Link.

Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup got a 5.4 rating and Game 7 of the 2003 Stanley got a 5.7.

Form my experience, the NHL now gets more attention for its lack of attention than for anything going on icewise. See last week’s SI, which spent more words lamenting the TV ratings then actually hyping the Finals. Such is the price for skipping a season. It’s turned the NHL into Elizabeth Taylor. All anyone can say is how hot she *used* to be and how far she’s fallen. She and the Stanley Cup will still get screen time, but it’s more for their history than their present.

That continues today. NHL fans might complain about OLN, but there’s a reason ESPN dropped the league. Saturday’s World Cup coverage got 5 times as many viewers as any NHL playoff game — and even that is understated, as the WC viewership only reflects ABC coverage, and does not Univision’s viewers. When you get whipped by soccer here in the US, it is time to re-think your viability as a major sport.

More seriously, I don’t think this is an unreasonable question to ask. But I think there’s a certain inherent conservativeness to this sort of thing. The sports world changes relatively slowly, and it’s really unsettling to see the hierarchy messed with. Even though I don’t want to watch hockey (or football or baseball, for that matter), I’d just have trouble taking seriously a sports news show in North America that didn’t put it in with the big ones.

I think you have to look at multiyear ratings trends, not just this year’s ratings. If ratings stay low, that’s as good a sign as you can get that casual sports fans don’t care enough to show news at the top of Sportscenter. But we don’t have good evidence on multiyear ratings trends right now, because the lockout messes things up.

By the way, what are the ratings like in Canada? The finals (and most of the playoffs, I think), have been on CBC up here–so that removes the influence OLN has on ratings. (Even though some games have been on NBC, the fact that a lot of hockey hasn’t been easily watchable will have an influence even on NBC’s games. And game 7, at least, wasn’t on Seattle’s NBC–even though there were “Stanley Cup on NBC” ads on the boards.) Of course, hockey is much bigger in Canada than down there, but we do have non-hockey fans here (hi!), so you could look and see if there’s been a dropoff in Canadian ratings this year compared with previous years.

I understand some of those arguments, but as for leading SportsCenter, why the hell not? It’s a championship, and even if it’s not “Big Four” anymore, it’s certainly top six or so. In-house attendance numbers this year have shown that there’s interest there, just for whatever reason not on TV. Also, the Cup has been given out for over 100 years, this is just the 14th (or was it 15th?) Game 7 in the Final. It’s an event, and one worth covering. Given the rest of the sports schedule Monday night, what else would you lead with? Maybe if that kid had finished the no-no for SF, but that’s about it.

And to back up Fightclub’s point again, using the deciding game in a damn fine series to try to make a point that the NHL still sucks is weak. I never watch PTI, Around the Horn, or even really listen to much sports radio anymore. Everything got turned into “Yeah, that was nice, but the sport’s still not worth your time.” Dan Patrick and Olbermann (who I think I finally realized I want to kick in the balls with a steel boot) used the time to talk about prick owners moving teams. It gets old listening to people who are paid to watch/talk sports spend all their energy bashing sports that they don’t deem as worthy. Kevyn Adams finished the last 2 1/2 periods of Game 7 with a broken wrist and it gets glossed over, yet TO catches three TD’s in a 14 point loss, and we see highlights until the Bermans come home. Surprisingly, Jim Rome is about the only one that did it right today.

Bah. I’m gonna end this rant and go watch Brindy dance with the Cup some more…

doubleginntonic: I did not trash hockey. Not once did I make fun, or criticize the sport, or criticize anyone for liking it. Just asked the question of whether or not it deserves the lead spot on SportsCenter. And I could not care less if you ever try watching soccer.

Biff: I think that point is perfectly valid… as I said in the original post, the TV ratings might not be the end-all, be-all, but… I don’t know what other way there is to judge fan interest.

And again… I just asked the question. I did not demand that ESPN remove all mentions of the NHL. If you think a 1.2 rating in Game 6 (which was on NBC, which everyone has) indicates that the question is unfair and ridiculous… then hey, that’s what you believe. Hockey fans are the most sensitive group of fans out there.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing and it’s not a slight on hockey on the NHL. There’s more to life than being popular.

Having said that, the NHL simply isn’t very popular anymore. There’s plenty of rabid fans left, but not that many of them.

And I’ve read time and again how “the NHL’s going through a bad spot, it’ll rebound like the NBA did”, but I don’t think that’s true. Hockey will become a “specific interest” kind of sport. Except in Canada. People really do go ape about hockey in Canada.

And really, to trash hockey and then try and tell people to ‘give soccer a fair chance’ is almost comical. Try and imagine what the World Cup ratings would be if OLN had picked up soccer this year. I’m willing to bet they’d be comparable to the NHL playoffs.