The first round of the 2014 National Hockey League playoffs is underway this week and several teams from huge cities are competing to bring the Stanley Cup to their home base. The NHL has never been as popular as other playoffs in regards to market share on television.
MLB, NBA and of course the NFL all bring mass viewership to their games. This year’s NHL playoffs can hopefully change this. These playoffs already have brought an increase of hits, shots, and possibly the best stat: fights. Team’s from huge cities are beattling this year: Tampa, St. Louis, Dallas, Boston, LA, New York, and more. But these towns are all known to be large sports towns.
Every single on of these games has been sold out according to NHL.com, and the games have been incredible close. Aside from 3 games, so far every playoff game in the last two weeks has been decided by 1-2 goals. The viewership has noticed. Not only are the games on several other public channels this year making for an ease in tuning in, but also these cities previously mentioned have enormous television deals.
My hope is that hockey becomes one of America’s household names for sports this year. Hockey has always been the little brother to these other sports and for no reason. The sport has a history larger than either of these sports. Of course the sport is not as large in some places where ice isn’t present. But teams from these areas like LA and Tampa in the playoffs will soon change the opinions of these residents.