Stanley Cup Finals Game 5 play

[Left_Coast]

No one is watching. Hardly any papers outside of Southern Cal are staffing. How are you playing the Ducks clinching? And for the hell of it, headlines, too.

 

[HejiraHenry]

Page 2.

 

[Chi City 81]

Inside with refer on front.

 

[Claws for Concern]

It's a front page story on any sports section in SoCal -- and at worst, an A1 tease or photo at least to tease to the inside. In Canada, it's the ONLY story in the papers there.

It should be a front-page story on everyone's sports section, but yeah, I know. It's hockey and it'll be treated like a black sheep of the sports world. >:(

 

[HejiraHenry]

It should be a front-page story on everyone's sports section

Bullsh*t. I mean, God bless the NHL and all ... but the vast majority of folks don't give a damn.

In lots of places, people VIOLENTLY don't give a damn.

This mess couldn't draw 800K households on NBC.

It hasn't been the Fourth Pro Sport for a while now. That's NASCAR. Or maybe the NBA, with NASCAR third.

It might not even be fifth (UFC? Golf?), or sixth (Grand Slam tennis?).

 

[EE94]

Bull**** you, Henry,
It's a 90-year-old league, with franchises across North America, the first West Coast team to ever win the Cup, the first in California. Some great stories - including two brothers, one on his way to the Hall of Fame, winning the Cup.
It's Wednesday night. You tell me what's leading off your section. Game story 46 of the local ball team?
If so, your section has no imagination and is unwilling to do something different. Like your local populace will revolt if hockey leads off?

 

[Orange Hat Bobcat]

Our page 2 centerpiece.

Around here, folks cared last season when the Hurricanes won the whole thing, but now, well, southern bandwagon fans at their finest. They haven't given a darn since the team was eliminated during the regular season's final games. As for headlines:

FLYING Victory
Mighty or not, Ducks are Stanley Cup champs

 

[friend of a friend]

Didn't work tonight, but it better have been on our front page.

 

[Bubbler]

It barely made our deadline and then it was a brief. My heart didn't like it, but my head told me absolutely no one in my area gives a ****, so I didn't protest.

 

[DanOregon]

Got to say I found the NCAA softball more riveting. Headline: Stanley Cup: I'm going to Disneyland.

 

[friend of a friend]

Stanley Cup headline: Suck it, Canada!

 

[The Commish]

It's a 90-year-old league, with franchises across North America, the first West Coast team to ever win the Cup, the first in California. Some great stories - including two brothers, one on his way to the Hall of Fame, winning the Cup.

Actually, it's the fourth West Coast team to win the Cup. Remember, the Cup is older than the NHL: Victoria 1925, Seattle 1917, Vancouver 1915.

It is the first NHL West Coast team to win. To its credit, AP got it right.

 

[hockeybeat]

Well inside.

Hed: Ducks Runneth Over
Subhed: Anaheim wins its first Cup

Below, we ran a John Nadel's short sidebar on Chris Phillips' Steve Smith momen.

 

[HejiraHenry]

Bull**** you, Henry,
It's a 90-year-old league, with franchises across North America, the first West Coast team to ever win the Cup, the first in California. Some great stories - including two brothers, one on his way to the Hall of Fame, winning the Cup.
It's Wednesday night. You tell me what's leading off your section. Game story 46 of the local ball team?
If so, your section has no imagination and is unwilling to do something different. Like your local populace will revolt if hockey leads off?

This is probably not going to end well, but it's not going to be my fault.

As a matter of fact, yes, I think we'd get some reader (and, more importantly, supervising editor) complaints if we fronted the Stanley Cup at the expense of the things we have out there instead.

But we are at least four hours from the nearest NHL city, assuming Nashville hasn't packed out by moving van in the last 24 hours.

We have two, count 'em, two Local Ball Teams – Division I college baseball teams with passionate readerships – preparing for NCAA Super Regionals.

The NBA Finals start Thursday. Mildly interesting anyway, but also a good diversity/TV choices play.

And there is, about 90 minutes from here, a PGA event that starts Thursday.

As for the suggestion that not amping the Stanley Cup is some kind of creative breakdown on my part, I'm not buying it.

I have been willing to do all kinds of different things in the last year, such as emphasize our strengths and abandon things that we have reflexively done that our readers really don't care about.

Maybe that's why our circulation is growing and sports is seen as playing a significant role in that.

And yours?

 

[spnited]

Good answer, Henry!

 

[hockeybeat]

Clearly, I'm a hockey guy.

But no one outside of Ottawa and SoCal--and really, SoCal has the Dodgers and Angels dominating coverage--really cared about these Cup Finals.

The NHL needs major markets and recognizable faces. It needs the New York, Toronto, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, the Kings, Philly to be contenders. And it needs to get off a second rate cable network that half the country receives.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

The inherent tragedy of what CAN be a great game -- especially this time of year -- that's also
BY FAR the worst TV sport of the Big Four (or Five, or Six, or Seven . . . )

 

[Sly]

Clearly, I'm a hockey guy.

But no one outside of Ottawa and SoCal--and really, SoCal has the Dodgers and Angels dominating coverage--really cared about these Cup Finals.

The NHL needs major markets and recognizable faces. It needs the New York, Toronto, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, the Kings, Philly to be contenders. And it needs to get off a second rate cable network that half the country receives.

It also needs to outlaw this ridiculous playoff beard nonsense. I know no one's watching anyways, but how is hte NHL gonna market itself when it looks like it's being played by a bunch of deranged and murderous lumberjacks?

 

[Bearcat Wright]

Our desk guys always favor national over local unless the SE tells them differently. So it will be center-pieced on the front, which in this case is OK.

 

[Precious Roy]

Not the lead story, but top of 1B... nice picture of Rob and Scott with Cup. couple of big pics inside with runover. We staffed the Hurricanes winning the Cup, and there are a few fans here, but it is not our big story