On the Forecheck: Stanley Cup Finals: A few thoughts

On the Forecheck: Stanley Cup Finals: A few thoughts:

One intermission appearance by Don Cherry won’t do anything to build a nation-wide American TV audience for hockey. Versus and NBC need to figure out a way to get Cherry on a more regular basis, like a “Coach’s Corner” on their Monday night game, for example.

No, but it sure did wonders to reinforce the idea to americans not following the game regularly but curious (and 11PM sports mouths looking for reasons to badmouth the game) that the hockey elite are all for returning to the 70′s “slap shot” days of hockey. After all, isn’t Don Cherry the most reknowned hockey experts in canada? And Hull one of the most prominent American players?

I found the segment depressing and sad — and horribly bad for a game trying to become more of a skill game and sell that game to new people. Don Cherry is Don Cherry, but my god, is that how you plan on selling this sport to the U.S.?

To me, especially given the Pronger hit and suspension and the later Alfredsson puck into Niedermeyer, letting Cherry bombast himself on NBC with Hull both egging him on and attempting to “out Cherry” him — that was an embarassment to what the league keeps telling us it wants to be. And not what I’d call a positive reinforcement of what Canadians are like to people down south here who don’t know better. You might as well have put clown noses on both and given the crew cream pies.

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