NHL and the Media

The NHL like any other major sports league has its media coverage. The NBA, NFL, and all the college conferences get covered on ESPN, but not the NHL. There was a time where ESPN did commentate over NHL games, but that ended after the 2005 Lockout. The main reason why NHL isn't as covered as all the other leagues listed above is that they either don't care or nothing interesting has happened. However, even though not covered much, the community of hockey analysts usually have good relationships with the players and/or the team. Their reports are usually up to date and they always update their Twitter feeds in case of an injury, trade, rumors, etc. These sources are usually very reliable, but there are better. The best sources of information is the fans themselves. The most passionate NHL fan will know pretty much everything that is going on around the league. Unlike the NBA and the NFL, the NHL gives chances to smaller market teams like the Florida Panthers for example. A great example of hockey growing is California. Before the Kings won the Cup in 2012, the LA area was not really considered a hockey town. When the Kings went that magical run to the Cup, all eyes were on the Staples Center for every game. Now there have been 2 Stanley Cup Finals played in California along with 2 outdoor games in the past 2 years alone. Hockey back then was pretty much not known to the world before the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Finals. During the regular season, NBC would show its game of the week on Sundays and VS(now NBC Sports Network) would play games every once in a while. Now the NBC Sports Network has a game every Wednesday called Wednesday Night Rivalry, where two rivals would battle it out in prime time. This has caused people that are not really into hockey, to liking because of the hatred towards each other and the way they try their hardest to win the game. Another thing the NHL has done is bring the game outdoors to a game(s) called the NHL Winter Classic or the NHL Stadium Series. The two series are pretty much the same, but the Winter Classic is always more hyped for because it is pretty much the game of the year. Two teams go play an NHL regular season game under the bright lights of a football field or a ballpark. These games are loved by the players(especially) and fans alike because as a kid, a frozen lake or frozen pond is where you got your first stick and skates and tried them for a test run. Hockey is slowly growing for the US and I hope it comes to a point where it is covered on ESPN regularly and has just as much fans as they do in Canada (the birth place of hockey).