According to sportsnet.ca, in the 74 days of the NHL lockout, 308 games and more than $440 million in salary have been lost. With four lockouts in the last 20 years, hockey has lost the interest of average sports fans along with some of the die-hards. Things weren't always that way though. The 1997 Stanley Cup Final between the Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings was the most watched Final of the last two decades with an average of 6.3 million viewers. The other hockey trend from the '90s besides higher TV ratings? NHL jerseys were actually in style. Especially among rappers.
We always talk about rappers showing their admiration for NBA ballers, but rap and hockey have a bond as well. Rappers use hockey references in their rhymes with lines like "I'm skating on blades like Sidney Crosby" or “Still high two-steppin' it/Do it for the capital Wale Ovechkin.”
Rappers love to drop a hot hockey line and they certainly love to get their picture taken reppin' their favorite NHL teams. Though it was much more common a couple decades ago, you can still catch rappers of today like Lil Wayne and Drake rocking NHL jerseys. So from Ghostface Killah and Craig Mack to Young Jeezy and Fabolous, here's a look back at hip-hop's hockey jersey trend.