Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Can the NHL Afford Some Time Off?



I'm not the most alert person in the morning. But I know I've heard this story before. The "Today" show on NBC is promoting the Olympic hockey tournament this morning. Did you know the United States men's team won the gold medal in 1980?

That's the story in the United States. Before National Hockey League participation. When the men's hockey tournament actually appeared on a national television network in the United States. ABC. One of the Original 3.

Like I said, that was the story.

This is what was not part of Tom Brokaw's piece this morning.

NHL players in the big tournament. A real world class affair. Most of the tournament games not on NBC, one of the Original 3. Most of the games foisted off on NBC siblings, MSNBC, CNBC and the USA network.

NBC, U.S. rights holder to the National Hockey League. NBC, the network that cut away from a playoff game in overtime to give you hours of Kentucky Derby preview programming. Well, the network was nice enough to give viewers enough time to find Versus for the next overtime period. Don't get Versus? That covers most of you out there. (Fortunately, not me.)

The NHL is not going to get the bump everyone imagined, or said they imagined, when its players were committed to the Olympic tournament. And yet there are some American newspaper writers criticizing the league for giving some "grudging" cooperation by taking a two-week break.

Listen, a two-week break for this league is more than what the National Basketball Association or Major League Baseball have given to its sport's Olympic effort. Most professional team sports don't have to worry about cutting into its regular season for an Olympic tournament.

But the NHL takes two weeks and the best these handful of writers can say is that the NHL lacks real commitment.

NBC is not talking about the NHL. Except for its Sunday game of the week package, you would be hard pressed to know that the NHL plays there. Many American newspapers, which were quick to use the lockout as a reason to sharply curtail coverage of the league, are already getting ready for spring training baseball.

That means more space for features on players who will not make the team, shouldn't have made the team, will make the team and, despite the great buildup in a February story on pitchers, be a disappointment by June.

By that time, the Stanley Cup will have been awarded, NBC will have provided a minimum of effort for another year of NHL action and all the great Olympic action on MSNBC, CNBC and the USA network will have been forgotten.

Boy, I bet that changes in 2014, when the Olympics are in Russia and NBC really makes a commitment to hockey. Right?

No comments:

Post a Comment