A Little Bit About 1990's Hockey

The 1990s was a memorable time for ice hockey. The NHL was at its all-time high. What made this era so significant was the dominance. Wayne Gretzky got to a Stanley cup final with the LA Kings. Mario Lemieux won two Stanley cups in a row with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Mark Messier captained the Oilers to a Stanley cup win in 1990. Also, the TV market was growing as cable became the standard for watching television.

The late 1990s might have been the best part of this decade. In 1997 and 1998, the Detroit Red Wings would win two Stanley cups in a row. Hockey was slowly becoming a more popular professional league in the 1990s in the United States. For TV viewers, the NHL was on Fox, and James Brown himself went through the games and analyzed them. James Brown, who typically is known for analyzing football scores and stats, analyzed hockey. This helped grow the sport because viewers now had someone popular from the football scene, analyzing hockey. This helped newcomers learn about the sport and guide new people into becoming fans of the game. The 1990s would also be the end of the butterfly era. While some goalies did carry over to the 21st century with the standup style, it officially ended in the 1990s, once goaltenders Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy started to use the butterfly.