The National Hockey League Is a Joke

We all now that the NHL is the worst of the main four sports in the US— greatly trailing the NFL, MLB, and NBA.

Do you think Fox could tell baseball when they could air the World Series? Or TNT and ABC could tell the NBA when they could have the Finals? No.

NBC dictates everything that the NHL does. The NHL needs to stand up for itself as a league. Gary Bettman needs to move his sport to a channel that respects the history if the game.

ESPN did a great job when they used to cover it. Fox did an okay job and NBC is by far the worst.

The commentators are fine, I don't mind Emrick or Eddie Olczyk. I don't really care for Pierre McGuire. He can be a tad annoying.

Thorne and Clement did a good job for ESPN as well. I don't understand how NBC is the main broadcaster of the NHL. They show maybe nine regular season games and like four or five playoff games before the finals. Versus, as terrible as they are, do a better job than NBC.

Versus should act as NBC, showing a select few games, and the NHL should move the coverage they had with Versus to ESPN. But, as long as Bettman is in charge, that won't happen.

Now, to the second reason the NHL is joke. Since when can you make up rules as the season goes along. For the whole season the rule has been if you instigate a fight in the last five minutes of the the game, you were issued a game misconduct and a one-game suspension.

In Game Two of the Stanley Cups finals, Evgeni Malkin initiated a fight with Red Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg. Malkin was given the instigating penalty and the game misconduct, but he was not suspended by the NHL.

The official rule is: "A player who is deemed to be the instigator of an altercation in the final five minutes or at any time in overtime shall be suspended for one game, pending a review of the incident. The director of hockey operations will review every such incident and may rescind the suspension based on a number of criteria. The criteria for the review shall include, but not be limited to, the score, previous incidents, etc..."

Colin Campbell said the following about the situation: "None of the criteria in this rule applied in this situation. Suspensions are applied under this rule when a team attempts to send a message in the last five minutes by having a player instigate a fight.  A suspension could also be applied when a player seeks retribution for a prior incident.  Neither was the case here and therefore the one-game suspension is rescinded."

Even if that is the situation, Malkin should have been given another misconduct for not having his jersey tied down. That would have been his second game misconduct in the same game, which also results in a one-game suspension.

The NHL will not be taken seriously until they quit protecting players.

Manny Ramirez is one of the biggest names in baseball, but he cheated, so he was suspended. Why can't the NHL understand they have to issue punishments if a player deserves them?