Inside My Hockey Mind

I know this is only my second ever blog, and of all things, I’m talking about baseball. However the city of Toronto is in shambles, and it ties back to hockey, so why not write about the Bluejays colossal collapse.

How many chokes can one city experience before their torture ends? One thing I know for sure is that it never gets old. Not only did the BlueJays just get swept in an upset to the Mariners today, they also blew an 8-1 lead in a 10-9 losing effort. Blowing leads is not a new thing for Toronto sports fans. As we know, this has become a yearly event in Toronto. Superstar talent, high expectations, and blown opportunities and choked leads.

Lets not also forget the BlueJays missed the playoffs last year by 0 points last year. They played 162 regular season games and managed to miss the playoffs by 0 points. Thats a choke in itself. But this year they were supposed to be different. A team with higher expectations, and more of a buzz around the team. However all good things come to an end, and in the city of Toronto the end is almost always the first round of the playoffs.

If we thought blowing a 4-1 lead in game 7 to the Bruins and then losing like 7 straight first rounds in a row was bad, which it was, than this is much worse. EIGHT TO ONE. HOW? How Toronto sports teams always manage to choke these unbelievable leads is unbelievable. Forget Atlanta blowing a 28-3 lead to the GREATEST QB OF ALL TIME, the bluejays blew a SEVEN POINT LEAD to a slightly above average baseball team, that just made the playoffs for the first time in 2001. Atlanta’s choke should be in the rear view mirror at this point compared to this. How many times can this happen? How many first round exits can one city experience?

With so much talent and promise in the city of Toronto it just makes you wonder how long will it take for Toronto to finally experience success again? Outside of the recent Raptors NBA championship, the sports gods has bashed Toronto through the mud. Im starting to believe it may never change. These poor fans might just have to experience pain and suffering for eternity at this point.

In an attempt to increase ad revenue, the NHL has decided to implement a new way to present board ads on broadcasts. In what many fans, myself included, believe was a terrible decision, the NHL has added Digitally Enhanced Dasherboards (DED) ads.

The @NHL is replacing traditional signage on rink boards with virtual ads using digitally enhanced dasherboards.

(via @wyshynski) pic.twitter.com/7lqfiatiq8

— Sports Business Journal (@SBJ) October 3, 2022

With these new board advertisements the NHL can increase revenue by ads in the arena, and have different ads on the TV broadcasts. This allows different audiences to see different ads that are directed towards them. This would be totally fine, and honestly a smart idea, except for the fact that DED ads aren’t the same as normal ads. They are live ads, that move along the boards, and change throughout the game. The constantly changing ads that are sometimes moving are extremely distracting and makes it so much harder to focus and enjoy the game.

As much as it gives me a headache to watch, it is not the end of the world. It is probably better than adding ads all over the ice and covering the jerseys like we see in Europe but this is about the third or fourth invasive move the NHL has made towards infecting the playing surface and gear/equipment in the last few years. Its understandable that the NHL must find new ways to generate ad revenue, especially following covid, but this was probably the most frustrating and annoying way to do it for the viewers.

The NHL really blew this. Its ugly, distracting, and eye straining. But they could definitely rework it to make it better. What I think they should do is make the ads static like they are in person, but make them directed towards the viewers. For example, when an American broadcast is in a Canadian market, instead of showing Tim Hortons they should show ads for companies like Dunkin Donuts. They could even swap out the ads every period if they wanted to show more ads. This would be a more effective way to show more ads.

These current moving, constantly changing ads are terrible, and will turn people away from watching games because they are so distracting. It will be very interesting to see what the NHL decides to do, if it were up to me I would quickly get away from the moving ads. These ads could be a grave mistake for the NHL.