ESPNLosAngeles.com was launched earlier this week to great fanfare all over the ESPN family of networks. The Disney Channel, ABC, ABC Family, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPNews and anything else Disney owns relentlessly pumped the new website into our subconscious. Miramax and Touchstone have scheduled separate documentaries to commemorate the momentous occasion. The rest of the world had no clue.
Here’s a newsflash: ESPN doesn’t pay attention to hockey. Yes, I know—that’s the hard hitting, inside analysis you expect when you visit VFMS. In related news: water is wet, the Earth is round and the Middle East isn’t a great place for a family vacation.
Each and every hockey fan in the United States knows that the Worldwide Leader couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the NHL. We know it—we may not accept it, but we know it. The chances of the NHL getting decent coverage on ESPN is about as likely as Bill Walton missing a Grateful Dead concert. Anyone complaining about that is wasting both their time and energy. You can scream at the rain—but that doesn’t mean its going to stop.
To give an example of just how much ESPN cares about the NHL, here is a brief recap of SportsCenter the night that Martin Brodeur broke Terry Sawchuk’s record for most career shutouts. When you look at the recap, just imagine if someone broke Nolan Ryan’s strikeout record. Unfortunately, this is actually real:
- Show starts at 8:40 PST.
- Sacramento Kings 35-point comeback against the Chicago Bulls.
- Monday Night Football: Washington Redskins blowout loss to the New York Giants.
- Go to the guys at FedEx Field in Washington to talk about the Monday Night Football game for about 15 minutes with Jim Zorn and Tom Coughlin press conferences mixed in.
- Brett Favre and Brad Childress having a HEATED conversation.
- Back to the guys at FedEx Field to talk about Brett Favre.
- Goes to commercial. I THINK this is the 1st commercial since the end of the Monday Night Football game (9:13 PST).
- Talks about Redskins having to remove 25 million pounds from FedEx Field. Goes onto talk about how Jim Zorn COULD be fired and Mike Shanahan COULD be in the mix for the ‘Skins job.
- Mike Holmgren becomes Brown’s team President.
- First teams to get to 2000 wins: Kentucky Basketball game against Drexel. Fucking Drexel.
- “By the Numbers” for Kentucky Basketball.
- Another commercial. They’re catching up (9:21 PST). Not until after they cross-promote the Christmas Day Lakers/Cavaliers game.
- Talking about the Colts chasing perfection.
- Shaq and the Cavs visiting Phoenix. Run down of Shaq visiting his former teams. Excuse for Cavs and LeBron highlights.
- Another commercial (9:30 PST).
- Recapping Monday Night Football in the studio. Again.
- Now recapping the MNF game from FedEx Field. Again. Bring in Osi Umenyiora so HE can talk about the blowout.
- 9:38pm PST: Finally ESPN gets around to the Devils vs. Penguins highlights. They even showed a few seconds from his press conference afterwards. Lasts all the way until 9:40. Way to go Worldwide Leader.
There are various reasons why the NHL doesn’t get very much coverage on ESPN anymore. They’ll tell you that it’s because the ratings for hockey are low and that no one cares. I would tell you it’s because there’s nothing in the world of hockey that they can cross-promote. As soon as they stopped televising games, the sport’s exposure on their networks fell just behind Women’s college basketball.
There’s the fundamental question that people can argue all day. Which came first: Did ESPN drop the NHL because its decrease in popularity? Or did the NHL’s popularity decrease BECAUSE ESPN dropped it? I’m in the camp that believes that hockey would be doing much better in the national media if ESPN was carrying it—mostly because they set the national sports agenda. If you don’t believe me, tell me what you think of the LeBron, Brett Favre or the New York Yankees. If ESPN wants to pound it down people’s throats, it BECOMES important.
Did you know that the Lakers actually SHARE Staples Center? No really, I'm serious...
When ESPNLosAngeles.com launched, I had hopes that there would be another outlet to find Kings (and even Ducks) coverage. I figured that with an entire site devoted to Los Angeles sports, they would HAVE to talk about hockey—especially during the winter months. I had no illusions that they would give equal coverage to the local hockey teams, but I hoped it would become another resource for Kings and Ducks information. Ah, I can be so naïve.
It took me about 5 seconds after I clicked the link the first time to realize what the site was really all about. Apparently ESPN has more Lakers information than they know what to do with and needed another platform to dispense the knowledge. The site really should be called ESPNLakers.com. I understand they’re the most popular team in town right now—but please don’t insult me by telling me that it’s a site for all Los Angeles sports.
The Worldwide Leader has done a decent job of pillaging talent from both the LA Times and LA Daily News to augment their roster. Former LA Times columnist and current ESPN NBA analyst J.A. Adande leads the rather impressive journalistic line-up. Dodgers fans will be happy to see that Tony Jackson has a gig again; once again following the Blue Crew like he used to for the Daily News. Steve Mason and John Ireland from ESPN 790AM and the Kamenetzky brothers from the LA Times will also be regular contributors.
When you check out the website, you’ll see every team and every sport represented. The Clippers, Dodgers, Trojans, Bruins and Lakers all have prominent places on the main page. But what about the Kings? Hell, what about the Ducks? Where are the talented writers to cover the puck? Where is the breaking news for the (then) Western Conference leading Kings?
