Other than the fact that it's an ongoing negotiation, I have no idea why the NHL is being so damn coy about what's possibly the worst-kept secret in sports television: That the League will be back on ESPN in some capacity next season. Even Bristol has been quick to silence any chatter about it, as John Buccigross found out earlier this season. Maybe neither side wants to be the one to break it to hockey fans that the NHL will be relegated to the ESPN2 ghetto, where it will battle for airtime against Men's Trickshot Billiards and reruns of "Madden Nation" ... both of which could likely grab a larger audience on a Thursday night than a Ducks/Coyotes game.William Houston of The Globe and Mail writes that Versus -- which has rights to NHL games through 2011 -- is amenable to ESPN re-entering the picture, joining the Dennis Miller/Buck-Hunting Network and NBC as a broadcast partner. Three national networks covering one professional league isn't all that rare in the current sports television landscape; but three different networks airing parts of that league's championship round? Houston prognosticates:
The TV schedule for the Stanley Cup final in 2009 could be structured in a way that relieves NBC of some of the prime-time burden. Versus could carry the first three games. ESPN would come in for the fourth and fifth, if necessary. If the series went six and seven games, they could go to NBC.Currently, NBC is contracted to cover Games 3-7 of the Finals, with the appetizers airing on Versus. Game 1 of the Finals last season between Anaheim and Ottawa earned a 0.72 cable rating and was watched by 523,000 U.S. households, down 18 percent from the previous season's Finals coverage on OLN. The television plan detailed above would do little to buck that trend; in fact, it creates more questions than it answers.
The daughter of the late legend Dale Earnhardt wears many a hat.
