Even though I’m in an area that doesn’t carry Verses, I agree wholeheartedly with this.  While ESPN supplies so called sports (poker?) to the masses, their allegiance has always been to the money grabbers.  Even when they had the NHL, they didn’t push it.  As much as we love our sport, most see it as a novelty.  If ESPN didn’t change that in the 90’s, what makes people think that they will change it now?  Get NBC to actually do more.  Forget cable, network tv is still the bread and butter. 
But kudos to the NHL for their online work.  Their gamecenter has been a lifesaver.

Posted by DAGON from Brookings, SD on 11/19/08 at 11:59 PM ET

As I understand it the Hawks are on local WGN in the Chicago area, so what would it take to get them on nationally, like the Chicago Bulls?

it would take the nhl changing its rules regarding a teams territorial rights.

Posted by patrick on 11/20/08 at 02:36 AM ET

i live in edmonton and i get the hawks on my wgn channel.  it’s good to be able to see another western conference team play once in a while and it’s in hd.

Posted by heed on 11/20/08 at 02:38 AM ET

Depending on how you look at things, ESPN buying up all of the NHL’s sports competitors and moving them to pay cable actually opens up a lot of opportunities for the NHL on broadcast TV.

Posted by HockeyinHD on 11/20/08 at 08:50 AM ET

I’m pretty sure Patrick is right - the league wouldn’t allow WGN to broadcast the Hawks on the National WGN.  They are on WGN radio though which supposedly reaches 38 states… so that’s something I guess.

Changing those TV boundaries could be a great idea for the league - but I doubt many of us have faith in the NHL to do the smart thing.

Posted by MatthewK. from Chicago, IL on 11/20/08 at 12:16 PM ET

My understanding is that this agreement only covers the BCS games (Fiesta, Sugar, Orange, Rose, and the Championship Game), not ALL bowl games. I have seen nothing else that indicates the “29 of 34” that Deadspin alludes to.

This article from CBS seems to pretty well back up what I thought was the case.
“The agreement covers the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar bowls each year and the BCS title game from 2011-13. The Rose Bowl will continue to be televised on ABC through at least 2010 under a separate, previous contract, said ESPN president George Bodenheimer.”
http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/11113634

This would mean there would still be plenty of room for ESPN to air hockey. I’d love to just have NHL2NITE back.
Or maybe just someone besides VS who heavily weights their TV schedule towards Eastern Conference teams.

Posted by David from Nashville on 11/20/08 at 01:17 PM ET

David: Somehow, you’re forgetting about ESPN’s “Bowl Week”, where they show a buncha bowl games that have nothing to do with the BCS during the time between Christmas and New Years (and gets hyped all through December). A good part of me wishes I were you…

I wish they could show Blackhawks games on WGN nationally. I get WGN here (good source of Cubs games in the summer) and I would love to see that team play on a more consistent basis instead of just the occasional Versus tilt and the one, maybe two times they’ll play the Sabres this year.

Posted by Ed K. from Rochester, NY on 11/20/08 at 01:29 PM ET

Just counting up from this schedule of the 34 college football bowl games, broadcast rights currently stand as follows:

21 on ESPN, 5 on Fox, 2 each on ESPN-2, CBS, ABC, and the NFL Network.  Taking the four you mention from Fox brings the ESPN/ESPN-2/ABC total to 29.

We should also remember that back when the NHL was featured on ESPN, it didn’t have anywhere near as much competition for airtime within that network.  Today is an entirely different environment, and the NHL would be waaaaay down the list of priorities over there.

Frankly, I’d like to see Versus put together a nightly highlight show, they’ve proven they can put on a good game presentation, so they should be able to pull it off.

Posted by Forechecker from Nolensville, TN on 11/20/08 at 01:38 PM ET

I wonder if the NHL is keeping Versus from doing that since they have their own nightly highlight show on NHL Network…

Posted by MatthewK. from Chicago, IL on 11/20/08 at 02:26 PM ET

I agree that it would increase viewership by having them nationally broadcast. I get WGN chicago up here in Canada and catch the Hawks games on there when I can. The broadcasting is pretty good, and cant beat the HD games, no matter who is playing!

Posted by Mother Pucker Hockey on 11/20/08 at 02:55 PM ET

@Ed K.  - I had forgotten about “Bowl Week” and how ESPN shows all of those games. But I hadn’t forgotten about all the bowls as my Commodores are going to a bowl for the first time in my lifetime and I’ve spent most of the week planning for a New Year’s trip since the Preds have been off since Monday.

@Forechecker - Ahh..I see where the total of 29 is coming from now. I didn’t even think to add in the ones they already broadcast.

We have to remember though, bowl season is 2-3 weeks long..the NHL regular season is 26 weeks. Plus, even with all the college football ESPN could probably still fit in 2 games per week to match what VS is showing all season.

Posted by David on 11/20/08 at 03:46 PM ET

I am totally out of the loop as far as watching games on TV the only time I get a chance is when NBC airs them and that dosen’t happen untill the spring genrally.  Our cable here offers VS but it is on the digital tier and when you consider in box rental on top of the extra you have to pay for the digital tier your looking at eaisly $50 bucks more a month.  Our FSN here jumps from Rocky mountain sports net to midwest to who knows what I think that Fox and Espn could profit more from airing Hockey games rather then poker or 500 episodes of best (worst in my opinion) damn sports show in one night.  As a Redwings fan I am forced to sit in front of my computer and listen to the games online and watch the few games that they show on Yahoo Sports because I cannot see spending a couple of hundred bucks to watch games online and hundreds of dollars to get the digital tier and watch eastern confrence game.

Posted by Gene from Lincoln Ne on 11/20/08 at 03:49 PM ET