Faceoff Factor

NHL Needs Network Help

Matt Bodenschatz | National Hockey League

Jun 19, 11:09 PM | Hype this story!

After an exciting 2006-07 season, NHL executives have to be embarrassed by the way their league was treated by the two national networks supposedly dedicated to covering hockey.

In a very short span of time, both NBC and Versus felt the need to air other sports during NHL time slots.

What were these networks thinking? Well, quite simply, they were thinking about the bottom line. Money talks, and the NHL doesn’t bring in the money.

But how can the NHL bring in the money when league executives submit to television networks?

In May, NBC chose to cut short an elimination game between the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres during the Eastern Conference Finals. The NHL’s response: nonexistent

Then, this past Thursday, Versus postponed their coverage of the NHL Awards Celebration despite advertising a live broadcast. Again, the NHL didn’t seem to care.

So is the league in that poor of shape that it has to play bitch to the lowly Versus network?

Sadly, it seems that is the case.

But in all honesty, the NHL would be better off with no national coverage than to be humiliated the way it has been in the past month.

If I held a ranking position within the NHL executive offices, I would be petitioning to terminate the contracts with these two television networks.

However, I have no rank, and I highly doubt NHL executives care what I think. Regardless, I’d like to point out a few changes I would make to the NHL coverage on Versus if the contract must go on:

- Show more regular season games. I understand Versus is a young network with limited funding for television crews, but why not work out deals with TSN, CBC and RDS to show additional games in the States? It works in the playoffs, so it surely could work in the regular season.

- Extend pre-game shows. Prior to the televised games, Versus will talk for about 5-10 minutes. Would it be that difficult to come on the air at 6:30 every night to talk about the day’s games? Hockey fans want to know about upcoming games, even if they aren’t necessarily on TV.

- Make Hockey Central a nightly show. As it stands right now, Hockey Central comes on only after Versus-televised games. According to my estimations, there are games nearly every day of every week throughout the season. Why not discuss these games, show highlights, etc. Hockey Tonight on ESPN did great, so methinks Hockey Central would do pretty good as well.

Of course, there is plenty more Versus could do to improve its coverage of the NHL. Heck, I’d settle for no preemptions. But, in the sake of keeping this piece at least relatively short, I won’t even mention my other ideas.

But, in short, I think it’s time for the NHL to pony up and to hold their partner networks accountable for their coverage. Without the help of Versus and NBC, the NHL will continue to have a bad reputation within the world of professional sports.