Keith Olbermann tries to rip the myth of the 'Original Six'
The 'Original Six' is a pompous and annoying slogan that the NHL uses to market its oldest and most marquee teams. Now tell us something we don't know and we'll move on.
ESPN commentator Keith Olbermann recently tried to take down the idea of the 'Original Six' on his television show. Olbermann's premise is that the current 'Original Six' franchises are not really the original six teams in the NHL. The video please ...
And after this Olbermann takes down the idea of Santa Claus, yet another fictional entity we've been using for years to market joy to children. That's a little harsh. but hopefully you get the point.
Olbermann does offer some different takes on sports, and he is indeed informed, political and opinionated -- something that's missing in today's national sports television commentary world. Try watching HBO's "The Newsroom" and then his show. It's super trippy.
But the 'Original Six' is a marketing slogan, not a truth-telling mechanism. And you know what? It works.
So far this year, 'Original Six' teams hold the top five spots in average road attendance per ESPN.com's attendance tracker. In 2013-14, all six were in the top-10 of the NHL's road attendance.
In 2011-12, the NHL's previous full season before last year, five of the 'Original Six' were in the league's top-10 in away attendance. Translation: people want to see these teams play because of this 'tradition' that Olbermann accurately points out, isn't 100 percent true.
A more meaningful takedown would have been about NBC's 'Wednesday Night Rivalry' game. The last two 'rivalries' have been total duds. The Red Wings and Rangers? Growing up in New York City in the '80s, '90s and early part of 2000s, I can say with confidence most current Rangers fans do not care about the Red Wings. There was no rivalry! They were in totally different conferences until last year!
But this is just a tick better than the previous week's 'Rivalry' game between the Washington Capitals and Wings -- who once played for the Stanley Cup in 1998.
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