loupowell52
Robert Lachowicz
Grape Aficionado
Posts: 444 
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Post by loupowell52 on Nov 3, 2019 7:39:43 GMT
I have said this repeatedly. Just a few seasons back every team had at least one character player who made you look forward to playing them. Name me those players from today's Elite League. Also, the game is being sanitised to the point that the physical element bias almost disappeared.
We want, and our sport needs ENTERTAINMENT before it literally dies on it's feet.
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iginla
Chick Zamick
Posts: 13,422
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Post by iginla on Nov 3, 2019 9:37:26 GMT
There aren’t any left.
The powers that be have ruined the game and made it almost impossible to be a character these days.
That’s why people are walking away.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2019 9:52:25 GMT
That's what I've said times before.. this league cant survive without characters to entertain.. it doesn't have the skil alone required to attract new fans.. a mate who went last night said he was bored out of his mind .. there was no physicality whatsoever
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Post by dill1015 on Nov 3, 2019 10:38:22 GMT
Called this one years ago. Rules changes have made them a liability. Sadly it may just be that ice hockey cannot be the sport it was with what we now know about concussion etc.
However DOPS and the like do a great job of killing off everything even remotly close toncontact so the sport is dying a slow death.
Imo the skill level in the EIHL isnt high enough to grow the sport on its own. You need that edge.
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iginla
Chick Zamick
Posts: 13,422
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Post by iginla on Nov 3, 2019 10:50:50 GMT
Ask yourself what attracted you to ice hockey in the first place ?
For me it was the fast,hard hitting,feisty and highly unpredictable exciting nature of it.
Now it’s hardly any of that,it’s dull and uninspiring and it’s just not the same game anymore.
When you throw in the seemingly predictable,almost pre rigged and false feeling sham like quirks of the EIHL too then it’s just not worth watching anymore.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2019 11:02:41 GMT
When I started going alot in the mid 90s the game was full of characters something would boil over at any time.. games were full of goals and the top forwards skill wise today could not hold a light to those top line forwards then even!
People who started going 2/3 years ago (all I hear of now on Panthers OS/social media) doesn't know what they missed out on and never saw!! I feel for them.
And the facility we played out of was/is a million times better than this place!
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Post by spik on Nov 3, 2019 11:13:56 GMT
Your entertainment now is the lighting, music and such. Nothing as regards the ice product. As dill1015 says impacted by some rule changes with injury and other elements.
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Pies
Forum Moderator 
Reluctant Chief of ITK
Posts: 4,879
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Post by Pies on Nov 3, 2019 11:17:17 GMT
If people want to hear GMs view on this, listen to after the roar where he speaks about a conversation he just had with Hicks about this very matter and that he wants it back. It’s a good listen if some people can take their anti GM blinkers off.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2019 11:26:48 GMT
Your entertainment now is the lighting, music and such. Nothing as regards the ice product. As dill1015 says impacted by some rule changes with injury and other elements. Lighting music etc wont bring crowds in! They don't pay for that.. it's a prelude to what they see on the ice |
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Post by spik on Nov 3, 2019 11:30:06 GMT
Your entertainment now is the lighting, music and such. Nothing as regards the ice product. As dill1015 says impacted by some rule changes with injury and other elements. Lighting music etc wont bring crowds in! They don't pay for that.. it's a prelude to what they see on the ice I agree with you. The club just fill the void of an evening with all the glitz and glammer to hype the product as best they can. |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2019 11:32:39 GMT
Lighting music etc wont bring crowds in! They don't pay for that.. it's a prelude to what they see on the ice I agree with you. The club just fill the void of an evening with all the glitz and glammer to hype the product as best they can. Yup its called flogging a dead horse mate |
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bgf
Jade Galbraith
Posts: 8
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Post by bgf on Nov 3, 2019 11:34:26 GMT
I am currently watching the plight of Panthers from Finland. I was never a season ticket holder due to work commitments but attended whenever I could and would watch webcasts of away games. I last watched the Panthers on the webcast from the away win in Cardiff and the one thing that really hit me was the complete lack of physicality in what is supposed to be a contact sport - I am not talking about fights but just checking your opponents and making the game hard for them.
Last night I went to watch a game in Mestis ( 2nd tier in Finland ) and there was a huge amount of physicality - these players wanted to win and were prepared to put their bodies on the line and that has been the same for all the Liiga and KHL matches I have attended - there have been no fights just hard, legal play.
I get that the skill level will be lower but is the absence of physicality at the Panthers and lots of other EIHL teams due to the fact most of these players have realised they will never 'make it' and will only stay at a club for a year or two before moving on? I do fear for the league's future if the product being put out remains as it is. There were 540 in attendance last night but the atmosphere was 10 times better than the Panthers normally are with the games in the CHL being the only exception. I think the 'noisy block' is a step in the right direction but at the wrong end of the ice - it should be the end you shoot at twice. The home team K-Vantaa played the first period in special jerseys (long story) which they gave to the hard-core fans and drummer at the end of the period - could you ever see Panthers doing that?
Not sure I will be watching anymore webcasts from the Elite league this season as the product is not worth the money - I can watch Jokerit in the KHL for 15 euros and can't justify paying more than that for a game from just up the M1.
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Post by The Flying Shirt on Nov 3, 2019 15:23:12 GMT
There were a lot of first timers at the game last night (freebies, sponsor tickets, who knows) but unlike all those years ago on our first time for us the first timers around us were bored to tears and some even left during the third period. No fights (like them or not), no physical play at all, no characters, no agitation = Pretty low interest for people who hadn’t even considered going to a game before.
The days of people coming once and becoming fans is long gone with today’s game and that’s why you hardly ever see new faces returning. Panthers give away more freebies than Kellogg’s and still last night was dead.
The poor woman sat next to me was desperate to get up and go for about the last hour and then when they did leave she almost ran out of the building. Hockey has changed and way too much in my view. I remember taking my wife to her first football match many years ago and then being made to promise not to have to go again. Hockey is very much the same now and for UK hockey and falling crowds in a lot of places that’s pretty dangerous for the long term.
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