A conflicting tale of Mike Milbury alleged assault on a 12-year boy is coming to light. There seems to be a wide disparity between witnesses’ observations on the post-peewee game antics that has landed the off-air NBC analyst in hot water, crimes and misdemeanors.

Per this new take, evidently Milbury was merely breaking up a fight that developed post-game in a shoot around between his son and the 12-year old. All he was doing, per witnesses now quoted, was breaking them away from one another.

“No one was punched, kicked, or assaulted in any way,” … “I grabbed the other kid by the sweater to stop a fight and, yeah, I swore at him. That’s it. That’s what I did.”
-Mike Milbury said to NESN

In knowing much about Mad Mike, I’d like to use my imagination a bit to put forth some scenario where that would make some sense. Despite that this take will not be advocated by Milbury’s law team, paid for by his many years toiling on Long Island, I would like to think it would get their full support.

Scenario:

Mike Milbury is watching his son play hockey. He tried and tried to convince Junior to take up the cloth. After all, not many people know this, but the very prim and proper Milbury clan is very close to the clergy. But alas, much like his father, he has an innate feel for the game. Mike can’t disagree here, since he has an amazing ability to judge hockey talent. 

Junior is going to be a star. He skates like Gretzky. He works his stick like Mario Lemieux. He shoots like Bossy. He is the greatest thing on skates since Mary Lou Retton.

Mike watches the game while sipping some warm tea with honey. The air is tepid; the sun feels good on his brow. He slips away from the game itself, and begins to contemplate his next move as potential general manager. What will it be? Toronto? Burke is clearly in over his head. Perhaps LA? So many opportunities to consider…

Hark! Milbury feels something awry. On the ice, his son is getting battered and pummeled by some behemoth.

“Not my boy!” he cries, bounding from his seat and onto the ice. He moves like a cat, thanks to his thick regimen of Pilates and Tai Chi.

Mad Mike runs through the din, separated the two boys, grabbing the behemoth by the sweater.

“Off my kid, you big meanie!” he admonishes sternly to the boy.

Then Mike takes Junior by the arm and walk off into the sunset, those around him clapping and cheering. A real American hero.

In essence, this is the EDGE Uniform System of television rights deals. Lots of pomp and circumstance when introduced, and nothing but frustration when actually put into action.

And as a hockey fan, I’m not happy about this. Once again, the NHL will look bad, hockey coverage will be the same minimal amount as it has been, and the sport won’t grow. Once again, Gary Bettman has gotten a white elephant of a contract, and is trying to sell it to a fanbase that isn’t buying it. Once again, once again.

The basic parameters of the contract are the following:

- 10 years, through 2020-21.

- $200 million per year, $120 million more than what the NHL receives now.

- NBC/Versus is still the exclusive home of the NHL on cable.

- There will be 100 exclusive regular-season games over the course of the season.

- NBC and Versus will have exclusive timeslots for hockey.

- Every playoff game will have national distribution in the United States.

- From the second round on, every playoff game will have exclusive coverage by NBC/Versus in the United States.

- Promotion across NBC’s various networks and digital platforms.

Sounds pretty good, right? Sounds like this is going to be pretty awesome? Naturally, with almost any type of celebratory press release, the truth is in the details. Let’s break each of those points down, shall we?

TEN YEARS, THROUGH 2020-21, $2 BILLION

$2 billion, that’s a lot of money! And sure, $200 million per year seems like a lot, especially when the previous contract was for only $80 million per year. Breaking it down, that’s $120 million more, $4 million more for each team, et cetera. It also seems like a lot because “$200 million, that’s a lot of money!”

That is, until you look at MLB’s latest contracts worth $3 billion per year, for only 7 years. That works out to $428 million per year.

Or, the king of U.S. television, the NFL. That league is getting $3 billion per year. Per year. That blows the NHL’s contracts out of the water.

There’s always the NBA, you might say. They’ve got the same general calendar, same number of teams and games. Right now, the NBA makes $930 million per year for all of its broadcast rights, a figure that blows the NHL out of the water.

Once again, in terms of raw dollars, this deal is a distant, distant 4th place. The NHL, among movers and shakers in the know, again looks bad.

NBC/VERSUS IS STILL THE EXCLUSIVE HOME OF THE NHL, 100 EXCLUSIVE GAMES

Again, this is something that looks great on paper, but really isn’t much of a good thing. If more games and more exposure is what the NHL and us fans are looking for, it won’t be found with this.

Actually, this arrangement is pretty much what the NHL has now. In 2010-11, Versus telecast 78 games, while NBC telecast 13 games, for a total of 91 games. Therefore, by increasing to 100 games…the NHL has increased its national footprint by NINE WHOLE GAMES!

Nine games!

