The NHL, NBC, USA, and Versus: A Beautiful Team

I have been a fan of the NHL since I was a little kid watching Mario Lemieux lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to Stanley Cup championships. Nothing would make me happier than to see the NHL be as popular as the NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball are in the United States. Unfortunately, that just isn't going to happen at this point. One of the reasons for that is because of the lousy television deal the NHL currently has.

As has been well documented the NHL is on Versus right now with games to be televised on NBC later on in the season. I don't have a huge problem with how Versus covers the NHL. The station normally has good games on with talented announcers. The station does a great job of keeping fans aware of what's going on in other games. The coverage on Versus isn't the problem.

It's Versus itself. Versus isn't available to all Cable and satellite providers thus limiting who can see NHL games. Many people would automatically say that the remedy to this problem would be to have the NHL crawl back to ESPN and except any deal that the "world wide leader in sports" would be willing to offer. I disagree. The NHL doesn't need ESPN; at least not yet. NBC could do the job just fine if only they took my simple advice. What I don't understand is how nobody in upper management at NBC has come up with this idea yet? Man, I should be working for NBC Sports.

I like what Versus is doing thus far regarding what days the channel shows NHL games. Putting the NHL up against the NFL would be futile as this point. There is no way that NBC should even think about putting NHL games on Sundays or Monday nights. I would keep the NHL off of national television on Thursdays due to is being "the most watched night on TV." Friday nights aren't a great option when it comes to ratings, either. Tuesday and Wednesdays are perfect for the NHL.