The NHL may be in the midst of its most active trade deadline in years, but one of ESPN’s flagship shows clearly could not care less about hockey.
On Thursday morning’s First Take, New York Yankees play-by-play broadcaster Michael Kay visited the show to talk shop with Stephen A. Smith ahead of the upcoming MLB season. During the show, host Molly Qerim asked the panel which current New York team was likely to win a championship first, as the city hasn’t won a major title since the Giants in 2011.
Kay emphatically picked the Rangers, who just traded for Patrick Kane at the trade deadline and have built up quite the team ahead of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Smith and Qerim, however, dismissed the Rangers instantly by saying “they don’t count” and turned the conversation to football, basketball, and baseball instead.
First Take doesn't care about hockey pic.twitter.com/O9hkJmv76v
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 2, 2023
Yeah, that’s rough right there. Even worse is that ESPN is one of two current NHL rights-holders, as the network splits hosting duties with TNT. To have your biggest rights-holder — and biggest TV personality! — dismissing one of your top teams weeks before the playoffs begin is a bad look.
It’s no wonder NHL ratings are down in the United States this season, all things considered.
NHL fans roasted Smith’s incredibly dismissive stance about hockey on First Take.