In comparision, Versus covered 65 games in 2009-10, bumping their total by 13 this year. The NHL saw a bigger increase from last season to this one, than from this season to the first under this great new TV contract.

What this will most likely do is simply bump a couple games to Versus on an exclusive basis, instead of having local coverage for the teams involved while the rest of the country watches on Versus. Or, there will basically be no tangible effect, as one or two games per team over a season will amount to nothing.

Also, by making NBC and Versus the exclusive channel for hockey, the NHL eliminates the chance to have another broadcasting partner (and the money/coverage that would come with it). Like with most other exclusive partnerships, Bettman traded a negligible amount of money for an arrangement that ultimately hurts the league. It’s no wonder that no other North American sports league has such an arrangement.

NBC AND VERSUS WILL HAVE EXCLUSIVE TIMESLOTS FOR HOCKEY

This is, once again, another thing that the NHL already has. NBC’s Sunday coverage is already scheduled to be the only game at that time, and many Monday nights on Versus feature the single game on that night.

This isn’t something that needs promoting, because it’s already there. Of course, I could say that this is in there because there is so little else to promote. But I won’t do that.

Instead, I just want to point out that having an exclusive timeslot is worthless if said timeslot is a bad one.

Right now, the NHL’s Game Of The Week comes on NBC at 12:30 pm on Sunday afternoon. Not only is that a half-hour earlier than when NFL games begin, but the NHL is typically a lead-in to golf, bull riding, extreme sports, or something else.

If this truly was a great contract, the NHL would be the featured product of the day, not the lead-in to the crap we make fun of for not really being a sport. It’s embarrassing, and just sad that the NHL is shoehorned in between infomercials and the PBR. Again, no other major sport has such a minor-league deal.

One small change here is that there will be some coverage on NBC during Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. While this could lead to more exposure, I think this will be more of a one-time event, independent of the rest of the season. What the NHL needs is more time on NBC from the Winter Classic on, and this Thanksgiving game should be a beach head to more games on broadcast TV in the fall. However, given the parameters of this contract, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

EVERY PLAYOFF GAME WILL HAVE NATIONAL DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES

I can’t fault the NHL on this, as this actually could be a good thing. On one hand, we could see every game! On the other hand, I look forward to 2012′s equivalent of Anaheim/Nashville on G4, CNBC, or somewhere obscure (and embarrassing!). Or, those games will get put on a NBC-owned network outside of basic cable, as the network tries to force NHL fans to get cable companies to support a fledgling channel.

In other words, it’ll be just like the NHL on OLN.

FROM THE SECOND ROUND ON, NBC/VERSUS WILL HAVE EXCLUSIVITY

For NBC, this is a good thing. For those local broadcasters for each team, it is not. This does nothing to increase the NHL’s footprint, all this does is take games away from local broadcasters. Essentially, those second round games that NBC gains is why the dollar amount has gone up.

Going by the press releases, it seems like NBC Universal only wants the NHL for the playoffs and Winter Classic, as everything else is filler.

Even Dick Ebersol thinks so, going by this quote from NHL.com:

“(Exclusivity during the playoffs is) “the most important thing” in the record 10-year deal because “it is a two-month season that vibrates.”

“I like the rabid fan base in each and every city during the playoffs,” Ebersol told NHL.com. “That doesn’t exist in every city in other sports, that deep level of rabidness. That’s not to say you won’t see it in some cities. It’s that in the NHL it is rabid in every city (and arena).”

This deal comes down to NBC and Versus getting another exclusive round of the playoffs, doubling the number of series they can exclusively cover.

However, what this will mean is still more of the same for NBC, and slightly more on Versus. Again, from the NHL.com press release:

“Along with the NBC/Versus share for the Cup Final, Ebersol said that starting with the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs, of a possible 28 games during the NHL’s second round, 24 will be broadcast in full on Versus and another four on NBC. For the conference finals, 12 of the possible 14 games will be on Versus and the other two on NBC.”

There will be, in short, two weekends during the second round and one weekend during the conference finals where there’s a game on Saturday and a game on Sunday. We have this arrangement now. You just saw it, for example, last weekend. The Red Wings/Coyotes game was on Saturday, the Capitals/Rangers game was on Sunday, both on NBC. We’re going to be getting a lot more of that minimal arrangement, with no primetime games until the Stanley Cup Finals, no playoff doubleheaders, nothing more. Just more of the same, for a little bit more money.

PROMOTION ACROSS NBC’S VARIOUS PLATFORMS

I took look forward to NHL commercials on NBC programming, a couple cursory mentions during NFL games, and the occasional hockey cameo on Jay Leno. This is simply a filler point, nothing more. Although really, ‘nothing more’ sums up the contract well.

