Last Saturday afternoon, the Sabres/Senators Eastern Conference Final Game was dropped by NBC at the conclusion of regulation time. NBC kindly explained that they had to go to their coverage of the Preakness.(Note: If NBC didn’t present its coverage of the Preakness in full, NBC would be in violation of their agreement with Thoroughbred Racing and its advertisers). Bill Clement explained that Versus would be picking up the coverage of the overtime.

For the rabid fan of NHL Hockey, it wasn’t a big problem. Most of us have Versus. All you had to do was change the channel. However, for the casual fan, it must have been a huge turn off. Imagine investing 2.5 hours in a sporting event only to be told you couldn’t see how it would end. That’s not the way for the NHL to win fans. Recall that the NHL has no formal agreement regarding how much they are being paid and how they are covered. The playoffs are being shown at the grace and favor of NBC. They can take hockey or leave it. They left it.

The radio talking heads were laughing at the NHL, supporting NBC in their decision to drop the game. The overtime game got less then a 1.5 share on Versus, as opposed to the Preakness which got a 5+ share for NBC. They went on to say the present format of the NHL playoffs precludes it from serious consideration from major networks. Major networks do not have the flexibiliy to continually alter their schedules for a sport with a tenuous running time. (Except for baseball, which is sacred in the lower 48).

The implication to me was that, in order to resolve this problem with NBC(any major network), the NHL should find a way to commit to a finite time for game play. The most obvious way to guarantee that a game concludes in under three hours is to determine a regulation tie with a shootout. Like it or not, this may eventually come to pass. If the NHL wants to compete with the other major sports, they may have no choice but to go to the shootout. The shooutout also solves another problem. Playing triple and quadruple overtimes exhausts the players. They turn up at the next game like raw meat.The quality of the play would be infinitely better if games were decided in less time.

Many fans will argue that to decide NHL playoff games in a shoot out would be akin to the before/after ramifications of the designated hitter rule in baseball. Like baseball. Hockey would never be the same. It would denigrate the game.. All that had gone before would retain an elevated status in the annuls of the NHL. Winning the Stanley Cup is about the grinding 16 game odyssey to Hockey Nirvana. To lessen the terms of the quest is unthinkable to NHL fans. Sure, the shootout in the regular season is exciting and has become popular. But, it has the allure of a Lindsay Lohan. It is cosmetic and shallow. To cheapen hockey’s legacy is a huge price to pay for television market share.

Picture Gary Bettman at the next Board of Governors meeting. He’s trying to convince them that the answer to all their television revenue problems is to institute the shoot out in the playoffs. Can’t you see him standing up, doing his best impression of Michael Douglas as Gordon Gecko in Wall Street. Greed is Good. I bet they’d eat it up with a spoon.

Please. Don’t shoot me, I’m only the messenger.