DirecTV

This week over at Hot Dog Hockey, I had the chance to provide my E-Take on hockey coverage here in the United States, examine which network the NHL might select when the contracts with Versus/NBC end in 2010/11 and take a look at whether the NHL can return to relevance as a top 4 sport. Here is an excerpt: As someone who lived in Canada for the majority of his life, I had always taken for granted the availability of hockey on pretty much any night of the week. Even more so, I knew that if I had missed the night’s games then the highlights would be available on any of the sports networks (TSN, The Score, Sportsnet). So, it becomes something of a culture shock when you move to the US and struggle to find any hockey games on television. (It should be noted that I live in Michigan, the state responsible for producing the most U.S. born players currently playing in the NHL, so an expectation of nightly hockey seems somewhat legitimate). Instead I am relegated to tuning into ESPN Sportscenter to see, at most, a quick 5 minute hockey package which usually entails 1-2 minutes of Barry Melrose showing off his mullet and his newest hockey cufflinks. Read the entire article here.

Hotdog Hockey: A Return to Relevance