It's a quarter of the way into the NHL season.

Do you know where your local hockey team stands?

No?

Well don't feel so bad, apparently you're not alone.

Hockey, unfortunately is on the decline.

Once part of the "big 4" in sports along with the NFL, MLB, and NBA the NHL now finds itself on the outside looking in as NASCAR, for all intents and purposes, has replaced it in the big 4.

The NHL, like so many other companies who find themselves floundering, have for the most part no one to blame but themselves.

The problems?

Numerous.

The answers?

Well I'm not a rabbit and you're not a frog so let's not jump ahead, alright?

Let's take a look at some of the bigger issues facing the league, issues that need to be resolved if they want their stop in the big 4 back.

THE STRIKE

A strike is never good for sports, but the NHL lockout that cancelled out the 2004-2005 season was especially crippling for the league. Without the presence of hockey on television and the emptiness of hockey arenas around the country, many fans turned to other sports like college and pro basketball to get their fix. While hardcore fans welcomed the NHL back for the start of the 2005-2006 season, the more casual fans were lost to other sports- which helped play a factor in a dip in attendance and revenue for the league. And although the NHL has announced that attendance is at record levels former NHL goalie and current television analyst for the Phoenix Coyotes Darren Pang points to the effects of the strike being something the league is still trying to overcome.

"The lockout has absolutely halted any momentum that we had. For one full year people chose other things to watch. They spent money in different avenues. There's a certain amount of bitterness that people will have, especially a fringe sport like hockey when you take that away".

TRANSLATION NEEDED

Ask any hockey fan and they'll tell you, watching hockey on TV is not fun. Unless you have a vested interest in the game, it's incredibly boring to watch just any game on TV unlike football or basketball. The ironic thing is that hockey is by far the best sport to watch live (and yes, I speak from personal experience). Unfortunately, not many people are going to fork over their hard earned money on tickets to watch something live they can't stand watching for free on TV. Last year's Stanley Cup Finals on NBC saw this play out, as game 3 got the lowest primetime ratings NBC has ever seen. Not to say that the poor ratings were always the case.

Darren cites the excellent ratings the hockey got during the 2002 Olympics and the pre-lockout ratings as examples of what could be.

"The ratings for our ABC and ESPN games let's say 5 years ago were double the ratings they're getting right now", Pang says.

"The ratings were there and competitive."

Speaking of hockey on TV, this brings us to the next problem facing the NHL.

WHERE HAS THE MULLET GONE?

When the NHL returned from the strike, attendance numbers were not the only things that had changed. The league decided not to renew its TV contract with sports media giant ESPN. Without the game of the week and the nightly insight from Barry "The Mullet" Melrose , among others, the loss of hockey coverage on the family of networks left a huge void in the NHL's TV exposure. The league decided to go with little known network OLN, which became the Versus network, but the level of exposure is not even in the same league as not only do not all cable customers have the network, most don't even know what the Versus Network is.

"There's no question coming from the lockout and changing networks and nothing against Versus or OLN but no one knew where it was", Pang says about the switch.

"I said this before, you can't come from a lockout where you shut fans out for a whole year and then ask them to look real hard for your game. I don't know about you but I say uncle".

Darren is not the only one saying "uncle", as the average ratings for NHL games on the Versus network were down 22 percent from 2006.

NO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION HERE

Let's be honest, outside of a Klan rally you won't find a worse ratio of whites to blacks. The lack of black players means the NHL does not get the recognition the other sports receive in the hip hop community. You won't find many hockey jerseys in the latest rap video. You also won't find the hottest artists in the stands watching a NHL game. This lack of recognition from the artists means a lack of recognition from their fans that follow their lead.

"That's an awful lot of eyeballs that aren't interested in hockey as a casual fan and they've maybe never had the opportunity to pick up a hockey stick and experience it", Darren Pang explains.

Unfortunately for the league this will continue to be a problem for the league, as there's not exactly a big push in the African-American community to send their children to hockey camp.

This brings us to yet another problem.

NOT EASILY ACCESSIBLE

Hockey is expensive.

You need skates, sticks, and pads just to name a few.

These things are not cheap, and unless you have relatives who can give you hand me down equipment like Darren Pang had as a child you'd better start taking out some loans.

"Especially in the south and southwest it's not like you're going to put on an old pair of skates that your uncle handed down or your older brother and get on an outdoor rink".

Precisely, the other thing you're going to need is ice.

Well that's all good and dandy if you live up north, but if you live in the South or anywhere else where ice is not readily available you're in trouble.

Renting time at an ice rink is very expensive as Darren can attest.

"Here if you want to go play hockey and just go rent the ice it's $350 an hour".

"It's not the same as picking up a baseball and throwing the ball in backyard with Dad and your brother or even picking up a lacrosse stick and throwing back and forth or a basketball or a volleyball."

"That you just grab it and you go".

All this adds up to a big pain in the butt if you're even thinking about playing hockey, and as Darren put above the reason most people in states not in the north end up playing something else.

So there you have it, a few but certainly not all the problems plaguing the NHL.

The solutions are many and the league looks like it has finally started to address a few of them.

The NHL recently helped the situation by fixing an outdated scheduling system and ensuring that each team will face each team in the league at least once during the season. This will help the league market some of their better players like Sidney Crosby, who before was not seen on the west coast due to the old scheduling system.

Hopefully the league will continue to come up with more solutions and bring the league back to its former level of popularity.

Although if you're reading this Gary Bettman and you need some help, give me a call.

I could use a raise.