In short, could we have expected anything less? Every hockey fan feels that the league can grow by leaps and bounds, but the leadership has the attitude of a fifth-place league. And when you think you’re a loser, you eventually become a loser. That’s what is happening here.

If the NHL is so great, why didn’t the league negotiate for more games on NBC, specifically? Why didn’t the league push for more coverage during the regular season on NBC, especially when there is so little else they are airing? Why didn’t the NHL have something in place if the NFL ends up not playing in 2011?

The reason, of course, is Gary Bettman. For his entire reign as commissioner, Bettman never manages to show any spine when it comes to American negotiation. He always takes whatever the worst, initial offer is, and then tries to pass it off as an achievement. Time and time again, the NHL gets the short end of the stick, as Bettman seems to merely kiss ass instead of drive a hard bargain. That happened again today.

Meanwhile, when there’s someone that Gary can have power over, he tries to squeeze every drop of that power out. Octopi in Detroit? Call the police! Sean Avery makes a tasteless joke? Make a big deal out of suspending him!

This is a loser deal. I cannot believe the owners do not do something about this. I could have negotiated a better deal, and I’m some 23-year-old kid. The collective wisdom of hockey fans on the internet could

have gotten a better arrangement, simply by looking at the numbers and applying common sense.

Like you, I love hockey. I love the NHL, love my team, love the sport. And like so many times before, I just have to grin and bear it when my sport does something embarrassing like this. I guess I should just be used to it by now.

But there were some humorous moments, fueled in large part by fans searching for news, fake Twitter accounts and the general rabid speculation trade deadline day carries that at one time had Zenon Konopka a trending topic, Joffrey Lupol traded to the Islanders (even a team website reporting it) and more experts and pundits than can be counted pounding the table their laptops sit on trying to show off their genius.

The Konopka rumor came early in the morning, and if Twitter can be believed prompted a call from the Islanders fourth line center to TSN telling them he was still part of the Islanders.  There was confirmation it was for a fourth.  Confirmation that Islanders’ GM Garth Snow was asking for a second. Confirmation that the deal was done, but it wasn’t.

Problem was none of the confirmation came from what you would call the alphabet soup of reliable sources: TSN, CBC, NBC, ESPN, NHL, NHLPA.

Then came a Toronto Maple Leaf blogger playing a joke on Joffrey Lupul on Twitter.  Down Goes Brown asked his followers to help him play a joke on Lupol, and to basically tweet at 1250 (et) that Lupul was Long Island bound.

Well it worked-for hours there were tweets about Lupul going to the Isles.  Even the Flyers website picked up the “confirmed” story:

And for his part, Lupul was a good sport on Twitter (and taking a swipe at the wall-to-wall coverage of no trades):

As a hockey fan, it was a fun day to watch.  As an advocate of using social media as a front line way to reach masses quickly with information they seek-the holes were exposed.  Its a buyer beware world for sure, at the same time though its important for those who are in the dissemination business to be out front as well.

Between the 2nd and 3rd periods of yesterday’s World Junior Championship game between Canada and Sweden, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly announced on the NHL Network that due to the consistent forecasts of afternoon rain in Pittsburgh, the start time for the Winter Classic was to be moved from 1pm to 8pm.

In the grand scheme of things, in my opinion it was a smart move to make a firm decision in advance to move the start time. The players have their own pregame routines that may differ drastically based on when the game begins. Imagine what a disaster it could’ve been if they either began the game and it started pouring or if the players got themselves all ready to go for 1 and then at the last minute they had to wait. Or if the game began and then the rain impeded play and had to stop altogether.

Back in late May when the NHL announced that it would be the Penguins and Capitals at Heinz Field, I certainly was not one of the happiest of campers about the choice. I had also stated that this game  is not for the person that’s already hooked on the game, it’s for the person with little to no interest in hockey that may tune in out of curiosity. Throw in HBO’s 24/7 series and you probably have even more people than before intrigued and planning to tune in. There was no way they were going to move it to Sunday afternoon. It’s football day in the United States, and with all of the time and money that has been sunk into promoting the daylights out of this game, they were not going to allow themselves to get crushed against NFL games, some of which have playoff implications.

The Winter Classic would’ve had Saturday afternoon all to itself in terms of NHL games. Now, with an 8pm start, they are competing against 3 other games getting underway at 7  ET (Boston-Buffalo; Toronto-Ottawa; New Jersey-Carolina) and 1 starting at 7:30 ET (New York Rangers-Tampa Bay). San Jose-Los Angeles get under way at 9 ET and Calgary-Edmonton round out the night with a 10 ET start.

