NHL Game of the Week

The NHL has a contract with NBC that shows a "Game of the Week" on Sundays. The NHL knows this is its only time to premiere its best players to hopefully new fans nationwide. That is why every week it is a match-up of the same few teams as they involve the young superstars that shape the league. The Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals, Philadelphia Flyers, Detroit Redwings and Chicago Blackhawks are the usual teams seen on Sundays. All but the Capitals have been in a Winter Classic by the way. Yesterday's game included the Detroit Redwings and the Chicago Blackhawks. The game was great, it had 9 goals and a comeback attempt by Chicago but ultimately ended with a 5-4 Detroit win. It is understandable why they chose these games as they are all rivals and involve such great players that the league is trying to market. It is a good start however, there are many other great players and teams out there that are not being showcased anywhere other then their home states. As a huge hockey fan obviously this is disappointing to only see a few teams as NBC and Versus are the only channels showing hockey. Versus is a channel that most sports fans don't have and will not purchase to see a sport they are just thinking about getting interested in. When the NHL's contract with NBC and Versus ends they need to go back to where they were before the lockout, ESPN. When the NHL was on ESPN they were not the biggest sport obviously but there wasn't talk about being behind NASCAR and college sports. After a great Olympics where the gold medal game was seen by 27 million Americans, an extremely large number for hockey, it was expected that the NHL would take advantage of the press and start moving in the right direction. With Gary Bettman in charge making all kinds of claims about how the NHL may not be in the 2014 Olympics just shows how much help is needed. What the NHL needs is a new Commissioner that is committed to improvements and a new contract with ESPN so that they will once again be a watched sport in America.