On Monday, the National Hockey League announced that it was ending its 113-day lockout of it players.

Now, the hard work begins for the league, which was on the verge of canceling the 2012-13 season.

The NHL might have saved its year, but it now must find a way to make sure it apologizes to its fans and hope that fringe fans will return to watching the game. That might be difficult.

Hockey is not a widely popular sport in the United States, and although there are pockets of large fan bases in Canada and in such cities as Boston, Chicago and New York, overall the league is weak compared with other major sports.

The National Football League is king, the National Basketball Association is growing and Major League Baseball will always be popular as America’s favorite pastime. It can be argued that NASCAR is more popular than hockey, as well as college football and basketball, which places the NHL’s popularity at seventh. Some say, however, that professional golf and tennis could even be considered more popular.

Before the lockout, hockey in Boston was seeing an upturn since the Bruins won the 2011 Stanley Cup Trophy. All of that momentum could now be gone, however ”“ and that is the league’s own fault.

Hockey will survive in northern cities, but it’s southern places such as Florida and North Carolina that could lose their teams and have trouble getting fans to return to the game.

This lockout goes far beyond millionaires arguing with billionaires over a collective bargaining agreement. Fans cannot stand to watch overpaid and privileged players argue about more money, but in most cases can forgive the players and owners. The NBA is as strong as ever despite last year’s partial loss of a season due to a lockout. The NFL is going strong, too, even though it went through a lockout in 2011 and wiped out the preseason.

Fans of those leagues returned because of the sports’ popularity. Football has probably surpassed baseball as America’s sport, and the NBA presents a popular brand. Hockey, however, has never had the pull that those leagues have, and it will not draw the casual fans to its league as easily as other professional leagues.

Hardcore fans will always return, but leagues thrive on attracting fringe fans, people who might not follow the sport regularly, but are still intrigued by it.

One element the NHL does have going for it is the length of the season. Teams will play 48-50 games instead of the standard 82-games during the regular season. This will mean that players won’t conserve their energy as they will fight harder for a postseason berth knowing that they won’t have as many opportunities as before, creating more exciting games.

The league will need to do a good job promoting that every game counts more than ever, and then it might have a fighting chance at getting fans to flock back to the game.

If not, then don’t be surprised if the NHL becomes irrelevant in the world of sports in the United States.

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Today’s editorial was written by Sports Editor Al Edwards on behalf of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski by calling 282-1535, Ext. 322, or via email at kristenm@journaltribune.com.