Personally, I was on the fence for awhile about watching the game, mostly because I’m just so tired of having the “Sid and Ovi  show” shoved down my throat non-stop. But then I decided that I would. Hey, it’s hockey, and outdoors it’s an interesting spectacle. But now, there’s no way I watch the whole thing through since the Rangers  will be starting half an hour earlier, and in my world, that’s a far more important game. I may peek in during commercial breaks and between periods, but my focus tonight is on my team, not Pittsburgh-Washington. My guess is if you’re a die-hard of a particular team, you’ll be watching them rather than the Winter Classic, too.

Oh, and for the record, it’s going to be partly cloudy and 45 degrees here in New York at 1pm. Pretty decent for some outdoor hockey, huh?

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There is no doubt in my mind that the NHL should continue to participate in the Olympics in Sochi and beyond.  Yes, I know it shuts down the league for two weeks but owners are still getting 41 home games just at a different time of the year and they are still getting the same money from Versus, CBC, TSN, and NBC if they go to the Olympics or not.  What the league gets from the Olympics is television exposure that they would not otherwise get, especially in the United States.  Do you think that Gary Bettman would have been all over every NBC owned network over the last two weeks if the NHL was not in the Olympics.  Also if the NHL kept playing for those two weeks while the Olympics were going on it is likely that the league would lose some viewers to the Olympic hockey tournament, in whatever new form it happens in.

Gary Bettman has said that the league has not currently made a decision on Sochi, but he sure seems like to point out the flaws of going to the Olympics over the positives.  If the NHL goes to Sochi or not will actually have to be decided in the next CBA so the NHLPA will have an input and at this point they seem all for it.  In all honesty it would not surprise me at all if Gary and the league are actually in favor of staying in the Olympics and are just using Olympic participation as a bargaining chip against the PA.

While the NHL should still go to the Olympics, the NHL should realize that it has some pull to use against the IOC/IIHF.  If the NHL did pull out of the Olympics it would greatly diminish one of the major attractions of the Winter Olympics.  The IOC would once again be left with a tournament that had European pros and amateurs from North America or they could move the World Juniors tournament to the Olympics.  The biggest problem with the World Juniors is that it would be less completive then the current format.  I mean there is a reason that it is huge in Canada every year and that is that they finish first or second every time.

The first thing that the NHL should demand in agreeing to go to Sochi is that games start at 9 AM and noon local time so that they can be on in prime time back in North America.  I am sure that some of the players and the Russian fans would not like this, but I doubt Michael Phelps enjoyed swimming in the morning in China but the IOC caved into NBC and he seemed to do fine.

Second, the NHL should take a stand and show that they are really committed to growing the sport by saying that if the IOC even attempts to take women’s hockey out of the Olympics the NHL will walk and have nothing to do with the Olympics.  Gary Bettman and the NHL always talk about growing the sport and this would be a BIG statement on the leagues part to support growing the game when it would not benefit financially.  Yes, currently the women’s hockey field is not that competitive, but the sport has grown greatly since it first entered the Olympics in 1998.  Over that same time women’s hockey as grown at lower levels including now having a number of competitive teams at the Division 1 level in the NCAA.  I would hate to see what would happen to all this if it was removed from the Olympics.

“I was shocked that it was this one-sided. And I was really disappointed that these guys came with their euro-trash game. It was just. No heart, no guts, no nothing there to back it up. I mean Alex Ovechkin was an average player tonight. I know they’re going to bounce back, but to be that poor and to be that intimidated physically by the Canadians, that really shocked me.”

- Mike Milbury, last night after the Canada win over the Russian Olympic hockey team

EUROTRASH (meaning)

Encarta: an offensive term for wealthy or fashionable European people ( slang )

Milbury is making a thinly veiled attempt to channel Hockey Night in Canada's firebrand Don Cherry

I was a child of a generation that did not grow–up with cable TV, in fact my little world existed of Ch. 4, 5, 7, and sometimes 9, but mostly 38 (Bruins) and 56 (Uncle Dale – after school cartoons). We played hockey in the hallway, in my cousins’ basement, in the driveway, on the porch, on desktops during indoor recess…if there was a flat (or not so flat) spot we took the opportunity to play the game we loved. But in a world without cable, without the internet, and without Wii/Xbox/PS3, there were far less distractions. Even at 10 the world seemed small, and it sometimes felt like it was USA against the world. The cold war raged and it was an unwritten law to cringe at the sight of the Hammer and Sickle of the USSR. There were yellow ribbons around every tree, in every neighborhood, as Americans we held our collective breath for our countrymen held hostage held in Iran. How could this ragtag group of college kids take on the Red Army? Could this group of kids put an entire nation on their shoulders and carry the flag of a wounded nation to the top of the podium? Even today it seems like a dream. Today’s generation tries to capture the magic of that dream via the Disney movie Miracle, and while I enjoyed the movie it does nothing to evoke the same rush of emotion I feel when I hear Al Michaels’ call out, “Do you believe in miracles? YES!” I still get goose bumps when I see the Sports Illustrated cover documenting the epic moment. I had been sick in bed with the flu most of that week, but managed to watch every minute of coverage. The game with the Soviets was on tape delay, and unbeknown to me until years later my parents knew the outcome before the game. They said they had to prepare for my disappointment and decide how much they would let me watch if MY Team was crushed at the hands of the Soviet stars Tretiak, Varlamov, and Markarov. Once they knew that Team USA had won, I think they might have been more worried about what would happen if Team USA did not win gold!

