Apparently, the powers that be in the NHL front office don’t think we do. This fact was made abundantly clear to me when I perused the freshly released NHL schedule and sadly found that The Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings would not be coming to Madison Square Garden this season.

I quickly checked the Islanders and Devils home schedules and found that they too had been passed over and weren’t going to see the Champs play in their buildings. In fact, the closest the Red Wings will come to New York is Washington, DC and Boston. It begs the question, what genius in the NHL Scheduling Office passes over the biggest media market in the free world? What empty suit on Sixth Avenue decided that the Rangers should play Dallas, Anaheim and Chicago twice and Detroit once (in Hockeytown).

If I am an executive at NBC, I am scratching my head and wondering how such incompetence in high places in the NHL continues to exist. After seeing their highest ratings in years for the Stanley Cup finals, the league has shot themselves in the foot again by failing to capitalize on selling a Rangers/Wings Sunday afternoon game to NBC for broadcast in February (when NFL Football is over).

All this considered, it is reasonable to understand why MSG didn’t want the league to interfere with their website and, thusly, the marketing of the New York Rangers. Say what you want about the Dolans but they know how to put on a show and to broadcast it. I wouldn’t want the NHL within a country mile of my team’s promotional agenda.

So, we have Gary Bettman and his ace staff on Sixth Avenue running this league into the ground, media wise. Maybe Gary and his staff should go work for the KHL. What does it matter if they don’t speak Russian? They speak English here and what they say and, more importantly, what they do is still a mystery to most hockey fans in North America.

Hey Gary, what are Ranger, Islander and Devils fans, chopped liver?

Posted under New York Rangers