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Originally Posted by A-Rod's Cousin
Agree with Zimmer. Hockey was so good in the '90s. Especially the last half of the decade. Just about every playoff game was on ESPN in primetime and you had the elite Gary Thorne and ... can't remember the other guy's name covering it. The sport was so hot back then especially with all the Avalanche/Wings drama.
Then Gary Bettman did that thing he does where he ****s over the best interest of the NHL and somehow got ESPN to drop them entirely. Unbelievable.
You don't know what the issues were. ESPN was offering no cash in order to show hockey - poker was crushing hockey ratings-wise. ESPN also got basketball in the meantime - I think people forget that ESPN didn't have that for a long time. The NHL would've been shunted aside to ESPN2 and worse. The lockout was its own separate thing but the Avalanche/Wings drama was driven in part by escalating free agent salaries that were unsustainable.
Right now everything past the first round is on either NBCSN, CNBC, or NHL Network which is a decent arrangement.