried to injure our players in international matches, hes just a total headcase