Capitals vs. Penguins... Blackout

Washington takes on Pittsburgh in 4 regular season contests this year. I remember the lead up to their Oct. 16th tilt, I was shit hot excited... "Ovie vs. Sid! This is gonna be huge!" The game was a beauty... or so I heard.

I had to listen to the game using NHL radio from NHL.com and I was ready to puke. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy listening to the games, and I feel that the NHL has done an excellent job of streaming the radio feeds from each game... and for free at that, but I think it is pretty lame that this game wasn't picked up by a national network. We are talking about Mega-stars here.

Now about 3 weeks later, we got Caps star (and the leagues leading scorer) Alexander Semin chirping Crosby in the media, "What’s so special about [Crosby]? I don’t see anything special there. Yes, he does skate well, has a good head, good pass. But there’s nothing else." Semin goes on to say that sophomore Blackhawk Patrick Kane is a more interesting player to watch (maybe he's right) and that you can make any player a 'star' as long as you give him as much promotion as Crosby has received (maybe he's right)...

Those are some pretty big words Mr. Semin. I just hope that you aren't embarrassed by Sid the Kid on national television when you roll into Pennsylvania on the 14th of January... Oh... Wait... You won't...

Apparently this game won't receive a national feed either.

Now I'm no marketing wizard, but when you have been trying for the better part of 2 decades to put your sport on the map in the U.S. shouldn't Gary Bettman be sucking the cocks of every T.V. executive in the states to get this game on the tube? Offer it up for free... Shit, it isn't even on Versus for the love of fuck. What's on Versus that night? Bull riding, or some show where hunters teach their kids how to shoot animals in the neck?

So, we have to wait until February and March so we can watch these 2 teams on NBC for their 3:00 pm afternoon games, where they will do battle with the Arena Football League (and probably lose in the ever so precious southern markets). Oh, and also make sure you are home on April 5th when NBC rounds out their regular season schedule with a thriller! Pittsburgh vs... Florida? There are sure to be some playoff implications there...

It has come to the point where it is hard to be a fan of the sport, because you can't watch the games. If Sidney Crosby is the face of the league why can American fans only see him 11 times on free television?