Written Task: How do you feel about hockey's social media culture? Specifically with regards to top players in the world. A common complaint is that the NHL does not have the star power of a league like the NBA, and that the players are much more boring. Do you think this ties in to social media, and the unwillingness many players to engage beyond the officially sanctioned opportunities? Is it unrelated? If so, how do you think the league should go about making their stars more marketable and exciting? Does it even matter? (150+ words)

I am pretty much in the middle on this, I see it in two different ways. On one hand, it is something I like in hockey, the fact that player can be humble online. They show their game on the ice, trash talk on the ice, but after, it was just a game and that is it. I think it also helps making the hockey environment toxic, something that can get pretty tiring over time. But I do agree that it can be boring, everyone likes drama and drama goes crazy on social media. Having players that will actively engage online against each other would make the sceen very much different and would probably overall make a lot of money for the league. But this comes at the cost of someone looking like a dumbass, and some weird online people could also take this way too personal for their favorite player and do things that are not ok.

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