Mark Madden: NBC offered individual brilliance, but NHL broadcasting run failed to generate buzz

It was laughable when NBC took a sentimental bow at the end of its 16-year run as the NHL’s broadcast partner.

It was understandable from the viewpoint of those who toiled for NBC in the production thereof. Eddie Olczyk teared up. He did a great job. He’s also going to Turner Sports.

Pierre McGuire should be mad. He didn’t get signed by either Turner or ESPN, next season’s outlets. That’s inexplicable. McGuire ranks behind few when it comes to representing hockey on TV, and doing it well. Anonymous critics on Twitter have too much influence. (McGuire took an administrative position with the Ottawa Senators instead.)

Individual effort and brilliance duly noted, NBC abjectly failed with the NHL.

The ratings never increased much during NBC’s 16 years and nose-dived to an all-time low this season. Most games were televised on the NBC Sports Network, which will soon cease operations and wasn’t easy to locate in the first place. ESPN and Turner are prominent staples of many more cable packages. You can’t always find NBCSN in a sports bar.

NBC’s ancillary programming was minimal for the NHL. This season, some games got bounced to the USA Network.

NBC often treated hockey like it smelled bad.

ESPN and Turner might not do much better. The NBA will always be No. 1 with Turner. If you blink, you miss the NHL’s presence on SportsCenter. But ESPN and Turner have both assembled good crews.

Wayne Gretzky will be an analyst with Turner. No one has more credibility. But here’s betting Gretzky defines vanilla. Hockey doesn’t have a Charles Barkley.

Hockey increasing its profile and audience is a pipe dream at this point, anyway.

Hockey doesn’t translate well to TV. You can’t see the puck. You can’t sense how fast the game is. The NFL and NBA do everything possible to help their stars be stars. The NHL does everything possible to make sure its stars aren’t stars. It’s about grit and effort, eh?

Don’t confuse close, edgy games with good hockey. This year’s Stanley Cup playoffs were among the worst ever. The final looked like it was contested in sludge. The officials didn’t miss calls. They ignored calls. It was shameful, but so obviously exactly what the NHL wants.

Even as NBC’s TV ratings hit an all-time low.

The only promotional tool that blossomed on NBC’s watch was the concept of the outdoor game. The NHL and NBC ruined that by having way too many outdoor games, and in locales that just shouldn’t have hosted them. The “winter” got taken out of “Winter Classic.”

Consider the game this past Feb. 20 at Lake Tahoe. The marquee matchup between Vegas and Colorado started at 12:12 p.m. local time and had to be suspended after the first period due to bad ice conditions caused by heat and sunlight.

Gee, who would have figured that heat and sunlight might affect an outdoor game that started just a bit after high noon?

The game resumed at 9:02 p.m. and finished at 10:50 p.m. (That’s 1:50 a.m. Eastern time.) It’s not exactly a showcase event if you need a broadcast window of 10 hours. Jerry Lewis hosted shorter telethons.

If the NHL on NBC should be remembered for anything, perhaps it’s that game: Sixteen years just melted away to nothingness.