FOR YEARS, IT HAS BEEN the same anemic story for a league struggling to find an identity in the national TV market. The loyal local television fan base in a city such as St. Louis or Detroit fails to reach a city with no NHL ties - like Tulsa, where hockey is about as popular as bowling or drag racing. Meanwhile, the NFL, NBA, and MLB thrive with their lucrative national television contracts and are universally popular throughout the nation, regardless of the market. The NFL, considered the gold standard of the professional sports television industry, generates nearly twice as much in television revenue as the NHL does in total revenue.

Shawn Bradley, chief operating officer of the sports marketing firm the Bonham Group, believes part of the problem is that hockey isn't nearly as captivating on the small screen as it is in person. Bradley says the speed of the game entices a live audience but that on television, the game is actually less appealing than the other three sports. With pucks traveling at speeds of up to 100 mph and bouncing all over the rink, the game is difficult to follow within the confines of a living room.

"What can you do about that?" Bradley asks. "You're talking about something that's good for attendance and not so good for television. It's not something that can be changed."

Another part of the problem, according to Neal Pilson, president of the sports marketing firm Pilson Communications, is that hockey fans have little experience playing the sport compared with fans of the other three sports.

"One thing hockey deals with is that a lot of its fans have never played the game, so many of them aren't as knowledgeable [about] the game as, say, a basketball fan," he explains.