What You've Been Missing

I may be wrong, but I feel as though I'm the only person watching the NHL Playoffs this season. Everyone I talk to says, "Yea, I saw the highlights." The highlights? Every second of the NHL Playoffs is a highlight. Maybe I'm just a huge geek when it comes to sports, but I can't understand why others aren't feeling the love.

Okay, maybe I can. Versus, a network that some Americans don't even have, is the only cable network broadcasting NHL games. And they aren't even good at it. Listen closely to their broadcasts. They're hilarious. I don't know what it means to "knife" the puck or for the puck to be "outletted," but the play-by-play guys at Versus create new words every broadcast. And as a broadcaster, if the fans know you're there, you aren't doing a good enough job.

Fortunately for us puckheads, NBC covers some weekend games during the season and most of the Stanley Cup Final - if NBC's any consolation. It's not quite ABC/ESPN, but I'll take what I can get. At least I don't have to hear the verb "knife" twenty-seven times throughout their broadcasts.

All I know is this: If ABC/ESPN won't pick up your games, you have a problem. They're called "The Worldwide Leader in Sports." If your games don't air on their network, essentially, you don't matter. As long as ESPN continues their boycott of NHL hockey, the league is going to have a difficult time marketing their product. And this lack of viewership is rooter deeper than we realize.

It starts at a young age when kids are getting into sports. Because of how costly hockey can be, not enough children are playing. Kids that do play hockey are either born into money or their parents go to great lengths to make sure they can afford it. Often, a kid that plays hockey only plays hockey.

As for the general public, their interest has a lot to do with the region in which they live. Most people in New Mexico couldn't care less about hockey. On the other hand, most people in New Hampshire live for it. The NHL needs to target those that lie in the middle.

And the best way to do that is to ride the coattails of the league's young stars. Look at the transition the NBA has made over the last five years. They stopped pushing Allen Iverson and Steve Francis on people and started to run ads featuring LeBron James and Chris Paul. The NHL's biggest stars -- especially their North American-born, English-speaking stars -- need to become household names.

As far as quality of play is concerned, the National Hockey League doesn't have much to worry about. It's brimming with young talent and, considering both No. 1 seeds failed to reach the Conference Finals this postseason, there's loads of parity.

If fast-paced action is what you're looking for, there isn't a sport that rivals hockey. Sure, basketball comes close. But as one of my readers pointed out recently, the first three quarters are nearly irrelevant. Plus, there are about two hundred points scored in each basketball game. Every goal is huge in hockey.

Maybe you're looking for some NFL-style violence. Hockey surely isn't lacking in that department. There's as much hitting in hockey as there is in football, and hockey players usually hit one another way past the whistle.

That leads us to fighting: Who doesn't like to watch a good fight? Amateur fights on YouTube get millions of hits a day, so we know somebody's watching them. Maybe the NHL can try to recruit these blood-thirsty viewers.

I'll admit, the NHL's campaign to grow their fan base took a hit when both the Eastern and Western Conference Finals ended in four and five games, respectively. But the Stanley Cup Final, a rematch of last year, has certainly helped make up for it.

The Red Wings host the Penguins tonight in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. So if you've missed most (or all) of the playoffs this season, at least you can catch the final game of the year. But if that is in fact the case, shame on you. You don't know what you've been missing.