Why Ping Pong is Better Than Hockey - Why the NHL needs ESPN

Deciding to take a break this afternoon, I sit down on my nice leather couch, put up my feet, turned the channel to TSN and relaxed in front of my TV. "What did you watch?", you ask. Well, I was treated to ESPN's coverage of championship ping pong! Now, the purpose of this blog isn't to talk about the flawless technique of World Champion Wang Hao (the Toronto Sports Guys will save that discussion for another day), but watching those guys pound the ball back and forth really made me upset at the fact that a "sport" like ping pong can get onto ESPN while the NHL has been off of the network since the lockout.

Now, I'm not trying to knock the existing American coverage, I happen to think that Versus is in fact doing a good job on their coverage. Their analysis and commentary on the game has greatly improved since they first started covering NHL games five years ago. However, the market saturation that Versus occupied cannot compare to that of ESPN. According to Wikipedia, ESPN is broadcast in about 20 million more homes than Versus is. Also, in 2009, DirecTV stopped carrying Versus' signal, thus costing the NHL 14 million potential viewers.

Unfortunately for the NHL, the league and ESPN could not agree on a new deal. ESPN wanted a revenue-sharing agreement, however, the NHL rejected this and instead accepted a $120 million dollar agreement from Comcast, the company that owns Versus.

It seems to me that with the NHL trying to solidify it's base in the southern U.S., that the only way to do this is to get back onto ESPN. The breadth of NHL does not have to be extensive, however, something similar to what the MLB or NHL has currently would make sense: a featured game one night a week, coverage of special events, such as the draft, playoffs, and all-star festivities. Let's not re-invent the wheel here, but just follow what has worked.

If Gary Bettman wants to be remembered as the Commissioner who lead the league into new American markets, then this is an obvious step to take. Then again, Gary Bettman isn't one to follow what's obvious (like to bring the game to markets where the sport is already thriving), so who knows when the NHL will return, if ever, to the U.S.'s largest sports network.

Olympic Recap - Top 10 Moments

#10 - Typical Canadian Weather? For all those around the world that thought that we lived in igloos and that the Olympics would be held in balmy -20 C weather, boy, were you in for a shock. These Olympics will go down as the warmest and wettest winter Olympics to date. Snow had to be flown in, fog and rain postponed many events, and temperatures reached the mid-teens during the opening week.

# 9 - Olympic Gaffs: The dignitaries were late, we wouldn't let you anywhere near our torch, and one of the flame's arms wouldn't go up, but it wouldn't be a Canadian Olympics without something going wrong. In the typical Canadian spirit, we poked fun at that and let Catrina Le May Doan finally light the cauldron.

# 8 - Snow and Ski Cross Excitement: Were these sports fun to watch or what? We saw race after race of exciting skiing and snowboarding. All the athletes pushed the limits and were thrilling to watch. Three Canadian's won medals, while a fourth just crashed short of the line trying to propel himself onto the podium.

# 7 - Charles Hamelin and Marianne St-Gelais: How fun was it to watch these speed skaters cheer for their respective partner? One of my favorite moments was watching a replay of Hamelin's first gold medal with an inset of St-Gelais reactions as the race went on. When the race ended, St-Gelais jumped the bleachers to give Hamelin a kiss. When all was said and done, the couple ended the games collecting two golds and a silver medal medal.

# 6 - Jon Montgomery's the Coolest: It seemed that the turning point of the lull in Canadian spirit at these games came with Jon Montgomery's golden performance. We watched him speed down the treacherous luge track four times with a cool swagger that made him an instant fan favorite. His celebratory beer-guzzling not only raised money for charity, but also landed him a spot on the Oprah Winfrey Show!

# 5 - The Women Party Hearty: A lot of people seemed to get their panties in a knot when pictures were leaked of the woman's gold-medal hockey team celebrating their victory with some beer and stogies on the ice. To all those who are upset by this, where were you during Jon Montgomery's beer blast? The point is that I hate the double standard here. The team fought hard to win gold and then did what any Canadian team (professional or otherwise) would do after a game: celebrate with a cold one. Nothing wrong with that.

*On a side note, if Dr. Jacques Rogge ever decides to read this blog, I hope you were joking when you said you opposed seeing woman's hockey in the Olympics because of the lack of parity. How else do you expect the game to grow if it cannot be showcased on the international stage? If you're going to remove sports because of the lack of parity, why not take a look at gymnastics, for example, which is dominated by China, the U.S., and former Soviet countries. What about the men's aerials? If you weren't Canadian, American, Chinese, or Belorussian...tough break, cause you didn't crack the top 12. Cut out the hypocrisy please.

# 4 -Curling Domination and Spontaneous Oh Canada's: As a long time curling fan, the Canadian teams did not disappoint. We were treated to phenomenal shot-making. Kevin Martin's rink proved its dominance, while Cheryl Bernard was inches away from a gold. Even better were the fans at the curling centre. While some criticized the fans for showing bad bonspiel etiquette, I was actually glad that the game was attracting new fans. The fans twice broke-out into a roaring rendition of Oh Canada, that touched the players and the rest of the country.

# 3 - Alex Bilodeau Gets the Ball Rolling: With one skier to go, the country held it's collective breath, wondering if a near-flawless performance by Bilodeau would finally get the monkey of our backs. When the results were in, Guilbaut Colas's efforts weren't enough and Canada finally won it's first gold medal on home soil! We were all swept up in the fervor of Bilodeau's victory. What made the story even more impressive was learning how he took up skiing so that he could participate in an activity with his older brother, Frederic, who has cerebral palsy. Watching Frederic cheer his brother to victory was amazing.

# 2 - Men's Hockey Gold: I spent the entire two weeks defending Sydney Crosby's play. "He doesn't have to score a dozen goals", I reminded everyone, "he's doing the little things right. He'll come through when it counts most, don't worry, he want's it (the gold) badly." Sure enough, I had just repeated this sentiment as Crosby tried to split the D in overtime, when The Kid popped in a Jerome Iginla pass to end the game, beat the Americans, and re-claimed our gold medal. The men's team may not have had a dominant tournament, but kudos goes out to each and every player who, by the end of the tournament, found their role and played to win (thus proving my hypothesis in a previous blog :p). As a Toronto resident, this is the closest thing to a Stanley Cup that I'll see this year.

# 1 - Joanie Rochette's Bronze Medal: After Rochette's short program, I was expecting Tom Hanks to jump out from behind the couch and yell at me: "there's no crying in figure skating". I will never understand how she was able to skate two excellent routines just days after unexpectedly losing her mother. Simply incredible. Kudos to the C.O.C. for recognizing her achievement and appointing her Canada's flag bearer for the closing ceremony.

Thus ends a great 17-days. Congratulations to VANOC for putting on a great show and to all the international athletes for exciting the world. Now back to reality: the Leafs and Carolina play Tuesday night in an epic eastern conference battle. No. That's a lie. But how can I go back to the Leafs after averaging 10 hours a day glued to Olympic coverage?