RIP NHL 2Night

[FlyersGM]

Last night was a very sad night for me as I stayed up, held back tears and watched the final edition of NHL 2Night. Did anyone else stay up and watch, and does anyone else love this show as much as I did? For the past nine years they provided us with great hockey news, recaps, information and humor and it truely sucks that the head's of ESPN are a**holes. It's going to be awhile until I get over this one, hopefully Barry and John still post on ESPN.com and John, Barry and Ray still do intermission reports on ESPN2.

[ex-BluesGM]

I couldn't agree more Jack, the treatment of hockey on ESPN is pityful and has been for the past few years. Hey let's show some omre world's strongest man re-runs and poker, instead of the most exciting sport on earth....losers!

[FlyersGM]

Put NHL 2Night on again as a half hour show nightly, five nights a week starting next season with the new CBA and new rules and interest in hockey and ratings will increase. Hockey has hit it's low, can our NBA head commissioner turn the league around? For those who care: www.petitiononline.com/NHL2NITE/petition.html

[Anaheim GM]

Gary Bettman and the NHL marketing team have been asleep at the switch for well over a decade. All the marketing momentum of the sport that players such as Wayne Gretsky, Mario Lemiuex, and the other greats have built has steadily seeped from the NHL. New stars aren't quite as charismatic and seem to not show the heart of players in other sports.

There is not many individuals that can argue that the sport is action packed, has few breaks, and has some of the best athletes in the world. Let's face it, these players have good hearts, have great personalities, and have so much team pride it makes the other major sports look like the NBA. There is still team loyalty in the NHL....it is still less uncommon to see a player play for a team for 15 years in the NHL then in the NFL. In the NHL you have many players that stick with a team for 8-10 years....some for their entire careers. It is a lot more frequent in the NHL than in any other league.

The NHL has all the pieces of the puzzle necessary to make it a star (ratings, appeal, etc.) yet they continue the downward spiral. Their ineptness at promoting such a great product has really hurt the league.

No offense to you NASCAR fans out there, but if you can promote a sport in which you watch a friggin' car make continuous left turns you can turn hockey into a very marketable sport. The demographic base is there....the top management and marketing team needs a complete overhaul. Time for some fresh ideas.

NHL 2night signing off is just another kick in the teeth. Ratings=a show. If the ratings are there, people advertise. When people advertise the show sticks around. ESPN certainly isn't going to do a show for charity, although my guess is the show hasn't made money for a few years anyway.

There is absolutely no excuse why the NHL is suffering like this. I point the finger at the top. After all, that's where the buck stops, right?

[torontogm]

Whew, I know this is bad but 10654154 times worse if they cancelled CBC's HNIC. That would be bad.

[FlyersGM]

Yes, ratings=a show. What I don't understand is how could you lose money on a show that you are airing at 1 AM anyway? ESPN is trying to tell us they'd get better ratings on women's pool or worlds strangest man competitions at 1 AM? It was on for about seven years as a regular show, where they losing money then? It's just ESPN's attempt to low ball hockey and become ESPNBA. To me, it just doesn't make sense.