Davey Christian and Mark Johnson teaming up for the goal that sent Team USA to the locker room tied at the end of the first period sent me into chants of USA-USA-USA in my living room. Jimmy Craig was playing the game of his life, in the tournament to end all tournaments, and MY captain, Rizzo  was about to slay the giants with a shot from the slot.  But every guy on that team was a hero, and in the red-white and blue moment that I was living in, they were MY heroes. Dave Silk (Silky in my house), Ken Morrow, Mark Pavelich, Jack O’Callahan (O’C in my house), Robby McClanahan, Phil Verchota, Bill Baker, Bob Suter, Neal Broten, Steve Christoff, Davey Christian, John Harrington, Mike Ramsey (Rammer), Buzz Schneider, Mark Johnson, Eric Strobel, Phil Verchota, Mark Wells, Steve Janaszak, Mike Eruzione (Rizzo), Jimmy Craig, and the mastermind – Herb Brooks. (CJ Note: Karl Malden was hands down the BEST Herb Brooks, Miracle on Ice, 1981). The miracle moment sometimes over shadows the amazing comeback on Sunday morning against Finland to win the gold. Down 2-1 I distinctly remember pleading to my team via the TV, “If you beat the Russians, you can beat these guys!” Well of course they did, and I stood in the living room and sang the Star Spangled Banner along with Rizzo and cheered USA- USA -USA when he waved his teammates to the podium. Thirty years later the nostalgia brings a flood of emotions. The Olympics can do that, they can capture your heart and the emotions of the time and put it in a time capsule. When I see a clip of a flag clad Jimmy Craig searching the crowd for his father it instantly transports me back to when I was 10 years old; when the stars aligned and millions of Americans, most who didn’t know the difference between a hockey puck and their mother-in-law’s Salisbury steak (I think Al Michaels said that too, or something close to it), watched a game and learned to believe in miracles.
I realize that the players playing today are professionals, and not 20, 21, and 22 year old college kids taking on a legion of storm troopers as they did in 1980. However, Team USA is the youngest team in the tournament, far less “superstars”, and more future stars don their roster. Today they face Canada, a country who lays claim to owning the game. There is no cold war between USA and Canada, the opposite; they are arguably our most trusted allies. However, among hockey fans Team USA is skating for respect today. There is no arguing that hockey is Canada’s baseball, a sport lived and breathed by their entire nation. Thousands stand and cheer their junior team(not unlike our Little League World Series facination), and earlier this year when Team USA wrestled the World Junior title from their grasp there was most certainly an air of disbelief sprinkled with a bit of horror at losing to the USA. The internet, and in particular social media such as twitter and facebook have made the world small again. Today when Team USA takes on Team Canada in Vancouver it is a hockey game without the drama, political and national significance of the game which took place 30 years earlier, but tweets will be flying back and forth as two countries watch the game uniquely ”together”. If Team USA were to defeat Team Canada it would not be a “miracle” but it would be a surprising upset. There will be millions of youngsters, even some impressionable 10 year olds waiting to be inspired today. The NHL has done well to allow its stars to illuminate the game for the Olympics, future stars will be watching the young stars of the game today, and the energy from today’s game will inspire a new generation of hockey fans.
I know the GM’s of the NHL are all about the business of hockey, but it serves the game well to have the stars of the game skate in the spotlight for two weeks. It is only unfortunate that the network, NBC with whom the NHL has a national TV contract, could not find a way to showcase this game on a primary NBC network, during primetime. The GM’s and owners should not be worried about having their players play in the Olympics, they should however be concerned about the programming choices of their network partner and their inability to put this game on center stage. In 1980 USA and USSR skated under the spotlight, and the result was a hockey explosion in the USA. What is unfortunate is the NHL clearly does not have the leverage to coax the featured game of week 1 on to a primary NBC channel.
Regardless of which network the game is shown, I will be watching. I will be cheering for Team USA, despite the fact I am a fan of several Team Canada players, it is the Olympics and it is always about the Red-White, and Blue. When Team USA takes the ice I am hoping to see the game flavored with the play of Rizzo, Craig, and we’ll need a Mark Johnson performance too. I hope in a living room somewhere in New England, Minnesota, or Nashville a few 10 year olds find themselves chanting USA-USA-USA and this team helps them create their time capsule Olympic moment.

