Mark Madden: As always, NHL fails to recognize the value of star power

Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final drew 7.7 million TV viewers in the U.S., the NHL’s biggest audience in five years.

The WNBA game between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese this past Sunday, thought of as a breakthrough for women’s pro basketball, was watched by 2.3 million. It was the WNBA’s largest viewership in 23 years.

That puts things in perspective.

“Too much. There’s too much (expletive) perspective,” as David St. Hubbins of Spinal Tap said.

Game 7 didn’t even need unsaid societal overtones to pop a big number.

All it needed was hockey’s biggest superstar playing for the NHL’s ultimate prize.

Connor McDavid is why that number went above and beyond. He’s the only reason. It really is that simple.

Will the NHL and its broadcast partners finally learn? Will they tell their announcers and studio hosts to quit bleating endlessly about grit, toughness and the glory of role players, instead of focusing relentlessly on star power like every other sports league? Will that become the NHL’s PR approach? Now that Game 7 provided undeniable and overwhelming evidence?

Probably not.

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The NHL never pushed Sidney Crosby like it should have. Or Mario Lemieux.

Hockey is the greatest game. But it corners the market on stupid.

Went more proof? Look at this year’s Hockey Hall of Fame class.

Pavel Datsyuk is deserving.

Jeremy Roenick’s numbers confirm, but he never won an individual award or a Stanley Cup.

Neither did Shea Weber, who wasn’t as good as former Penguin Sergei Gonchar, who isn’t in. If Weber and Gonchar switched hometowns, Gonchar would be in, Weber out. Weber’s inclusion continues the descent to Hall of Very Good.

Two female players made it: Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell-Pohl. Outside of the context of women’s hockey, nobody’s heard of either. “Fame” is one of the words in “Hall of Fame.”

There are now 12 women in the Hall of Fame. There are just three players from the Soviet national team that totally dominated international hockey before Russians started playing in the NHL. Darwitz evidently had bigger impact on hockey than global superstars like Boris Mikhailov.

There are 13 Hall of Fame members inducted primarily for coaching. There soon will be more women. Long live finagled equality.

The Hall didn’t induct Herb Brooks till 2006, three years after he passed. It apparently took the Hall 26 years to consider what happened at Lake Placid in 1980.

Two executives are in this year’s Hall of Fame class: David Poile and Colin Campbell.

Poile was a GM for 41 years, 15 with Washington and 26 with Nashville. He never won a Stanley Cup and made just one final. If Poile had worked in more pressure-packed markets, he’d have been fired many times over. He’d have been crucified in Toronto.

Campbell played, coached and is now an NHL executive, having worked for the league since 1998. He hasn’t excelled at anything. Campbell just hung around till he got honored. He’s a proponent of toughness uber alles, which hasn’t made him a friend of player safety or the grace of the game. Campbell is a meathead, succinctly put.

The Hall of Fame is cluttered with owners and executives who don’t remotely deserve it. The time for honoring yourself never will be at an end.

Sixteen referees and linesmen are in the Hall of Fame. None of them were any good.