The NHL put all 32 teams on the ice Tuesday, staggered the start times and called it Frozen Frenzy.
Wonderful. What exactly were we supposed to do with it?
We can’t watch 16 hockey games at once. Starting them 15 minutes apart doesn’t change that. By the time you’ve settled into one game, another is starting. Then another. Eventually, you’re either watching your own team, which you would have done anyway, or frantically operating your remote like you’re trying to land a plane.
Somewhere in the NHL offices, apparently, this qualifies as a spectacular evening. To us, this was a laughable farce.
Admittedly, there was a broadcasting concept behind it. ESPN offered a five-hour show with John Buccigross and Kevin Weekes, moving between games to showcase the action. That gives viewers who enjoy sampling the entire league an option. Fair enough.
Clearly, this was an attempt to duplicate the NFL’s popular RedZone program, which bounces around from one game to another every Sunday. But football is a stop-and-go sport. After every brief play, teams return to their respective huddles to plan their next play. Hockey, on the other hand, is a free-flowing sport that often continues for several minutes before a stoppage occurs. Jumping from game to game can be a clumsy mess. And often, it was.
Because ESPN’s interest is focused only on American television markets, most Canadians were unaware that the “frenzy” was even happening—which is typical of Gary Bettman’s long legacy of waving a middle finger at Canadian hockey teams and their fans. Think not? Just a day earlier, Canadians celebrated their annual Thanksgiving holiday. Were any Canadian teams graced with a hockey game that day? Nope. Not one. Instead, three evening games involving six American franchises were the only offerings.
But we digress. Here’s the basic question: why should having every team play on the same night be more appealing than giving fans a better opportunity to watch them separately?
If you’re invested in your team’s game, you probably want to follow it. All of it. Watch a power play develop. See how a particular line is performing. Understand why the coach is suddenly turning purple behind the bench. You don’t necessarily want to leave because something interesting might be happening somewhere else. And if the idea is to introduce fans to other teams and stars, why make all those teams and stars compete for the same pair of eyeballs?
We weren’t alone in questioning the attraction. On its October 14 episode, The Athletic Hockey Show debated whether Frozen Frenzy worked at all, raising the obvious problem that fans following their own team aren’t necessarily interested in having their viewing constantly interrupted by other games.
And why Tuesday, of all days, anyway? That answer is simple. The NHL had no interest in putting its silly frenzy up against the NFL’s Monday Night Football show.
Instead, the league chose a Tuesday with games beginning at 6 p.m. Eastern and the final game starting at 11 p.m. Curtis Deem at Union and Blue questioned that arrangement, pointing out the awkwardness of early starts for working fans and late finishes for anyone hoping to follow the whole event. Apparently, the ideal Frozen Frenzy customer has no evening commitments and no particular reason to be conscious Wednesday morning.
Then there’s the promotion: Writing at MYHockey, Scott Lowe questioned whether even people closely involved in hockey knew the event was happening. That’s an embarrassing question for something supposedly designed to make the league impossible to ignore. The Hockey Beast also reported Jesse Marshall’s observation that several sports-loving friends knew nothing about it. Yes, that’s a single anecdote, not an audience survey, but it raises a useful concern: how far beyond the existing hockey crowd did this promotion reach?
Calling something a frenzy doesn’t create one. Above all, stop treating the number of games on the schedule as though it automatically measures the quality of the viewing experience.
Sixteen games. Thirty-two teams. One night.
Big deal.
We still only have two eyeballs.
