Max Kellerman became relevant in the hockey world this week, words I never thought I’d say. Kellerman was recently on with Stephen A. Smith and he pretty much gutted hockey’s popularity in the US.

Kellerman stated that no one really cares about hockey in the US, and that the old joke (one that I’ve never heard) is that every town has 20,000 hockey fans and they all have season tickets. That’s why hockey doesn’t do well in the TV ratings.

Here’s the thing though: He’s right. Hockey is not a Big Four sport in this country anymore. It used to be. Hockey peaked in 1994 when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup. It was a great Cup Final. It had a big market team ending a curse. It was a fast paced series. It had everything.

The owners killed half of the 1994-1995 season, losing all momentum following the huge Rangers win. The game then suffered immensely by effectively allowing clutch and grab hockey to take a *clears throat* hold on the game *pause for laughs.* The Detroit/Colorado rivalry was great for the game in that stretch, but that again peaked with Ray Bourque winning the Cup. There was nothing exciting about those Devils teams that won three Cups. They were great teams, but exciting isn’t the word I’d use to describe them. Hockey certainly had great moments, but the overall product was boring.

The on-ice product led to ESPN shifting them to ESPN2 due to lack of ratings. Then the glow puck fiasco happened. More and more clutch and grab led to more goons on the ice instead of players with actual talent. Speed and skill went to the wayside for fighting and cheap shots. The NHL lost significant revenue, and increasing player costs created an imbalance.

Then came the lost season. Then came leaving ESPN for the Outdoor Life Network, which eventually became Versus, then finally settled on NBC Sports. What a ride that was. No one could find OLN or Versus on their cable channels except for actual hockey fans. No one would channel surf, see hockey, and take a pause. Did anyone even get to channel 247? It’s not even that, quite honestly, it’s that ESPN stopped showing actual game highlights on Sportscenter.

Even today, NBC only airs one NHL game before the Winter Classic, and that’s the Black Friday game with the Rangers. That’s what “kicks off” the national broadcast. One game, seven weeks into the season, and then no more games until five weeks later. How is that a viable route to growing the game?

Since the peak in 1994, the NHL has seen three lockouts that amount to two full lost seasons, TV ratings tank, gone from ESPN, to the Outdoor Life Network, and an exclusive deal with NBC that really doesn’t even start airing games until the second half of the season. If you were wondering why no one cares about hockey, this is it.

The league effectively lost an entire generation of hockey fans. In that time, football took over Sundays from Jesus, baseball and basketball each had great storylines that continued their fan growth, golf and Nascar got more popular, and college football took over Saturdays from whoever owned Saturdays prior.

Hockey is a niche sport. It will continue to be a niche sport for some time. That’s just the truth of it all. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I agree with Max Kellerman.

Update: Since there were some comments about revenue, hockey is still the fourth highest American sport in revenue (MLB, NBA, NFL) with revenue close to $5 billion. They are 7th worldwide (La Liga, Premier League).

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