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For the U.S. market, the appearance of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup final is about as good as it gets.
“The hockey gods are smiling so wide we can count their missing teeth,” was the way NBC play-by-play announcer Mike Emrick described his reaction to the series in a telephone conference call this week.
But neither the appeal of Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby nor the attraction of Detroit, the best team in the NHL's regular season, was enough to excite many U.S. newspapers.
Outside Pittsburgh and Detroit, only eight American dailies will staff the series from start to finish.
Representation by Canadian newspapers will be just as slim. Outside Toronto, the Vancouver Sun and Vancouver Province are the only major dailies sending reporters to the final, which will start tomorrow night.
That's a big change from 20 years ago, when almost every major paper in an NHL city covered the event.
What happened?
In the United States, interest in the NHL plummeted to a historical low after the lockout season of 2004-05.
But the meagre presentation is attributable more to the economic woes of the newspaper industry than to the marginalization of hockey, reporters and editors say.
Based on television ratings and online traffic, U.S. interest in the NHL actually spiked this season. And it increased even more when the Wings eliminated the Dallas Stars to set up a showdown with Pittsburgh.
Two leading dailies, The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, reversed earlier decisions not to cover the final, because the editors were intrigued by the Penguins-Wings matchup.
“If hockey is to make a comeback and again take its place among the top four or five sports in our circulation area, it will be through series like this between two very interesting teams with dynamic, young players,” Los Angeles Times sports editor Randy Harvey said in an e-mail message.
The other newspapers staffing the final are The Boston Globe, New York Post, The Denver Post, Denver's Rocky Mountain News, USA Today and The Columbus Dispatch, which is a three-hour drive from Detroit and Pittsburgh.
The New York Daily News and The Washington Times will pick up the series after the first two games in Detroit. The Buffalo News will have a reporter at the games, except those on Saturdays, when deadlines are early.
The no-shows include The Washington Post and Newsday, the large, suburban Long Island daily, but the biggest surprise is the decision by the two Philadelphia dailies, the Inquirer and Daily News, not to attend. After all, the Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers are state rivals, and Pittsburgh is a four-hour drive away.
Inquirer sports editor Jim Cohen said the decision was based entirely on the “late starting times” of the games. Every game in the final will begin at 8 p.m. EDT. The Inquirer is also hurting financially. One source described cutbacks at the paper as “horrific.” The newspaper isn't expected to cover the NBA final, either.
At the Minneapolis Star Tribune, beat writer Mike Russo will miss his first final in 10 years.
“I think it's just an industry problem,” he said. “I don't think it has anything to do with hockey.”
Newspaper circulation is decreasing. Revenue, too. Budgets continue to be squeezed. The money that's still available in the sports department is spent on the home team and perhaps also Super Bowl and World Series coverage.
Chicago Tribune beat writer Chris Kuc said his newspaper scuttled plans this week to cover the Cup final. The Cubs and White Sox are in first place, and they could drain most of the sports department's budget in October.
Still, more U.S. newspapers will attend the final this year than last. The Penguins-Wings series has more star power than last year's small-market matchup of the Anaheim Ducks and Ottawa Senators. And travel is cheaper and easier.
Despite choosing not to staff the series, Newsday sports editor Hank Winnicki believes interest in the NHL in increasing, although he quickly adds, “It couldn't have been much worse than it was a couple of years ago [after the lockout].”
Among Newsday's 32 sports blogs, the Islanders and Rangers blogs rank in the top 10. In April, the Rangers blog led in traffic, with 150,000 views, ahead of both the Yankees and Mets blogs. At The Denver Post, the Avalanche blog outdraws the NBA's Nuggets and ranks second to the NFL's Broncos.
Winnicki said the obvious advantage enjoyed by newspapers in the blogosphere is the expertise of their beat writers and their access to the participants.
“There are a lot of Islander fan blogs,” he said. “But there's only one by the guy who's covering the team and in the locker room. So I think people see the value of that.”
That advantage motivated the Los Angeles Times to send hockey columnist Helene Elliott to the final. In addition to her work, her attendance is seen as a marketing initiative that reminds the Times reader that its expert is at the big event.
