Hockey's always been a fallback sport for me. If nothing else is on TV I'll fallback and watch hockey. I've never been a huge fan of the game, which is rooted in the fact I grew up in a lot of different cities. The only city I lived in that had a hockey team was Philadelphia. Even then the game seemed foreign to me, since I didn't know how to ice skate.

I've lived in St. Louis for all my adult life, so the St. Louis Blues have become my hockey team. Through the years my investment with the team has always been rooted in the standings. If the Blues did well, I'd pay attention and watch the games. If they didn't do well, I didn't watch. I have a feeling it's like that for most Americans, which is why I was a little surprised about this hockey season.

After the strike I think many casual fans, such as myself, didn't really come back to hockey. I know I didn't. The fact the St. Louis Blues were the worst team in hockey didn't help, but it was more than that. I'm not alone, as the TV rating for the Stanley Cup have come out.

The Stanley Cup playoff ratings were atrocious . About four million people watched part or all of the game 7 thriller between Carolina and Edmonton, which sounds impressive. It isn't. In 2004 about 1 million more watched the final game on ABC. You lose a million viewers due to the strike. Ouch.

Others in the media have covered this and laid out their opinions. Two pieces that caught my attention were from Michael Kinney and Larry Felser .

Michael's piece cuts to the heart of the matter by speaking the truth: