two years ago, i made my playoff predictions. many of them were fact based because i had been following the league as closely as i could which was pretty good. and i tell you what, it was some pretty good play, all except the avalanche choking display late in the year plus the playoffs. but it was some very compelling television.
now i really don't give much of a damn. and it isn't through me not caring about hockey anymore. this is on the league and the league only. there has been NO buzz, NO sizzle, NO nothing for the nhl this year on any sports programs, other than the winter olympics. that's partly to blame on the tv outlet (OLN) and the league.
picture my situation- i am in school in the dorms where OLN is a premium digital channel and the dorms only offer the basic cable packages. my only hockey choices are the ceebeejays or the predators when i am not in class or working on a project. nhlradio is really picky about working in opera. now thow in the fact that as a top 50 media market, our local nbc affiliate only showed the last TWO REGULAR SEASON SATURDAY GAMES ALL YEAR. these games weren't shifted to the cable access channel, these games weren't shifted to another network, these games in this town were not shown period.
meanwhile, had i commuted to school the situation wouldn't be much better. probably worse actually. for some reason we get fsn south and fsn ohio in the dorms but only fsn ohio at home, which meant only ceebeejay games. and yes the dish has OLN, but really, other than avs games, where were the compelling matchups all season? you got game after game of two teams which no one really cared about with players that the league isn't marketing. your very first game on your new network, and you don't show a penguins game or a capitols game? veeeeery smart thinking there in the league offices. OLN's slogan "we believe in hockey" rings quite hollow when two of the league's heavyweights colorado and detroit's first matchup was not even on OLN, and i'm not sure whether or not any games on cable were shown nationally. OLN scared of showing better games because it may have to black out games in other markets? that's a chickenbleep move if there ever was one. the league needed better exposure and higher ratings for games. well, with this latest tv package, one couldn't be helped but the other could have. i would have insisted that OLN show better games, if only to generate some momentum throughout the season. los angeles generated a zero point zero rating for a game this season.
right now, i only know two meaningful stats- no one other than detroit has scored more goals than colorado and 6 other teams (none of which are in the playoffs) have given up more than colorado, a stat i found in friday's usa today. even though we have a 1 game lead, i don't think we can win this series because we can't keep the puck out of our own net.
i really want to get into the second season. i mean i really really want to get into it. but i simply can't. coupled with the suspension of the ice card's season this year, i have gone two years without hockey. one year could not be helped. this year however could have done wonders with a significantly better television deal.
and you know what the sad part was? the tv presentation was better for the frozen four on espn than for any nhl game i had seen all season on OLN.
thanks gary.
/end rant
Max writes:My favorite team is NHL Washington Capitals