What ever happened to hockey? Yes, it is still being played here in America, but it is particularly difficult to follow hockey in this geographical region of the country.
Ever since the lockout in 2004, hockey has seemed to have been pushed to the wayside for just about everyone.
Sure, hockey fans in the North, Midwest and West, and of course Canada can still enjoy hockey regularly — but for everyone else it is almost like it has completely disappeared.
It’s gotten to the point where SportsCenter doesn’t even show the highlights. Granted, now that it’s playoff time you can see hockey highlights on ESPN, but you usually won’t see much of them during the regular season unless there is a great game or an incredible goal.
The most frustrating thing might be actually watching the games. If you’re lucky your team might be one of the two teams that gets nationally broadcasted once a week on NBC’s Game of the Week. But if not, well you’re out of luck.
Unless you have Versus of course, but most people don’t have that, (In fact, I am curious to know how many of you reading don’t even know what Versus is, I think I’ll keep those of you wondering).
The NHL TV deal is an absolute joke, until they get more air time on NBC or work it out to be on ESPN, it will forever be a disappointment.
The only time you can regularly watch the NHL is when it is playoff time, finally you can watch a game just about any night of the week.
But why wait until the playoffs? Why not allow your fans to watch more games? And speaking on the NHL playoffs, ever realized how awesome they are?
Just look around, as about every other game will go into overtime and there are a lot of game 7s.
Plus, playoff hockey is brutal; there is a clear difference between the NHL regular season and the NHL playoffs.
The playoffs always bring great excitement, it’s a shame that more people aren’t getting into it.
Well, at least down here in the South. In other parts of the country fans are enjoying hockey more and more each day.
People are actually going to more games and getting familiar with the sport.
Those results just don’t come down here in the South though. And I understand why. Kids don’t grow up playing hockey in the South, it’s either football, baseball, or basketball — kids even play soccer more than hockey.
Sure the weather doesn’t allow for much hockey play, unless there is a local arena of course, but who wants to pay for a membership?
I understand all the reasons why hockey isn’t big in the South, it’s just a shame that hockey fans stuck in the South have to suffer and not get the opportunity to watch it down here.
Maybe one day the NHL will have a better TV deal and can get more national televised games, even in the South. Although you never know, just when it seems like things are going better and we might be getting closer to that time, the Atlanta Thrashers leave town and head for Winnipeg.
We’ll just have to wait and see.
Tyler Rollason is a Winder-Barrow High School graduate and mass communications major at the University of West Georgia. You can e-mail comments about this column to
tyrollason@yahoo.com.