Is NBC mishandling their Olympic ice hockey coverage in Vancouver?

Since the opening ceremonies in Vancouver kicked off the 21st Winter Olympics, the cherished ice-hockey round-robin preliminaries have presented hockey addicts with some already memorable moments. Beginning with the Swiss nearly stunning the seemingly indestructible Team Canada in a 3-2 shootout loss, Slovakia coming back from a one goal deficit in the third period to beat Alexander Ovechkin and the Russians in the shootout, and most recently Ducks forward and Finnish legend Teemu Selanne breaking the all-time record for points in Olympic play by an individual player, the casual hockey fan has found themselves repeatedly scouring through their televisions in search of Olympic hockey.

With 15 games already in the books, and three more on tap for Saturday, the best way to summarize NBC’s coverage of the men’s ice hockey tournament? Poor at best.

Boasting a whopping total of zero games featured on NBC’s “main” station that can be found with or without a basic cable package, eager hockey viewers have found themselves exiled to the sister stations such as CNBC, MSNBC, and the USA Network. As the games have gone on and featured more intangibles from teams in desperate need for points to advance, NBC has continued their farce of a hockey line-up by moving Sunday night’s highly anticipated contest between the United States and Canada to MSNBC in place of figure skating.

It seems that Sports Illustrated’s Michael Farber states it best in capturing the frustration felt by the disresepcted hockey fan.

This is not, to borrow from Keith Olbermann, The Worst Decision in the World. Somewhere else in this fabulous city Olympic ice dancing will be occurring at roughly the same time. Apparently original dance trumps players from the Original 6. As an NBC factotum noted, the decision to show figure skating over USA-Canada round-robin hockey didn’t even require a nanosecond of thought. While one NHL official grumbled about the embarrassment of it all, the league knows where it stands in the Olympic firmament — at least from an American network point of view. Stirring music, gliding couples and glittering costumes are the gold standard.

Even when perhaps the most sought after event to witness in the hockey-rabid city of Vancouver has been passed off to networks primarily known for their business news and drama programs, there’s been an unsettling tendency for interruptions and overlapping events to sometimes kill the enthusiasm fans have as they sit in front of their televisions awaiting any sign that hockey will indeed happen. Events such as women’s curling, skiing, and women’s hockey have delayed the broadcasts of games for viewers on various outlets and have even started airing in the second period (see: Sweden vs. Germany). Factored in with the random and unwarned commercial breaks that leave viewers’ arms up in the air wondering if they somehow managed to change the channel by accident, NBC has given the common hockey fan nothing but headaches, perhaps worsened by the destined-to-fight pundits Mike Milbury and Jeremy Roenick.

Considering the varying degrees of time-slots for games, which range from 3 PM to midnight in the East Coast, the absence of  Olympic highlights on the NHL Network’s beloved “NHL On The Fly” program due to a contractual obligation is magnified, creating a mass hysteria of questions as to “what the heck is going on with Team _____”.

For a network that has consistently shoved Sidney Crosby down the throats of its Sunday “Game of the Week” viewers, the decision by NBC to move a game featuring the game’s most highly profiled player and a squad of all American-born players is simply baffling. While it’s an uncontested thought that hockey tends to fall by the wayside in terms of coverage by the American sports demographic, the repeated attempts by NBC to engage the American viewer are seemingly futile by business decisions such as this.

It’s another swing and a miss for the heads over at NBC.

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1:52pm (all times EST) – Here is a look at what I’m watching today.  Now- Curling USA v Germany   3pm- USA v Switzerland  5:30pm-USA v Russia (Women’s)  7:30pm-Canada v Norway  10pm-Finland v China (Women’s)  midnight-Russia v Latvia

2:06pm – Germany beating the US 5 to 4 in the 8th end.  They should put more curling on TV, its one of those things that after you start you just can’t stop watching.

2:17pm – Germany picks up 2 and is leading 7 to 4 through 8.  Does not look good in game one for the American men.

2:44pm – 3 rocks left and the US is looking to tie it up.

2:46pm – US try to make a comeback but come up short and fall to Germany.  Hockey is up next!

2:50pm – My medal picks for men’s hockey; GOLD: Finland  SILVER: Russia  BRONZE: Canada

3:05pm – And we are on our way!  USA USA USA!

3:08pm – US looks good early.

3:14pm – I love the fact that there are no commercial breaks built into the games.

3:18pm – The Swiss men are playing a lot better then the Swiss women.

3:31pm – USA GOAL!!!!  Ryan puts the U.S. up 1-0.

3:41pm – Why does NBC think that I like Sidney Crosby or want to here anyone talk about him?

3:49pm – Just on our way in the second.