In the name of full disclosure, there is a section towards the bottom that has both the Kings and Ducks listed. Unfortunately, if you click the links, you’re sent directly to the Kings and Ducks pages on ESPN.com. There is absolutely NO new content to speak of. Then again, I shouldn’t have expected much since it’s next to the High School Football section. It’s a complete joke. A mind-numbing, depressing joke.
The masochist in me wanted to take a look at the other city-specific sites ESPN has launched recently. Was this lack of hockey coverage isolated to Los Angeles or were these city-specific websites nothing more than an extension of their national agenda coverage? I was curious to see if this was nothing more than an excuse to spew more Lakers, Cowboys, Red Sox and Patriots talk. They know there are other teams to cover, right?
The ESPNBoston website looks most like the ESPN that you see on TV every day. Patriots, Red Sox and Celtics—how is that different than the ESPN that we’re used to? They have the occasional story about the Bruins and a Bruins blog that is regularly updated, but by and large this is a 3 team site.
ESPNChicago has much better coverage than any of the other 4 sites. Maybe it’s because the Bulls and Bears suck, but the surging Blackhawks play a prominent role on the site. Jesse Rogers’ Blackhawks blog is updated at least once per day and provides good insight for Hawks fans. I have to give credit where credit is due: ESPNChicago actually treats hockey like it’s a major sport.
It’s thing for me to look at the site as an outsider– but quite another for a local to check out the site. We asked Matthew Dirt from the great Blackhawks blog SecondCityHockey.com what he thought of the hockey coverage on ESPNChicago.
“The Chicago site is pretty decent.. but nothing all that great. Jesse Rogers’ has a blog on the site where he’s broken a few stories (specifically about who is sitting/scratched that night) but I can’t say it’s really something I check every day to make sure I’m up to date on all the latest news. (He’s had some good interviews though). Obviously it helps to have someone like ESPN throw their weight behind your city but I haven’t seen much so far – It’s a little more coverage than ESPN usually gives hockey but that’s not saying much.”
As it stands now, ESPNDallas reminds me most of the ESPNLosAngeles site. They have a blog for the Stars, but the visitor will have to dig through about 800 Dallas Cowboys stories before they could find it. From what I understand, they have reached out to the blogging community to find better (and more) online content to help round-out the site. Managing Editor Brandon Worley of the Dallas Stars site DefendingBigD.com has been approached by the media giant to help beef up their hockey coverage. At least when they’re reaching out, they’re reaching out to the RIGHT people.
From the sounds of it, the task of adding Dallas Stars content to ESPNDallas has fallen to Richard Durrett. The former Stars and Rangers beat reporter for the Dallas Morning News has been feverishly working to add worthwhile information to the site. Worley sees his efforts and appreciates the work as well:
“You have to give ESPN Dallas credit for trying. Durrett runs a pretty decent blog with timely news updates and pretty good coverage of the team on a daily basis. He does interviews with bloggers of the opposing teams for each game. He’s reached out to Defending Big D to help beef-up their coverage in an attempt to build the blog. He asked us to participate in a game chat on Saturday (which could become something regular in the future). In talking with him, it’s obvious that he cares about the coverage the Stars get on the website.”
Unfortunately, Worley’s concerns are almost identical when it comes to overall coverage. He senses, like most people in hockey, that hockey is nothing more than an afterthought for the websites’ coverage. Even though Durrett is working his ass off to get the Stars content to where it needs to be, he still has a long way to go.
“As much as Durrett may be trying, let’s face it; ESPNDallas is a Dallas Cowboys focused website. Durrett is stretched thin, covering the Stars, Rangers and colleges for ESPNDallas.com.The Stars get the occasional front-page reference, but it’s rarely anything significant. Some I’ve spoken to just wish that ESPN would not cover hockey at all, since if they’re only going to do it half-assed they might as well just give up on it. Earlier this week, it took 52 minutes into SportsCenter for there to be any mention Brodeur’s big night breaking the shutout record. That’s one of the most impressive records in all of sports!
From a Stars fans’ perspective, ESPNDallas.com may not be trying but at
least Richard Durrett is. It’s still not enough, though.”
I can honestly say that if Richard Durrett continues working as hard as he has, the hockey coverage will only get better. But including people like Brandon Worley who already provide great coverage and earned Stars’ fans respect, the hockey content on site looks like it has the potential to grow. It’s something to look forward to as I see ESPNLosAngeles’ non-existent coverage. At least there’s hope.
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Yes, I realize that probably wasted both my precious time and little energy by devoting any time to this subject. Regrettably, the lack of coverage (where there really SHOULD be coverage) is just another example that the sport hockey fans love gets NO attention in the greater sports world. I was cautiously optimistic about the launch of ESPNLosAngeles. It looks like I set the bar a little too high. All I ask for is a small little blog or something that has ORIGINIAL content about every L.A. sports team on an L.A. sports site.
Maybe after reading their 1000th article that says “The Lakers are Good,” the staff will realize they might want to talk about that other thriving team in Staples Center. Yes, I know—I set the bar too high. But I can dream.
Matt Reitz
Matt Reitz is an NHL Writer for ProHockeyTalk on NBCSports and the Editor-In-Chief here at ViewFromMySeats.com. When he's not shoving a mic in the face of NHLers or explaining why home teams should wear white, he's usually trying to figure out what song to play next on his iPod. It's a never-ending job.
