Posted on 05/12/2009 9:32:41 AM PDT by buccaneer81
Bob Hunter commentary: NHL hidden in plain sight on Versus Tuesday, May 12, 2009 3:09 AM By Bob Hunter THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Unless you know exactly where to look on your cable-TV lineup, it probably has been easy to miss much of the NHL's postseason.
Unless you know exactly where to look on your cable-TV lineup, it probably has been easy to miss much of the NHL's postseason.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
In the spring, I usually make a point of asking people if they are watching the NHL playoffs. For some reason, the negative responses always surprise me.
Last week, one conversation jumped from the Buckeyes to the Indians to the Cavs. After a friend had gushed about LeBron James and complained about the lack of suspense in Cavs playoff games against Detroit and Atlanta, I asked him if he had watched any of the NHL playoffs.
"I didn't know they were on," he said.
He might have been joking, but it wasn't easy to tell. The NHL playoffs weren't on his radar. He didn't once consider watching them. He gathered that the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins were involved, but he didn't know who they were playing or when.
A few days later, I told another guy how entertaining the NHL playoffs were, and he asked me which channel carried them. If my response had been in Swahili, he couldn't have looked more confused.
"What's Versus?" he said.
He wasn't joking. When I relayed this to one of my sports department colleagues, he had his own story to tell. He was at a friend's house where the kids tuned to the Penguins game after he told them it was on.
"We didn't know what Channel 70 was," one of them said.
None of these people are huge hockey fans, obviously, but maybe that's the point. At this rate, they aren't likely to be anytime soon. All might have loved the dazzling Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby show -- two highly skilled hockey giants who don't like each other is as good as it gets in sports. But only one of their games was on NBC -- at 1 p.m., when most of us aren't watching -- and the rest of that riveting Washington-Pittsburgh series has been on old Whatchamacallit, anonymous Channel 70.
If the games were on ESPN, there would be no discussion. All of the above probably would have clicked their way into an NHL game at some point, and might have even watched. They would also have been targets of the ESPN hype machine, which has no reason to hype the NHL now. Even if they weren't interested, they would know the games were on.
Last week, when the Chicago Tribune asked Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz about Chicago viewers who were having trouble finding his team's first postseason games in years, he pointed directly at Versus.
"A lot of people don't even realize that Versus exists," Wirtz said. "You just have to grin and bear it. It's a league-mandated decision."
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman took his league to Versus, then called the Outdoor Life Network, in 2005 because he didn't like the treatment it was getting on ESPN. At the time, his irritation was understandable, and OLN made a switch easy for him: It offered the NHL $72.5 million a year in a three-year deal that was extended last year.
But it's time to recognize this disaster for what it is. Versus is in 75 million households, compared to ESPN's 98 million. And, as noted, a good chunk of those Versus households don't even know it's there.
A few days ago, USA Today reported that Versus reached an average of 236,000 households during the regular season, off 43 percent from ESPN's last regular season (2003-04). Compared to ESPN's playoff ratings at this point that year, Versus is down 35 percent. For a league that wants to move into the American mainstream, this is a curious way to get there.
ESPN is reportedly interested in bringing the NHL back and it's time to move; Versus might be amenable to giving up its exclusivity now to lower its costs. When its deal with the NHL was first struck, OLN saw it as a steppingstone to contracts with other major sports, deals that might eventually make it an ESPN competitor.
That hasn't happened. Yesterday afternoon, while sports fans were watching ESPN's SportsCenter, Versus was airing a 30-minute infomercial for prostate relief pills.
It says a lot about how well this experiment has worked.
Bob Hunter is a sports columnist for The Dispatch.
bhunter@dispatch.com
I’m not a huge fan, but I was really pulled into the game during the Rangers’ 1994 Stanley Cup run. I watched the entire series, and that climactic game in MSG was amazing. Now, I don’t even know if I *get* Versus, much less what channel it’s on, that’s how little TV I get to watch anymore!
}:-)4
??? I don't understand what are you posting about. Caps/Pens game 5 was broadcast Saturday by Versus. I watched it. There was a NBC and Versus conflict last Sunday but Game 5: Ducks @ Red Wings was carried by the NHL Network channel - 5:00 pm (TSN Canada Live Feed). I watched this game too. This info was posted in advance on Airborne's NHL HOCKEY PLAYOFF TIME !!! thread. Hope this helps.
Regarding several other posts, NHL blackout rules apply. This has nothing to do with the Versus channel.
TAB
Honest, I wasn't either.
But no anymore.
The series is knotted up at 3 apiece, and the way they went absolutely nuts in each of the preceding 6 games I --& my wife, no less!-- wouldn't miss it.
We're hooked...no wait, that's 2 minutes in the "box"! :o)
"...but I was really pulled into the game during the Rangers’ 1994 Stanley Cup run. I watched the entire series, and that climactic game in MSG was amazing. Now, I don’t even know if I *get* Versus, much less what channel it’s on..."