3:57pm – 2-0 USA!!!!!!!!

4:02pm – PP Goal for the United States!  3-0.  Swiss starting to show their holes.

4:18pm – Love to here the Windsor Spitfires talk.

4:25pm – The logo for these Olympics is Great.  The Canucks should uses it on a third jersey.

4:42pm – Pierre McGuire mentions Ryan Kesler is from Ohio State!

4:51pm – Swiss score and we have ourselves a game.  3-1 USA

5:04pm – USA wins 3-1 against the Swiss.  Overall, I thought America look good today.  To me they are a wild card team that could finish anywhere from first to sixth.  We really will not find out to much until Sunday vs. Canada.  Next up is USA vs. Russia on the women’s side.  That game can be seen over on MSNBC at 5:30.

5:20pm – In case you care it is still snowing in Columbus, OH.  And for some reason Sidney Crosby is on my TV.

5:30pm – Chris Matthews says this game is a big one.  USA vs. Russia is next!  Oh, and Hillary Clinton will not be moving to Canada.

5:39pm – USA up 1-0.  This game should not be close.

5:40pm – My medal picks for women’s hockey; GOLD: United States  SILVER: Canada  BRONZE: Sweden

5:46pm – GREAT goal by Potter for the United States! 2-0

5:49pm – Dinner time

6:28pm – I’m back and the US is rolling 6-0

6:39pm – USA ties Olympic record with 5th PP goal.  9-0 USA

7:00pm – USA up by 12 after two.  Russia may be good at men’s hockey but they are not good at women’s hockey.

7:10pm – Canada is warming up.  They’re game my overlap a little with the USA women’s game.  Canada’s game is on CNBC  MSNBC CNBC or you can watch Countdown next on MSNBC!

7:16pm – On our way in the third period and the US scores it’s 7th PP goal! (An Olympic record)

7:18pm – Before I forget Happy Fat Tuesday!

7:34pm – USA is winning 13-0 and it could be a LOT more.  I feel good about my Gold better pick.

7:36pm – The moment Canada has been waiting for has arrived.  Canada and Norway is on it’s way.  NO TV until curling ends on CNBC.  Just over 3min to play in the USA women’s game.

7:42pm – FINAL: USA 13 Russia 0  A great win for the American women.  Next up for them is a big game against Finland on Thursday.

7:46pm – Canada and Norway scoreless on MSNBC (Update: The game is now on CNBC).

8:08pm - Scoreless after one.  I am guessing that most Canadians thought Canada would have scored by now.  Maybe teams with maple leafs on the front of their jerseys just can’t win.

8:28pm – Canada can look now.  1-0 Great White North in the lead.

8:32pm – When it rains it pours 2-0 Canada

8:46pm – It must be nice for Rick Nash to be on a winning team.

8:58pm – The best part of NBC’s Olympic coverage is their music.

9:01pm – I love this Walmart commercial with the little girl who plays hockey.

9:28pm – Canada is looking great, up 6-0.

9:44pm – Hat Trick for Jerome Iginla.  Iginla may be my favorite player.

9:49pm – Canada wins.

10:05pm – Finland vs. China is next.  Go Finland!

10:33pm – China up 1-0.  Late in the first.  This would be a HUGE upset.

11:21pm – Finland leads China 2-1 after 2.  China is holding on and this has become a surprisingly good game.  Finland needs to start pulling away soon or China might pull the first upset of these games.

11:51pm – Finland is on the PP still up 1 mid way through the third.  This is impressive that China has kept it this close.

12:06am – Finland holds on to win it.  They are going to have to play a lot better then that against the US on Thursday.  But we a least had our fist close hockey game of these Olympics.  Well, that will do it for the live blog.  Enjoy the Russia-Latvia night cap and thanks for reading.

Today is already game fifty-three and the fifth matchup with the Flyers.  When the two teams have faced off this season, they always appear headed in the opposite direction.  The Pens enjoyed much early season success, vaulting to the top of the Eastern Conference, while Philadelphia languished out of playoff contention.  After a coaching change, the Flyers continued to struggle and lost a home-and-home series with the Penguins before Christmas, falling 6-1 then 3-2 in a shootout.

Since those two games, Philadelphia has gone 11-5-1 to move into sixth place in the Eastern Conference with fifty-five points.  Meanwhile, the Penguins have struggled, posting a 7-10-0 record including a 7-4 loss at home to the Flyers, but still remain solidly entrenched in fourth spot in the East.

NBC is televising the game nationally at 12:30pm EST today and Marc-Andre Fleury will likely be back in net for Pittsburgh after fracturing his left ring finger making a catch of the puck on a shot in Edmonton.  The Penguins’ number one netminder missed three games and the team used three different goaltenders during his absence.  Philadelphia features the league’s third-best power play at 23.8% and though they have won just once in four tries against the Pens, the Flyers’ PP has produced six goals in eighteen chances versus Pittsburgh.

