This, of course, is beyond anybody's control. TV technical wrinkles. Fox and ESPN began putting microphones on players, coaches and refs this season and expect to continue doing so in the playoffs. In the regular season, Fox dropped its computer-generated glowing puck but will bring it back when the playoffs reach the conference finals, hoping it will follow the puck more accurately than in past attempts. And Fox will focus a bit more on ice-level shots in trying to have viewers feel closer to the action.
Hockey needs to deliver bigger audiences.
Fox, publicly at least, isn't bailing out. But the NHL presumably will always hold some attraction for ESPN, which is always in search of programming. ESPN will, for instance, carry up to 37 playoff games and as many as 31 more on ESPN2, compared to as many as 15 on Fox, which will carry only Sunday games until the Cup finals. Why hockey remains stuck on the TV launch pad is hard to explain. Fox gave the league a broad platform, ESPN has given it more exposure on its spinoff channels and both have made TV hockey production more zippy.