What Hockey needs to do

Being form Pittsburgh, I love my sports. Of course we have the Steelers, but in the mid 90's, during our Stanley Cup rampage, I was not only a
Penguins fan, but actually liked watching hockey. Now, with the unbelievable skill, instinct, and flare of the Golden Child, Sidney Crosby, I find myself habitually checking up on the Penguins' scores and anxiously anticipating Sportcenter Highlights and Berry Melrose on ESPN. What happened to the NHL on Cable

While ESPN’s stock has been rising, there can be little debate that the NHL’s stock has been dropping on ESPN. Since the NHL made the questionable decision to abandon the cable network as its broadcast partner in favor of the fledgling Versus network, many have argued that NHL coverage on the Worldwide Leader in Sports has ranged from underwhelming to disrespectful. Even ESPN’s ombudsman, Le Anne Schreiber, felt compelled to examine hockey coverage on the network. In an article last month, she confirmed that hockey coverage has indeed diminished 28% on Sportscenter over the last three years and that hockey-oriented shows such as NHL 2Night were cut altogether since ESPN’s loss of NHL rights.

The reduced exposure on ESPN can only be harmful to the NHL. By minimizing coverage and highlights, the network is effectively reducing the imprint of the game on Americans’ collective sports consciousness. Worse still, several ESPN writers and commentators have gone out of their way to emphasize the demise of hockey. Le Ann Schreiber recently noted that during the NHL’s regular season, hockey was only mentioned on-air if there happened to be “some egregious brawl” or if it was being “dissed” for its invisibility and irrelevance.

Now, playing the NHL commish, I think they should do several things to shake things up:

• Give a bigger role to Melrose and some of the other legends of the game and commentators


• Empower the young talent



• Forget ESPN be the first to broadcast over the internet and market that primarily to hockey fans in the US and go traditional in the hockey crazy countries.


• Adopt some English Premier League Relegation style and incorporate playing some of the other Canadian and European team in something similar to Champions League.


• Drop the Versus network and try to get on spike tv because it fits the extreme sport, MMA fan base. Hockey fights are perfect for their fan base

These will help drive sales and interest in the League besides baseball is really becoming an American game of the past, rather than, America's past time.

Freebee's

Movie Upload Sites

Currently, I have been surfing the net looking for free movies. I've stumbled upon a few great sites that don't require downloads but stream from the actual site. Yes this is illegal, but I feel that making a piss-poor movie and charging $10 per showing is robbery too. The movie industry has been forever showing great previews of a movie and having these critics rant and rave about how great a movie is and then it is decent at best.

So to combat the overcharging of movies because the industry has lost control of implementing a quality business model, I will list my 2 favorite sites. If anyone has their own that they would like to add please do.

Two Favorite Movie Sites

1. Digaclip


2. TVOKAY

These sites obey the laws of gravity, "What goes up must come down". So check out these while you can.

Absurd Indictment?

Yea, so Vick pleaded guilty. I thought that he had a good chance to beat this preposterous indictment. However, PETA, pressed hard for this to be seen through and NOW they got what they wanted. Dog fighting is violent and cruel, but so are ALOT of other things that are currently going on to animals. Lets look at


Bull Fighting
, or


deer hunting
, or other big game hunting. I hope that Vick gets a minimum sentence because all PETA wanted was the publicity and if they continue the fight on dog fighting and cruel punishment on animals then i hope they look into the other crueler aforementioned acts against animals. I feel that this whole indictment was to make an example out of Vick, on the NFL and PETA's behalf. Also to use Vick as platform for PETA to be heard. I really don't think that PETA really cares about those dogs because 53 of them are going to be euthanized, killed, if people don't claim these dogs. If PETA really cared about these dogs and how they were treated wrong then why don't they adopted these dogs and stop them from being killed. I guess if Vick euthanized these dogs then we wouldn't have a problem?

If Released, the Replacement should be

Michael Vick, who was told not to attend training camp, faces a chance of being cut altogether by the Atlanta falcons. From the ownerships stand point; many of the fans that come to the games just come to see Michael Vick. So if they cut this ticket bring commodity, how will the fill the seats? A logical replacement for the scrambling and passionate QB is Dante Culpepper. Yea he is still black, runs, guns, improvises, etc. However, different from Michael Vick is his proven ability to throw the ball down the field. Yes, he has recovered from a knee injury, but this will give the falcons some leverage of getting him at a cheaper rate and giving him a chance to, not only prove that his is healthy but also, prove that he is back to previous pro-bowl caliber level. This is the best replacement from a race and similar quarterback position. Atlanta has a huge African American fan base and bring in Culpepper would be a nice decision, to keep the African American market happy. Second option is rolling the dice on Joey Harrington. Since Atlanta will bring in a brand new offensive system, maybe this will help Harrington, not because he may pick up the new system extremely face but because he will have rather low expectations and some slack based on the situation at hand. I would try to get Culpepper and get him cheap and that is ONLY if the Falcons release Michael Vick.

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