The NHL isn&#x27;t the greatest example (they left ESPN the same year they also skipped a season with a lockout to implement a hard salary cap), but it&#x27;s the best of the major leagues.<p>* They had a small national contract with NBC and showed top games on OLN, a tiny cable sports network that mostly showed fishing.
* OLN became Versus, which later became NBCSN (after Comcast &amp; NBC-Universal merged).  NBC airs the higher-profile games (many playoff games, marquee weekend matchups, and most outdoor games), so cable ratings will be a bit lower as a result.
* Looking at the ratings for the final round, they&#x27;re up more than 100% over the current period (2007 averaged a 1.2 rating, while last year&#x27;s final scored a 3.2 rating; these ratings fluctuate greatly based on the teams taking part).<p>The NHL is interesting, since the hard cap puts them in a position to be able to slowly ratchet down without putting as much pressure on teams.  On top of that, hockey has always been more gate-driven than TV-revenue-driven, so as long as attendance figures stay high, they&#x27;ll be OK.