NBC Hockey coverage

The US Men’s Hockey team will be playing Team Canada this coming Sunday at 4:40pm EST. With the cancellation of the NHL All-Star game to accommodate the Olympics, this game is going to be the PREMIER hockey game of the year. NBC in their infinite wisdom has chosen to air this game on its cable news affiliate MSNBC rather than on their regular broadcasting channel. What could possibly be more exciting an event than to watch the greatest professional athletes in their sport competing for their countries? NBC executives say Ice Dancing!!! What is really staggering about this is the NHL has a contract with NBC and yet is remaining silent on the issue so far. NBC has said that more women watch the Olympics and is gearing their programming to that audience. Here’s a hint you morons, put on the USA-Canada game and you’ll have EVERY HOCKEY FAN IN NORTH AMERICA TUNING IN TO YOUR NETWORK. In the absence of NHL hockey, fans will watch Pee-Wee hockey if it’s available. We’ll watch bad hockey, girls hockey, hockey for the blind, church league hockey, just so long as its hockey! This is a sad testament to the poor job the NHL is doing to promote the sport we fans love so much. This is also one more reason for the replacement of Gary Bettman as commissioner. While I think the 2004-2005 lock-out was a good thing for the sport’s survival, it has yet to recover. The league sold the rule changes that came out of the lockout as making the game more exciting and thus increasing its popularity. While I do agree that the new rules have indeed made the game more exciting (yes, I do miss the fights), the league has been unable to parlay that into more fans (fannies in the seats). This latest move by NBC and the league’s inaction are cause for every hockey fan to let them both know we’re not happy. Send emails to both NBC and the NHL and let them know that hockey nation is not happy!! ICE DANCING?? REALLY???