Hockey has done it again. It has taken a great moment and treated it like a CIA secret. It shot itself in the skateboot, as it usually does.

You remember 1994. The Rangers won the Stanley Cup. Mark Messier delivered. The curse was broken. Brian Leetch was the first American to win the Conn Smythe Trophy. Millions saw the parade up the Canyon of Heroes. Sports Illustrated, and every other major media outlet, soon placed hockey on a par with the Big 3 team sports. All of New York, it seemed, touched the Cup, and when it went to Yankee Stadium with Messier and Leetch, it was bigger than the Yankees.

And just when hockey was ready for its zenith, it decided, “Hey, this is a good time for a labor stoppage.” So the NHL locked out its players to start the 1994-95 season. And it’s been downhill ever since … down an especially steep and slippery slope since the next lockout, which killed off the entire 2004-05 season.

It was during that non-season that Mark Messier, Scott Stevens, Al MacInnis and Ron Francis had their careers end. We assume they would have retired anyway. Messier was 45. Stevens and MacInnis were injured. But the cancelled season made their retirements a sure thing.

So tonight all four went into the Hockey Hall of Fame, as good a class, arguably, as has ever been inducted together. One of the top five or 10 players in league history, and three other great, courageous leaders and superstars.

So what does hockey give us? Nothing. No TV. No spectators. Nada. The inductions were televised by something called NHL Network and a backup channel in Canada. Versus, the NHL’s still-anonymous TV partner, didn’t show it. Just another example of how hockey continues to live in the dark ages and how, indeed, it continues to go backward.

I wrote a column about this topic for The Journal News and LoHud.com tomorrow. I know first-hand that hockey fans are the most loyal sports fans on the planet. I would love to know what you are thinking out there.