You're not a Pens fan. No one who is a fan would not know the playoffs started. As I pointed out earlier FSN certainly wouldn't have the stance that hockey is dead since they are getting near 20 shares in some markets. As for ESPN and SI, they've ignored hockey for years so I can see how someone who would depend on them for their information would be very ill informed.

Ehh guessing you dont watch ESPN...The NHL is also terrible at marketing...signing with Vesus...were they on drugs?

And yes I am a Pens fan...Just because I dont watch much anymore doesnt mean anything. Growing up it was Penguins nonstop hell I even recorded the playoffs just so I could watch over and over. The last couple of years Ive lost interest. Anyways good bye.

Penguins Set Records For TV Ratings, Sellouts

Wednesday, 04.14.2010 / 1:22 PM / News The Pittsburgh Penguins set a new team record for television ratings with an 8.17 rating on FSN Pittsburgh in 2009-10 – a 17 percent increase over last season’s record rating of 6.98.

Not quite the 18.9 you claim but not bad. Lets not forget they are the defending champs though. I'm sure there are a few other US tems that draw good but lets be honest with ourselves hockey in some markets in the US is bad for the NHL. Florida, Arizona, Atlanta to name a few are you kidding me. I live near Tampa the Lightning draw a .8. When the won the cup the next year they drew a 1.3.  Pittsburg like Detroit and a few others are bad examples. They are the exception not the norm. Most of the US could give a damn about the NHL. If they did they would have a better tv deal, the playoffs are on Versus and on weekends only NBC,  while the NBA is on ESPN, ABC, AND TNT.

If you like hockey watch, it's all good, just don't tell me the NHL is huge in the US it's not.

My apologies. I should have been more specific. The numbers I referred to were the most recent ratings put out that covered the first round of the playoffs for Fox Sports Pittsburgh which is the exclusive carrier for the games in the Pittsburgh region. And, yes, the ratings did average 18.9.

http://penguins.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=527719

Look there's no doubt that there are markets in the US where hockey is not big at all. And I use the Pittsburgh market because it's the one I know the most about as an example. I never said hockey will be successful in every market. It will fail in markets just like MLB and NBA teams have and still are. And over all it's not huge in the US but I wasn't claiming that it was huge. I was disputing your claims that it was dead. It is not. It's actually growing in the US. More US players are making their way to the NHL and more US kids are playing the sport then ever before. The US won the World Junior Championship and the Under 18 championship this year. That's the best sign of a sport growing. All the kids that play the sport now will grow up as NHL fans and they'll teach their kids and so on.

It's not fair to write off the markets that they're doing well in as a fluke or and exception to the rule. Florida isn't exactly the greatest sports market in the world to begin with. There was no way two NHL teams should have been put in the state. But it's not like either MLB team does well either. The only thing really seems to matter to the people of Florida is football and, more specific, college football. Even the NFL is not immune to problems in Florida as the Jaguars are barely keeping their head above water. However I can point to some non-traditional hockey markets that have NHL teams that are doing pretty well. Teams like Carolina and San Jose, Anaheim and St. Louis. Not exactly original six markets but they're doing well.

Again this isn't a claim that the NHL is going to supplant NFL as the top dog at any point but there's a big area between being huge and being dead.

I am hoping Vancouver

I want a piece of Shark Sushi tonight and watch the Wing take it all the way

Gotta be the Hawks.