a channel that gives a rat's a$$ about hockey
So what is left in America for network coverage? Tried Fox and ABC, and they passed.
That leaves CBS and UPN. Which one of these would do any better than NBC? My guess, none.
As far as national cable networks, ESPN didn't pony up any money. And do you think they really care about hockey, when the Spelling Bee and Poker get higher ratings? Does anyone what the ratings are for the National Paintball Championships?
What the NHL may need is some stability in where people can find on television.
I would also like to see NBC/OLN do more cross promotion of thier games (like the NBA does, I swear there must be 1,000,000,000 screen crawlers advertising games on TNT when the game is on ESPN). What is wrong with NBC, on their Saturday games advertising the Monday night game on OLN? And OLN promoting the game on NBC? If they did do this (besides the playoffs), it wasn't enough, since I dont' remember.
For year 3, I would like ESPN2 to pick up Wed/Thur games.