A few stations into channel surfing last night, I found Game Five of the Stanley Cup Finals on NBC. Already in double-overtime, the Detroit Red Wings needed a goal to close out the series over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Understand that whenever I turn on the TV or get on the Internet, ESPN is my first stop, followed by any other game that’s on. Usually I’m an equal-opportunity viewer of sports – I watched Beckham’s first game in L.A. last year despite not being a huge fan of the game, caught Big Brown’s win in the Kentucky Derby and have sat through too many late Mariners losses to remember.
But for some reason, I couldn’t watch what turned out to be a triple-overtime win by Pittsburgh for more than five minutes before changing the channel.
What is it about hockey that turns people off – assuming they ever tuned in?
Unlike that of basketball, football and baseball, its appeal is regional. Few areas outside of Canada, the Midwest or the Northeast share the same type of enthusiasm for the game. Compare that to an NBA franchise, which is as much a sure thing in Toronto as it is in Los Angeles.
Sure, there might be teams in the Sun Belt, such as Tampa Bay, Miami, Phoenix and Los Angeles, but given the choice between their city’s baseball team or hockey, I say they choose baseball nine times out of 10 – which is funny because baseball, on TV, is no less boring.
The good news is that some are watching. Monday’s game was the highest rated Stanley Cup Game Five since 2002, 79 percent higher than last year.
Doesn’t a sport that combines a sprinter’s breakaway speed and the hits of football seem like a surefire ratings boon on TV? It would seem so. But somewhere between the live game and your set, its intensity gets lost in the bandwidth somewhere, leaving you trying to find a small puck on a big sheet of ice populated with 12 padded and helmeted men.
For those wanting to give hockey a second chance on TV, they have to find it first. In fact, watching a Ducks game at the fairgrounds is probably easier than finding any hockey game on cable, where it’s buried on Versus, the same channel that brings you bull riding, mixed martial arts and all the hunting and fishing coverage you can sit through.
Based solely on what I’ve seen from the Oregon club hockey team, the game changes entirely when watched in person. I’ve never been to an NHL game, but the Lane County Ice Arena allows fans to sit almost anywhere they want, getting closer to the speed and physicality of the game than anywhere professionally.
Take my advice. Don’t try to become a believer overnight by watching tonight’s game. Instead, wait on it through the summer, and next fall, catch a Ducks home game. Unless you’re a hockey purist, the only way you’re watching hockey on TV is if you lose your remote.
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