Sunday's U.S.-Canada men's ice hockey game earned a 4.9
rating/14 share, "making it the highest-rated network
broadcast of a game involving NHL players in two decades,"
according to a DETROIT NEWS report. For comparison, Fox's
highest rating in four years of NHL coverage was a 4.1 for
the '96 All-Star Game (DETROIT NEWS, 2/17). In
Philadelphia, Les Bowen reports that the first hour of the
broadcast from 11:35pm ET to 12:35am ET earned a 6.2 rating.
NHL VP/Communications Arthur Pincus: "We feel it's been good
exposure for the players" (DAILY NEWS, 2/17). Asked if the
NHL would participate in the 2002 Games, NHL Commissioner
Gary Bettman: "We need to look at how this tournament
ultimately unfolds, how well the season picks up after this"
(SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 2/14). The KYODO NEWS' David Chung
reported visitors from Japan and abroad "are snapping up"
NHL souvenirs and other items at the NHL Japan Store in
Nagano. Canadian team jerseys, especially those of Wayne
Gretzky, are reportedly popular (KYODO NEWS, 2/15).
BOOST OR BOONDOGGLE? In N.Y., Frederick Klein likens
the Olympic action to NHL games: "What's emerging is the
game as it's meant to be played" (WALL STREET JOURNAL,
2/17). In Denver, Bob Kravitz wrote the Olympics will "not
boost the NHL: it will expose it for being the kind of
boring, unwatchable league it has become." The NHL "bears
no relation to the fast, inspired, beautiful sport" played
in Nagano (DENVER POST, 2/14). In DC, Michael Wilbon: "If
the general hockey public is lucky, this style of play will
supplant the increasingly boring game they're playing in the
NHL." NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman: "It bothers me, the
perception that (the NHL game) is boring. Is our game at
its best? The answer is, no. ... Yes, the flow of the game
has to be better. ... But it's a matter of fine-tuning, not
a radical overhaul" (WASHINGTON POST, 2/15). In
Philadelphia, Rich Hoffman wrote that the league will
experience "no benefit" from Nagano with CBS's late coverage
of the games (DAILY NEWS, 2/16). Pilson Communications
President Neil Pilson: "They could be helped a little by the
Olympics, but hockey is still a mystery to a substantial
number of viewers" (Ft. Lauderdale SUN-SENTINEL, 2/16).
U.S. BLUES: In Philadelphia, Lynn Zinser reports that
Team USA "playing its way out of a gold medal game with
Canada is a big blow to the Dream Tournament." The ratings
"will suffer and the giant boost hockey was expecting from
this will, too" (PHILA. DAILY NEWS, 2/17). In N.Y., Andy
Geller writes that U.S. players "are in danger of Olympic
disgrace." Elimination from medal contention "would be a
big black eye for the hockey dream team" (N.Y. POST, 2/17).
WATCHFUL EYE: MLBPA Exec Dir Don Fehr, on MLB
participating in Olympic baseball: "If hockey works out and
we have a favorable result in Sydney, we could make a
legitimate effort to put major leaguers in Athens [at the
2004 Games.]" MLB COO Paul Beeston, on the logistics of
such an endeavor: "You'd have to reduce the schedule. That
would have to be debated" (Murray Chass, N.Y. TIMES, 2/15).
WOMEN'S GOLD: The U.S. women's ice hockey team beat
Canada 3-1 to win the gold medal. In DC, Rachel Alexander
writes that women's hockey was one of Games' "hippest and
most appealing sports, with tickets for the final almost
impossible to get." But after Nagano, the sport "will
disappear until" the Salt Lake Games because it "is not
professionally viable" (WASH. POST, 2/17). The CHRISTIAN
SCIENCE MONITOR examines women's hockey under the header
"Olympics Score Goals For Women's Ice Hockey" (CSM, 2/17).
