Wayne Gretzky and Bill Burr explain why hockey doesn't need to be 'fixed'
NHL legend Wayne Gretzky and comedian Bill Burr joined Bill Simmons on this week's episode of "Any Given Wednesday," where they discussed whether or not hockey needs to be "fixed" to better compete with the other major North American sports leagues.
Both guests seemed to agree that the league isn't broken, so a "fix" isn't necessarily in order. Gretzky's point surrounds the recent success of the NHL's Sun Belt franchises, while Burr argues that the league trying to build its own popularity could backfire and end up hurting the product that so many people already love. Not surprisingly, Burr seems concerned about the possibility of fighting being taken away from the sport.
There's been a lot of criticism surrounding the NHL's ability to market its product and big superstars in recent years, but the product itself doesn't seem to have taken much of a hit. If anything, you could make the case that the product is on the up right now. (Outside of the increasingly ridiculous offside reviews.) But here's a wild spitball of an idea — it might benefit the league if they could avoid the whole lockout thing once a decade.
