Fansided

The NHL is high on Snoop Dogg, for some reason

By Michelle Bruton

LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 28: Rapper Snoop Dogg performs at the 2017 NHL All-Star Saturday Night Party at the Event Deck L.A. Live on January 28, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 28: Rapper Snoop Dogg performs at the 2017 NHL All-Star Saturday Night Party at the Event Deck L.A. Live on January 28, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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Snoop Dogg is back to show us that he’s the world’s biggest hockey fan, this time with a series of videos explaining…how hockey works?

The NHL is at a strange crossroads. For a couple months each year, during the Stanley Cup playoffs, it reaches out and touches mainstream sports fandom, picking up some extra lookie-loos who don’t watch through the regular season but are here for the playoffs.

The league clearly wants to be more mainstream, but it doesn’t quite know how to get there. It’s not sure how many of its viewers through April, May and June are die-hard fans versus casual, postseason fans — Cup-chasers, we’ll call them.

Case in point, these bizarre “Hockey 101” videos the league has been putting out in collaboration with Snoop Dogg, a lifelong and passionate (yet remarkably inconsistent) hockey fan, to explain common hockey slang terms to viewers.

Snoop, the “The Professor of Puck,” (aka “Dogg Cherry”…okay, that’s kind of funny) sat down at the start of the playoffs to tell us about the history of the Stanley Cup — which is probably, arguably the most famous trophy in sports.

Today, Snoop returned to explain hockey terms that we may not know…like “apple,” and “celly.”

Wait. Who doesn’t know what a “celly” is?

Who exactly is this video for? Is there a large subset of Snoop Dogg fans the league is hoping to turn into hockey fans? Does the NHL not realize how blatantly transparent this whole thing feels?

Okay, so we’ll agree with Snoop on one thing: five-hole does sound dirty.

But come on, NHL. Die-hard fans who have grown up watching or playing are rolling their eyes at videos like this, and I have to imagine that burgeoning fans have already Googled these terms themselves.

We love hockey here at FanSided, and, even more, we love celebrating fandoms. It’s awesome that Snoop is such a die-hard hockey fan. But the league should give fans new and old the benefit of the doubt, and try to teach them something they don’t already know.

For more from the NHL playoffs, make sure to follow FanSided and stay tuned to our NHL hub for all the latest news and results.

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