Islanders: Eastern Division Sponsored By MassMutual

COLUMBUS, OH - JANUARY 24: A general view of the NHL logo prior to the 2015 Honda NHL All-Star Skills Competition at the Nationwide Arena on January 24, 2015 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
COLUMBUS, OH - JANUARY 24: A general view of the NHL logo prior to the 2015 Honda NHL All-Star Skills Competition at the Nationwide Arena on January 24, 2015 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

The Islanders will be playing in the Eastern Division which is sponsored by MassMutual. Is it a big deal that the NHL sold out?

The NHL needs help. They lost a ton of money in 2020 due to the pandemic, and are looking for ways to make up for it during the 2021 season. One of the things they will do is have each team, including the Islanders, wear a sponsor on their helmet.

That seemed to rub some people the wrong way but then, the NHL did something else that also created a mild outrage. They sold corporate sponsors for each of their four divisions. The East Divison, the one the Islanders are in, will be sponsored by MassMutual.

Here’s a look at what the other three divisions will be sponsored by:

I want to say this loud and clear, I could not care less if the NHL is using a sponsorship for the divisions this year. The NHL is a sport that survives on fans in attendance and with the inability to do that since March, they had to get creative.

If you’re going to complain about the NHL salary cap not going up this year and potentially next year as well, then you better not be saying anything about these advertisements.

That’s life in 2021, monetizing anyway you can. Sponsor periods, sponsor penalties, whatever the league has to do to get back to normal just do it. Everyone knows what the divisions are, and nobody is going to call them by their sponsors anyway.

It’s really difficult for me to wrap my head around the “issue” with this. If you want hockey to return, then shouldn’t you want the league to do whatever they deem appropriate to get the revenue back?

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This is a temporary fix to a temporary problem. Let’s hold off the outrage for something that actually matters.

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