viewers according to initial ratings. That's the most since 34 million saw the USA beat Finland in the 1980 gold medal game. The USA-Russia game that year was shown on tape delay. Sunday's game had a 33 share, which is astounding! Traditionally, the highest rated events are the men's and women's figure skating competitions, which are always aired in prime time. Not this year - hockey reigned supreme! These are U.S. figures. I'm sure the share numbers for Canada were even higher!
Fans/media always point to the Olympics and say the NHL needs to follow the blueprint. There's no fighting, and there is much more excitement and scoring chances. It is the highest level of skill that anyone of us will witness.
The problem is that you can NOT duplicate this in the NHL. You can get the best players in the world to play on the same team and play all out for a two week period during the Olympics. Now go back to the reality of the NHL and watch two mediocre teams play on a Tuesday night in March, with maybe 1-3 Olympic level players on the ice. The skill level will drop off drastically and you will certainly not have the same intensity and passion that you saw at the Olympics. You can not ask NHL players to live and die with each shift on the ice for all 82 games. 5-6 games during the Olympics? No problem. An 82 game regular NHL season? No way.
Hockey has its hard core fans, but in order to be a successful league, you have to draw in the casual fan. You have to build a sports model where people religiously follow teams (like the NFL) or identify with individual players (like the NBA, i.e. with LeBron, Kobe, Shaq, Wade, etc.). Beyond Crosby and Olvechkin, how many other players draw people to an arena? Carmello Anthony of the Denver Nuggets will get more people to watch a game or get more casual fans into a seat at an NBA game, then Rick Nash will at a Hockey game. Hockey is too regional, there is not enough national support of teams. There are football fans across the country (I am die hard Steeler fan living in New York), but I suspect that there are not too many Colorado Avalanche Fans in New York.
Hockey is a great sport, I just dont think it will ever have that national appeal in the US.
-- Modified on 3/3/2010 8:08:04 AM