How big was the Olympic men’s hockey final? 80% of Canadians watched. And it drew more viewers than last year’s World Series in the US. But is it enough to save pro hockey?
The total number of teams had gone from 21 to 30 in a matter of nine years. It was too much for a purist to take. In 2004, I stopped being an NHL fan, straining but failing to follow the Blues—which had been a gigantic part of my life for a long, long time—until I painfully accepted that there was less room in my heart for hockey and flew from the sport like the doomed iridescent tail of a FoxTrax puck.