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As you may know, I am a rabid hockey fan. My team is the Columbus Blue Jackets, but I have come to appreciate good hockey as a whole. Last night, I hunkered down with my wife and brother-in-law to watch the USA take on Canada in the Olympics. What a game. Some are calling it the biggest upset since 1980's Miracle on Ice. I will play into the hype, although these were pros versus pros and anything can happen.
That said, I have to express a few opinions about the game. First, let's start with NHL Commissioner (or should I say uber-villain) Gary Bettman. Bettman believes that NHL players shouldn't compete in the Olympics because it takes away from the NHL itself. Really? The fact that your games are on Versus and once a week on NBC doesn't? How many times can the American public be force-fed Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin? Great players, but there are other players in the NHL.
I would think that having so many NHL players in the Olympics would help the league, but you can't shine the spotlight on the wunderkinds of the NHL all the time. Unfortunately, NBC and Bettman don't understand this. Yes, Crosby scored a goal in the game last night ... but did he lead his team to a win like Ryan Kesser and Brian Rafalski? No. Of course, you wouldn't know those guys unless you follow the NHL, and as a fan, not as the casual NBC/Versus viewer. Ladies and gentlemen, these guys are good.
Another problem I have is with NBC itself. Okay, I understand that the game was on MSNBC because of ice dancing. Bumping the game to another network for ballroom dancing in ice skates is a sad reality that I have resigned myself to accepting (I mean, I just heard the people behind me talking about ice dancing in the coffee shop here). However, the game was not in HD, robbing viewers of the beauty of the game (yes, I said beauty of the game when talking about hockey).
Furthermore, the part of the coverage that really bothered me was the fact that NBC cut away to the game for the last few minutes. If that game was truly a second Miracle on Ice, then people deserved to see more than the final, frenetic seconds. If you want your sport to grow, you can't treat it like you treat the bobsled competition, demographics not withstanding. The announcers were amazing, and NBC deprived hockey fans (and the potential hockey fans out there) of a great, great, great hockey game. Of course, I am not a program director and I don't understand the nuances of giving the viewers what they want. I am a humble sports fan with the good fortune to blog about business for AOL, so I get to express my opinion -- right or wrong (usually the former more than the latter, right?).
Whatever your opinion of hockey, or your opinion of my opinion, last night was a landmark night for American hockey, and it could have been for the NHL if it wasn't for the league's network and their commissioner. Instead, NHL fan bloggers are left to rant and rave about how good the game was and how the U.S. was robbed of seeing one of the best hockey games in recent memory. This begs the old question: if a miracle occurs on ice and no one sees it, did it really happen?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-22-2010 @ 1:30PM
No Joy said...
Gee, must have been a great game. Wish I could have watched. I can understand NBC moving to MSNBC to show ice dancing (not really!) - but what fries my 'nads is why on msn.com where I tried to watch live video stream of the game did they require that I upgrade my cable to INCLUDE MSNBC before I could video stream...wtf!!!??? If I had MSNBC in the first place I wouldn't be on the frickin' computer trying to watch!