We’re in the middle of the first NHL Playoffs since 2004 and there seems to be a common theme. No it’s not Ilja Bryzgalov shut-outs (although those seem to be happening quite often), it’s NHL bashing.
It’s no surprise that the NHL is not as popular as the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, or NCAA Football and Basketball for that matter – but it gets treated by major media like it is a joke of a sport. Shows like Around the Horn on ESPN constantly make fun of anyone who actually watches hockey. They don’t pick on NASCAR, they don’t pick on soccer, and they don’t pick on tennis or golf. They pick on hockey.
Earlier this week, Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel wrote an article entitled Hockey: The cold, hard, truth in which he claims that no one wants to read about hockey, and pleads sports sections and media outlets to stop covering it. He cites low NHL ratings as the reason to stop covering it, and claims that sports editors are from an era when hockey still mattered. He states that the WNBA and Major League Soccer are in the same category as the NHL.
That’s funny, last time I checked, the NHL drew...