NHL, once again, proves why it is NOT a major league...

Another week, another shitting of the bed by the National Hockey League.

Dateline:  Tampa.  The NHL forced Tampa Bay to cancel last night's viewing party for Game 7 in Pittsburgh (which Tampa lost 2-1 -- Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals is in Pittsburgh when they face San Jose Saturday night).  A similar party for Game 5 was held, and drew 8,000 fans to a similar event last year.

The Lightning Twitter account seemed to indicate it was quite well attended.

Get loud, #Bolts fans. Let's get back in this. #PITvsTBL pic.twitter.com/lNJXJfN5YC

— #GoBolts (@TBLightning) May 23, 2016

The NHL told Tampa that they could only hold one event per series.  The NHL threatened to fine the Lightning (and it probably would've been a significant enough amount to get them to stop.

The NHL... is full of shit, according to the Deadspin report on the matter.

The NBC networks, all SIX OF THEM, are testing out their Olympic formula by doing two things:

1) By making sure every playoff game is somewhere on national cable, the NHL cannot create a playoff package like it's more-than-acceptable NHL GameCenter to actually grow the sport and have people who have cut the cord actually *gasp!* pay to watch the games!!!  (Much like their Olympic coverage, which now requires a cable subscription to get ANY live feeds.)

2) Hopscotching people all over the place to watch games, including their new NBC Sports Network, on which last night's game was aired.

And, you know what?  They're getting the middle finger, and so is the NHL!

The ratings for the conference finals are getting annihilated, according to Sports Media Watch.

And is it any wonder this is happening, and several reasons can be given:

• Obviously, Football Nation America.
• The aforementioned lack of a US package.  (Canadian fans can still use their analogue of GameCenter through Rogers Cable.)
• Here's a comparison:  Even though the two packages are offered by the same Internet media company:  If a Major League Baseball game is blacked out for one reason or another, it is available on the Internet package 90 minutes after the game ends.  NHL?  FORTY-EIGHT HOURS!
• Gary Bettman being Gary Bettman in general -- in talking with this with a friend, my friend posited that Bettman's prior ties to the NBA might indicate that the NHL Commissioner is trying to kill his league.  There's little to indicate (with strikingly-few franchises in actual hockey botbeds) that my friend is patently wrong.

And there are many others.  But, once again, the NHL shows why it, at best, is the #5 professional sport in the United States right now (and that's only because soccer hasn't caught on with the English-speaking country sans Flag Waving Time and Tiger Woods is not playing in the PGA right now).

Edit to add:  In comparison, the first of three needed season-saving wins for the Warriors last night got the highest overnight NBA ratings since 2002, tied with several other games -- the last series to actually get higher ratings...

The Greatest Tragedy in Sports...  The destruction of the Sacramento Kings by David $tern and the Lakers.