Rediculous article.  I love how these clowns act like the NHL pulled great ratings in the past. 

..and how many times do we have to hear about it? 

Newsflash - the NHL has never pulled great TV ratings and probably never will.  Get over it.

Its also funny how they convienently left off the fact that the NHL missed an entire year of hockey.  Do people really expect the ratings to *improve* after a year off.  Puhlease.

The NHL on TV is their greatest challenge.  One that will take time and probably new technology to really transmit the arena feel of the game to the television set.

To that guy who is busy rubbin Shaques shiney head - the NHL rebounded from a year off, do you really think your rehashed unorginal article about bad TV ratings is gonna cause any more damage?  Give it a rest.

Posted by anonymous on 05/10/06 at 07:47 AM ET

One of the most one sided, idiotic articles I’ve ever seen. 

Notice how he just goes back to ratings over and over again.  Let’s get things straight.  OLN is simply not ESPN in the number of homes it reaches, thus numbers are going to be down.  Also, without ESPN’s constant playoff telecasts, there is less awareness of playoff hockey in general - thus lower NBC ratings.

But again, this guy completely neglects strong attendance and the above expected 2 billion in revenue.  But I guess this no name from an unheralded newspaper and town is trying his best to offend all “12” of us…. *insert rolls eyes smiley*

Posted by Guy Legend on 05/10/06 at 09:42 AM ET

Let’s face it: Hockey Is Dead. Not just NHL. It’s a reality. Would it be a reality show, it would drew more audience. But if you a real hockey fan call 1-800-555-5555 for Eritrea vacation guide. You will enjoy 2006 IIHF World Championship from Latvia on one of Eritrea’s 3 TV channels.

http://live82.ihwc.net/english/article/news/index.ihwc?&artId=2209

Posted by Pete on 05/10/06 at 09:43 AM ET

Couldn’t let that clown show off on that column, here’s what I e-mailed him. Maybe we should all tell him he’s full of it

As a hockey fan, I really don’t take offense at your article because it has been written hundreds of times over the years by general sports columnists who, lacking for an original idea, dust off the “Let’s rip hockey” column on a slow day. In many respects, the idea is the same as the “Rip the city ‘our’ team is playing in the playoffs” column, which I’m sure you are familiar with.

But to be fair—and aren’t journalists supposed to be fair?—TV ratings for just about every sport are down. And you didn’t look at attendance for both the regular season and playoffs, which have both set records this season. It seems those 11 other hockey fans besides myself, spoke with out wallets this season about the new product the NHL put on the ice after a year-long work stoppage. You might have spent a couple minutes investigating the “other” side of the story since that is supposed to be part of the journalist’s job. Sure, it would have made it more difficult to crank out your work than in 10 breezy minutes, but that is often the problem with sports columnist in general—never let the other side of the story get in the way.

And you might want to check with NHL.com and some of the other hockey web sites. They have experienced incredible growth this season because we few, we proud, we hockey fans, have tired of the lack of intelligent coverage that the mainstream media provides.

Evidently hockey fans have moved on from the mainstream media. Of course looking at circulation figures for newspapers, you can make the case they are falling in lockstep with failing TV ratings. You may say hockey is dead, but here’s a scoop for you, print is about 10 minutes behind.

Posted by Bruha on 05/10/06 at 10:15 AM ET

He’s pissed because he has to cover Darko for a few more years.  Now there is a sport everyone cares about!

Posted by Buzzy on 05/10/06 at 10:23 AM ET

Yippee, another “hockey is useless, no one is watching, no one cares about it except for 12 people” article.  Do sports reporters have a file full of stock articles for when they have no original ideas?  About the only things they write about are “hockey is dead” or “horrors, hockey is so violent.”  Get some new material, you lazy bums!

Posted by Baroque on 05/10/06 at 10:30 AM ET

excellent retort Bruha!

Posted by LetsGoIsles on 05/10/06 at 12:17 PM ET