What a pity, my friend.
I mean it too, best damned unbelievably physical ball busting action there is anywhere...maybe ever.
"...that’s how little TV I get to watch anymore!"
HA!
If by [that] you mean lack of time?
Perfectly understandable, perfectly.
If OTOH you'd meant you threw the damned thing out?
Woe be me to knock you for that.
In fact I often wish I'd do likewise more often than not.
If I did, though?
It'd be after the Stanely Cup. LOL
Not on my cable system in Columbus. Every other game has been.
1 - It does matter how old the picture is, a decade is a long time in any sport. Might as well throw around pictures of guys without helmets, it’s not the game today.
2 - Your link doesn’t even have stats back to when your picture happened. Back then the league averaged over 1 fight a game.
3 - way to prove you know you’re full of crap. Nobody who has a real point needs to attack the person, my sign on date has nothing to do with the topic.
‘Tis better to remain silent and thought a fool, then to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Funny how the guy complaining about fights in the NHL is all about the personal attacks. Hypocrisy much?
I watched 10 or 12 playoff games so far this season and so far saw a grand total of one fight.
Thankfully, fighting ain't what it used to be in hockey. I agree it was boring, (and mostly contrived) but it's far less now and the great players can show their stuff without getting pounded by some goon. I can't imagine how many goals a Gretzky or Mario would have scored with today's more wide-open rules. It's a far better and more exciting game than it was in the past.
If you love a good contest with some amazing athletes on both side of the puck all giving 100% effort on every play, it does not get any better than the current Pens-Caps series. I don't think you even need to be a big hockey fan to enjoy this series. Game 7 tomorrow night. It should be another classic contest.
It can't be 'banned' entirely or the cheep-shot artists would ruin the game. Their always needs to be the ability of the players to enforce the unwritten rules of the game among themselves and the guys who would intentionally try to hurt another player needs to know that he's going to face worse than a few minutes in the box and a fine from the league.
Through the 70s and 80s, there were far too many players who couldn't skate worth spit, but could punch anyone out and only got payed to intimidate other players. Too many fights, not to enforce any 'rules' but simply as intimidation.
Not anymore. Yes, there are some real tough guys out there, but they can play pretty good hockey too.
Sorry, but the occasional fight is necessary just to keep the lid on and keep everyone out there 'honest'. Other sports have the same. A dirty player in football is pretty likely to get himself hurt before the game is over, and in baseball, there is always that high and tight fastball designed to keep guys civilized.
In hockey, I'm not seeing the bench clearing 15 minute fights that were relatively common in the past. There are still fights, but they are generally one on one and shorter than the commercial breaks.
I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.
Bench clearing brawls became a thing of the past when they put in the mandatory 3 game suspension for the coach if any player left the bench during a fight. Which is good because the bench clearers were the most boring fights imaginable.
And fighting could be banned, but the stick work would get worse and worse. And the fact remains that a one-on-one fight is usually pretty exciting. 90% of the people who complain about fighting just want to say bad things about hockey, they wouldn’t watch anyway.
I agree with all you said.
That's ok too. But if you don't watch, you are missing some amazing athletes in action. I started going to and following hockey games 40+ years ago, (never played the game myself mostly for lack of opportunity) and I have to say that the game and competition now is IMHO, better than ever. From a spectator standpoint, I would rate pro hockey as the most exciting pro sport when viewed in person. What those guys can do on skates in incredible. But even on TV, it is not that bad of a show.
Just my opinion. But if you are a sports fan, tomorrow night's game between the Pens and Caps is a must see event.
You don't have to money on a horse to enjoy the Kentucky Derby, or be a golfer to enjoy the final round of the Masters. If game seven of the Pens-Caps series is anything like the first six games, you won't have to be a hockey fan to enjoy this one either. It promises to be an all time sports classic.
BTW, Go Pens! ;~))
I agree Bettman needs to go. I geuss that the NHL made a decision. Would they like to be the big fish in the small VERSUS pond or just another fish in the ESPN River. On VERSUS they can have a pre-game and post-game show while on ESPN the game ends and they immediately go to SportsCenter where they barely mention hockey.
I was channel surfing one night and I noticed that the SCI-FI channel mentioned that their ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) got higher ratings than the NHL playoffs.
Maybe but I believe the Red Wings have pretty much trounced the Blackhawks this year. As much as I hate to say it and its a horrible thing to say but the Blackhawks fortunes turned for the better when their owner died. He kept home games off of TV. After he died they put games on tv and things have been better for the Blackhawks.
Worst commissioner, ever.
I believe game 5 of the Pens-Caps series was on saturday night on VERSUS.
Versus needs to make itself known. A few bucks spent on promotion would go a long way.
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