It goes without saying that the Penguins will need to play disciplined hockey against a resurgent Philadelphia squad, paying attention to defence and not putting themselves in situations where a desperate hook, hold or trip is needed to prevent an immediate scoring chance.  While many have lamented the year-long funk that the Penguins’ power play seems mired in, they have actually gone 8 for their last 37 man-advantage situations (21.6%) over their last nine games (5-4-0) following a season-high five-game losing streak.  Poor defensive play appears to be a larger factor in the team’s mediocre play of late.

There are a number of reasons.  As a team that aggressively plays the puck in the offensive zone, defencemen will pinch in and try to help the team maintain puck possession.  When turnovers occur, an opponent with swift skating forwards and sharp-passing defenders break out quickly, often leaving the Penguins trapped, a step behind the rush charging into their defensive zone.  In other cases, the Penguins move back too low in the defensive zone, simply giving their opponents too much room and time to work, especially on the power play, once they gain the Penguins’ zone.  This was noted in the most recent tilt against Philadelphia when Flyers’ blueliner Matt Carle scored a goal with a wide open shot from the right point.

Interestingly and perhaps, disturbingly, over the past sixteen games (6-10-0), Pittsburgh gave the opposition at least one breakaway chance (penalty shots included) in eight of those contests.  Generally, a shooter scores one-third of the time when he skates in alone on the goalie, and true to the historic statistical pattern, on twelve enemy breakaways in these eight games, the Penguins allowed four goals.  The breakdown, by goalie, below:

M-A Fleury 1 goal allowed on 4 breakaway attempts

Brent Johnson 2 goals allowed on 7 breakaway attempts

John Curry 1 goal allowed on 1 breakaway attempt

In the previous block of sixteen games, when the Penguins were playing their best hockey of the season, their record was 12-3-1 and opposition breakaways occurred in only five of those games (though it should be noted, 3/6 attempts, 50%, resulted in goals).

The point is, giving up frequent breakaways is a classic case of playing with fire.  While there are countless games over the years where Fleury has stood on his head, including making sensational stops on breakaways, the Penguins’ team defence needs to tighten up and cut down on situations of being trapped up ice when the play suddenly turns back into Pittsburgh territory.  A breakaway goal given up can be devastating, game-changing and sap the energy out of a team.  Just this past week, Tomas Fleischmann and Alex Burrows of Washington and Vancouver respectively, scored tiebreaking breakaway goals against Pittsburgh that gave their clubs leads they would not relinquish.

Important points to consider as the season steams ahead to the three-quarters pole.

I love the Winter Classic.  There is just something about outdoor hockey that is 10 times better then the indoor version.  Going into this year’s game I was kind of expecting a letdown after last year.  The old baseball stadium thing had been done before and I really had no rooting interest in the game, after having my favorite team in last year’s.  But you know what, this years was better and the best since the 2003 Heritage Classic because for me the first will always be the best, especially when you consider the old-timers game was played too.

In three years the NHL has established itself a foothold on New Year’s Day, what was once thought to be a one sport day.  However, the NHL will have a decision to make coming up with the 2012 Winter Classic.  You see January 1, 2012 falls on a Sunday and when New Years Day falls on a Sunday college football moves its bowl games to Monday, January 2^nd so it does not have to compete against the NFL.  So the question is should the NHL follow college football and move the Winter Classic to January 2^nd or keep it on New Year’s Day and go head to head against the NFL?

The bowl games move to Monday because college football would not want to lose viewers to the NFL plus the bowl games and the NFL share some of the same TV networks.  NBC does not carry any afternoon NFL games so they could still air the Winter Classic and their primetime NFL game.  But would NBC want to go up against their partners in the NFL?  Or would the NFL put any pressure on NBC not to have the game on New Year’s Day?

If I were in charge on the NHL I would keep the game on New Year’s Day.  That is the day people expect it and I think there are plenty of people who are not NFL fans out there who would be looking for something else to watch on New Year’s Day.  People said that the NHL was stupid to go up against college football and they did that, so why not take on the NFL for one Sunday.  Also, I suspect that the CBC would want to keep the game on New Year’s Day, although in recent history the NHL has not seem to care as much about what CBC wants instead giving in to NBC.

Not having college football to go up against in 2012 would also give the NHL an opportunity to play the Winter Classic in a Big Ten football stadium where the schools and the NHL would not have to risk a chance of that school’s football team playing at the same time.  The Big Ten plays two bowl games that currently overlap with the Winter Classic.

So what would you like the NHL to in 2012, move the game to the 2^nd or keep it on the 1^st?