If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

I understand ESPN’s hesitation...somewhat. The NHL is the worst TV audience out of the four major US sports. The network averaged only 400,000 viewers per game on ESPN, and almost half of that when shown on ESPN2. Not the most stellar of ratings, and in a world where money runs everything, it just didn’t cut it. To pay close to $70 million a year (what Comcast is going to pay) for something that they may not get the return on, from a business standpoint, makes sense.

But this is hockey folks. ESPN has let a major sport leave their network, but yet they will still show bowling and poker (nothing against those two…umm…”sports”). This is Gary Thorne and Bill Clement, whom in my opinion call a hockey game better than anyone else, gone. The OLN? Come on!

Some of you may think that it doesn’t matter which network a game is shown, as long as it gets shown and you can watch it. In some cases, that may be true. Hopefully the OLN will prove me wrong and have excellent coverage. Hopefully they can find some top notch commentators that will call an exciting game. Hopefully hockey on TV as we know it hasn’t been ruined for at least three years. Only time will tell I guess.