Welcome back to another episode of Back to Excited. Today, we do things a little differently and talk about the Raptors and the NBA as a whole, discussing why the latter is more appealing on a national level and what the NHL can do in order to make their game as accessible as possible to new fans.

Specifically, we discuss:

  • The Raps winning and their takeover of Toronto [1:15]
  • Viewership differences between the NBA and NHL, and the systemic differences in the sports that make the former more easily marketed, and how the NHL’s culture may be impeding it [6:54]
  • The upsides and downsides of the NBAs heavy emphasis on stars/personalities above teams [20:15]
  • Why NBA teams’ styles are more evident than NHL teams’ and the resonance that provides on a national level [35:00]
  • The relative contrast in diversity between the NBA and NHL [51:14]
  • The NHL Draft, and what little insight we have regarding the Leafs ‘type’ of prospect, and the trades we expect them to make (Brown, Zaitsev) [59:45]
  • Some discussion on the Niskanen/Gudas trade [1:15:12]/

As always, you can find us on almost every major podcasting platform (iTunes, Soundcloud, etc.). Let us know what you’d like us to cover in future episodes, and thanks for listening.

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