Gary Bettman Probably Shouldn't Read This

If ever you wanted a reason why the NHL will never acheive the mainstream popularity that its commisioner so desperately craves, you need only look at this, from today's Washington Post. Even if you ignore thre "figure skating" and "WNBA" responses (because most of those were probably girls, and girls don't matter, right?) the number for the NHL is pretty bad.

For the record, I don't really care. As far as I'm concerned, I'm perfectly happy having hockey as a "Versus" sort of sport rather than an "ESPN" sort of sport. As long as the NHL continues to exist and the Capitals stay in Washington, that's all I need. Who needs mainstream media exposure? The internet is here now and instead of reading the Washington Post, I can read one of the twenty or so Caps blogs the day after a game. Instead of suffering through an hour of some half-crazed Sportscenter anchor in hopes of catching a glimpse of some hockey highlights, I can just head over to YouTube. And, come playoff time, I'll be able to catch at least one game every night on Versus rather than having to tune to ESPN to watch the scores scroll across the bottom of the screen during yet another meaningless early season Red Sox-Yankees game.