Tarring the NHL with a Violent Brush

Listening to syndicated (American) sports radio talk about the Duke-North Carolina basketball game provides interesting insights into how hockey is perceived & portrayed on Fox & ESPN radio (and TV). 

During the basketball game, Duke's Gerald Henderson delivered a vicious elbow to Tarheel Center Tyler Hansbrough, breaking Hansbrough's nose.

On Fox this has led to comments like "of course North Carolina isn't going to retaliate - this isn't hockey" and comparisons of the incident to the Marty McSorley clubbing of Donald Brashear and Bertuzzi's thuggery. 

With hockey being routinely characterized as the seedy, violent underbelly of sport is it any wonder the NHL plays to half-empty (or worse) crowds in many markets or that the league cannot secure a major television deal in the US?

It also bears remembering that neither ESPN nor FOX Sports have broadcast agreements with the NHL.  As a result, it is not in the interests of either of network to promote the sport or the league.  Sports radio is entertainment, not journalism, so it should come as no shock that syndicated radio shows from Fox and ESPN pay little or no attention to hockey while blanketing the NFL, NBA, NASCAR and NCAA sports with coverage. 

The networks recognize that different sports are competing for "mind share" and that the NHL's gains come at the expense of NASCAR's or some other sport's "mind share", and vice versa.  As a result, these networks routinely characterize hockey as a marginal, violent and anachronistic game or, even worse, they ignore hockey and the NHL altogether.

Thus the NHL finds itself trapped in a vicious cycle.  American sports media outlets ignore or marginalize the sport; the league is unable to negotiate an attractive US TV deal; the big networks invest more time, money and talent into the NFL, NBA and the other sports they do broadcast; fewer and fewer new fans are drawn to the NHL; hockey & the NHL are further marginalized....

Comments

[Kevin B.]

The NHL does itself no favors by allowing thugs like Chris Neil and Cam Jansen to injure star players.

[TJ O'Connor]

My take on this is that, yes, hockey is a violent sport. Just like a car crash, due to the speed and velocity of impacts, hockey will always be a violent sport to a degree, even if fighting is removed. Remove fighting, and you'll still have faces being smeared into the corner glass as the result of clean body checks, and some will see this as violent.

And this is part of what makes hockey great, because the violence is contained within the game, just as it is in boxing. On the other hand, North America's big three sports seem to have a problem with violence among their players outside the confines of the game, with shootings in nightclubs, violence to women, and braws with the fans.

It's all a matter of perspective, and it seems to me the MSM has the wrong perspective when it comes to judging the level of violence in sport.

[The Sieve]

I don't think Bettman and the marketing group are doing the NHL any favours with those idiotic "warrior" ads they were running, with the battle imagery and Sun Tzu quotes, etc.

Rightly or wrongly, hockey is perceived as overly violent, and not just in the U.S. When the Queen visited Vancouver a few years ago, she dropped the ceremonial first puck at a Canucks-Sharks game. The British press were beside themselves: How could we brawny, uncouth, unwashed Canadians expose their beloved Queen to our thuggery and bloodsport?

Anyway, the point is the NHL does nothing to dispel that image, in fact, they play it up and pander to people who enjoy violence.

[steveston78]

People seem to have no problems with MLB pitchers retaliating for brush-backs by tossing 90 mph beanballs. The potential for injury is even higher with such pitches than with bare-knuckle punches thrown from an unstable platform (or have you never tried punching someone while on skates?). The number of bench-clearing incidents in MLB makes NHL line-brawls seem almost non-existent. As touched upon by a previous poster, at least NHL players keep their noses clean outside of the rink. Hockey players are widely regarded as the most polite, down-to-earth participants in major sports, certainly as compared to the almost weekly reports of NBA and NFL arrests. Clearly, most media commentators haven't watched a hockey game in years, and somehow seem blind to the poor behaviour endemic in the other major sports leagues.