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Originally Posted by Cannon Shell
Hard to believe that there is a sport that has done a worse job than horseracing in marketing their sport but the NHL has done it. I believe that the strike really hurt them as their relevance became marginalized. And in conjunction with that, ESPN's decision to drop all of their hockey coverage with the exception of Barry Melrose (who is probably under contract and they need him to do something) has taken the NHL out of sight and out of mind of the average sports fan. Remember ESPN is the major power broker in sports now and if horseracing wants to be relevant then we have to remain on the network as much as possible. Because when they drop you, then the sports world in general drops you too.
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The NHL began to "die" in the early 90's for one specific reason: The NEUTRAL ZONE TRAP!! (Damn You Jacques Lemaire!) By the late 90's it became unwatchable. The missed season due to the LOCKOUT showed the fans how little the owners/players cared about them, but considering how awful the product had become, they did us all a favor. The new rules are starting to bring it back, but it will be a long journey, and it will never be what it was. One of the reasons, that has not been addressed, is that the players are so much bigger than they used to be, but the size of the rink has remained the same. There just isn't as much room on the ice as there used to be. In the 70', 80's and early 90's, 6 feet, 200 lbs was considered big. Today this guy is too small!