Preaching to the Choir

Reading the always-entertaining American Hockey Fan Blog I was reminded of just how tired I am of the lack of NHL highlights, especially on ESPN.

Look, I know that ESPN loves to piss on hockey. They love to make jokes about obscurity, and why wouldn't they? The NHL is often the opposite of ESPN: it makes little sound about things that everyone should see, while ESPN makes a lot of noise about games that are bland and stories that are blown out of proportion.

Fine, DON'T ever lead Sportscenter with hockey. I can understand that. But one request: if you're going to have a Sports Ticker, can you at least get NHL scores up there once EVERY TWO COMMERCIAL BREAKS? I know, I know, there's the Internet, but what about people with shabby access? Do I have to go to a fuckin' computer lab every time I want to know if the Kings just lost or got trampled?

Anyway, after venting a bit, I have a half-baked idea that would be beautiful but undeniably impossible. The NHL needs to acknowledge the greatness that is YouTube, or something of its ilk.

Since they're too cheap/shortsighted/lazy/stupid to actually produce an NHL 2Night-lite, why not let the teeming blogosphere/YouTube savants make their own low-budget wrapup shows?

I'm not going to act like I know how this would actually work logistically, but shit, if YouTube was big enough when I wasn't painfully employed, I'd be all over that shit. The league could provide rudimentary highlight clips for the public on NHL.com - like ESPN Motion or something. I could wear the same suit every night and barely comb my hair, spout Berman-sque nicknames (Todd "The Uzi" Bertuzzi...Ha..Ha..haha...fuck you) and have a grand old time. And I imagine at least 5 people (family included) would also be entertained.

Hell, to fill in the inane wrapup show editorializing gap, I can even rush to judgments and say that without a doubt, the Thrashers and Sabres will meet in the Eastern Conference Finals...Forsberg's done for good...Drury will win the Richard trophy...Toskala-Nabokov should be awarded a siamese Vezina...whatever.

OK, so maybe this is actually a dumb idea. But this would all be solved if the NHL/Versus/some opportunistic American media outlet made a nightly wrapup show, like American Hockey Fan and many others are clamoring for.

Please? Pleeeease? Can the NHL sort of listen to the fans sooner, rather than their vaunted "Wait 'Til Next Year if We Do It At All" marketing strategy?