Striking out on TV

Hockey Digest, Sept-Oct, 2004 by Chris Dolack

WAS THIS SEASON'S STANLEY Cup Finals the best in history? No, but Game 7 will rank with some of the greatest games in NHL archives.

Will that Game 7 be enough to save the league by bringing the players and owners together to work out a new Collective Bargaining Agreement? Probably not. There still is plenty of animosity between the two sides that must be resolved before the existing CBA expires September 15. If not, hockey fans will have to look hard to find their favorite players skating in the new World Hockey Association or in a European league.

And judging by the ratings from the Finals this season, fans aren't looking too hard to find hockey anywhere, which was the most unfortunate aspect to the seven-game series to decide the Stanley Cup champion. According to Nielsen Media Research, ratings for Game 7 were down 9% from Game 7 of the 2003 Finals. In fact, Game 1 was tied for the lowest-rated Finals game on ESPN since 1990. No wonder the NHL had to beg NBC to broadcast the games beginning with the 2004-05 season.

Tampa isn't exactly a hotbed for hockey, and Calgary, to many Americans, is just some place north of the border. That's a shame. Many in the United States missed a tremendous hockey exposition between two clubs that played as teams. Crisp passes. Eye-popping moves. Awe-inspiring skills. What was most exciting was seeing hockey where neither team relied on clutch-and-grab tactics that put fans to sleep.

Unfortunately, it seems as if viewers are turned off by team play. Everybody needs a superstar in today's sports landscape--and that goes against what makes hockey a great sport. To be successful on the ice, even superstar players need some help. Wayne Gretzky had Mark Messier. Mario Lemieux had Jaromir Jagr. Tampa Bay won the series because it embraced that theory. The Lightning never had a chance until Martin St. Louis and Vinny Lecavalier and Brad Richards and Dave Andreychuk and Pavel Kubina and even Nikolai Khabibulin started to play as a team.

By sticking together, the Lightning simply outlasted the Flames. They came in too many waves. They kept pushing and attacking. Defensemen quickly moved the puck to forwards and the pressure mounted. Only the dominating presence of Flames captain Jarome Iginla and the wall-like effort of goalie Miikka Kiprusoff kept Calgary in every game.

Hopefully, teams with large followings in major markets were paying attention to Tampa Bay's style of play. If the NHL wants long-lost fans to return to the game, that's a good place to drop the puck.