Why I hate the NHL.

In my opinion the NHL is the most unprofessional sports league in the world. Let’s go back to pre-2004-05 when the NHL was thought of as a respectable member of the big 4 American Sports leagues. There was Hockey Night on ESPN that every kid my age grew up watching. Think about it, having a sport that’s actually on regular cable TV. Seems normal correct? Well that’s where the NHL first screwed up. The owners and players decided they had the freedom to have a year-long labor dispute, basically saying screw the fans, we are going to take as long as we want and when the time is right, we’ll be back. Well ESPN wasn’t on board with that. In their mind, and I would have done the same exact thing, as they decided to abandon the NHL after their TV contract ran up. Every sports league, NFL, MLB and NBA all have games nightly on the network, and to coincide with that, all the highlights are run continuously on SportsCenter for the world to see.

Once the NHL owners and players were able to come to an agreement before the 2005-06 season, they were without a TV deal to showcase their product to a national audience. So apparently to best deal they could get was with OLN. That’s right, the Outdoor Life Network. You know the channel whose main audience was hunters and fisherman. The same channel who’s main attraction was the Tour de France. Another great quality about this network was that roughly 1/3 of homes in the US had access to this channel. Seems like a good deal for a sport who was trying to recover and gain back its respect and popularity. Starting in April of that year, they started showing games on NBC, their first action back in the national spotlight. There was one thing missing though. Every person in America who follows sports tunes in daily to ESPN to watch SportsCenter, but hockey was nowhere to be found. Maybe if Crosby scored a hattie they would show the highlights right before the bowling segment of the show. To be honest, you'd be lucky to see highlights for even 3 games. 

Now let’s jump to the 2011-12 season. Hockey slowly but surely was making progress in the world of sports. OLN who became Versus years earlier had now become NBC Sports Network, there were games a few times a month on Sunday’s on NBC, the Winter Classic has become an event that has produced tons of fanfare throughout the sports world, and the ratings suddenly were becoming comparable to other sports such as the NBA. The sport seemed to be thriving, at least by hockey standards, with stars like Crosby, Ovechkin, Stamkos and Lundqvist. Now what’s the logical move when the CBA is about to expire and your league has finally begun to gain popularity again? Probably figure out some sort of deal to avoid a labor stoppage, kind of like the NFL did last year. Well, this is where Gary Bettman shows us once again how incredibly stupid he is. He and the owners once again decided that a lockout is necessary. They are again taking the risk that the fans will be there once the lockout eventually ends. What if this lockout lasts all year? What kind of loyalty is that to show to the people who have basically forgiven you for what happened in 2004? And there you have it,that’s the reason NHL hockey is a joke. That’s why they don’t get the national spotlight on ESPN or on SportsCenter. And they deserve every single bit of it because their league is run by selfish individuals and it is absolutely ridiculous.  Like my friend EJ always says, if your sport isn't on ESPN, it's not a real sport. The NHL needs to get it together quick because I have a strong feeling, this time the fans may not come back so quickly and forgive them.