The Hockey Stop

Before I mount heaps of praise upon the Chicago Blackhawks for reaching the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1992 by sweeping the San Jose Sharks, I have to make a comparison that might make Washington Capitals fans like myself question why Mike Green is on defense instead of being a forward.

The reason being is that Chicago forward Dustin Byfuglien started out as a defenseman and was moved to the forward position -- an experiment that has been wildly successful. Byfuglien scored the game-winning goal the past two games against San Jose, none more important than his third period tally at United Center this Sunday afternoon that capped a 'Hawks rally after being down two goals and sent 23,000 fans at the Madhouse on Madison into a frenzy and the Blackhawks into the Stanley Cup Finals.

Perhaps Green is better suited as a forward and could have the same kind of success as Byfuglien has had with Chicago. But that is a decision the Capitals will have to make. Maybe seeing the 'Hawks skating into the Stanley Cup Finals will make them consider changing things up a bit.

Chicago will be playing for its first championship since 1961. While a lot of that is due to Byfuglien's heroics, goaltender Antti Niemi deserves a lot of credit for keeping the 'Hawks in every game with save after spectacular save.

And with young stars like Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, the NHL couldn't have asked for a better representative from the Western Conference. Chicago will play the winner of the Flyers-Canadiens series, which could end as early as Monday night in Philadelphia with the Flyers up 3-1 against Les Habs. Of course, tell that to the Caps and Pens.

Video highlights of Game 4:

NHL legend Wayne Gretzky is holding his fantasy camp at the Bellagio in Las Vegas this year and he was gracious enough to sit down with NHL Live! interviewers E.J. Hradek and Craig Button to talk shop.

Here are a few gems from the Great One:

On what it will take for the Washington Capitals to win the Stanley Cup this year (hint: it has to do with the same position played by Grant Fuhr when the Edmonton Oilers and No. 99 were a Stanley Cup dynasty):



On the Phoenix Coyotes' cinderella season and Ilya Bryzgalov for MVP:



On what L.A. Kings defenseman Drew Doughty brought to Team Canada's gold medal run in the Vancouver Winter Olympics:



On Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane's great play in the Olympics and his teammate Jonathan Toews being a modern-day Bryan Trottier:



On Sidney Crosby:



On what Wayne is doing now:

The number of high-profile NHL players in the injury penalty box is starting to add up and it is only November.

With the Swine Flu and Seasonal Flu skating around, we might need Tamiflu instead of Gatorade on the bench and new no-touch rules in place -- meaning no roughing up star players such as Alex Ovechkin.

The Washington Capitals star is the latest player to miss time due to an injury. Ovechkin suffered an "upper-body strain" in Washington's overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets at Verizon Center last night. The Great Eight was apparently injured during a second period scrum with Jason Chimera.

Ovechkin will definitely miss the Capitals' next game Wednesday night in New Jersey and might miss this weekend's home-and-home series against the Panthers.

Without the league's reigning MVP and leading scorer, the Caps are going to need to tighten up on defense. Perhaps it will be good for the team to learn how to play without an automatic goal scorer such as The Russian Machine.

But the Caps aren't the only team having to make adjustments. There have been a number of star players that have succumbed to injuries so far in this young season. Here is a rundown of the fallen stars:

• Anaheim netminder Jean-Sebastian Giguere is out with a groin injury until early November.

• Atlanta Thrashers left wing Ilya Kovalchuk is on injured reserve with a foot injury. He is expected to return to the lineup in mid-November

• Boston's Marc Savard is also out with a foot injury. He is expected to return late November.

• Carolina's Eric Staal has an upper body injury and is doubtful for Wednesday's game against Florida.

• Both the Blackhawks' Marian Hossa and Jonathan Toews are beat up. Hossa is out until late November with a shoulder injury while Toews is questionable for Nov. 5 at Phoenix. Toews has already missed four games due to "concussion-like symptoms" from a hard hit against Vancouver.

• Dallas Stars center Mike Modano is out until early November with a rib injury.

• Detroit Red Wings center Johan Franzen suffered a knee injury and will be sidelined until at least mid-February.

• Nashville Predators star Jason Arnott is out until early November with an arm injury.

• Pittsburgh has lost both Sergei Gonchar and Evgeni Malkin. Gonchar is out until late November with a wrist injury while Malkin is out with a shoulder injury and is expected to return mid-November.

• Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo is questionable for tomorrow night's game against the Rangers with a rib injury.

Other notable injuries include Kari Lehtonen, Milan Lucic, Valtteri Filppula, Rick DiPietro, Donald Brashear, Jason Spezza, Simon Gagne, Danny Briere, Joe Pavelski, Devin Setaguchi and Phil Kessel.

Click here for the full injury report.

The Chicago Blackhawks are hitching onto the popularity of the Chicago Bears and the NFL franchise is riding the winning ways of the NHL team.

The Bears and Blackhawks have entered into a marketing partnership, reports ESPNChicago.com. The deal will include commercials, appearances at United Center and Soldier Field, and other cross-promotional activities.

Blackhawks stars such as Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews will join Bears players such as Jay Cutler and Devin Hester in the spots.





Quebec City is making an aggressive push for an NHL franchise.

Mayor Régis Labeaume recently announced the city is building a new arena to lure a team and the NHL's top brass are taking notice. Both commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly have both stated that a new arena will help Quebec City's cause in its competition with Kansas City and Las Vegas for a team.

The city lost the Nordiques to Denver (Colorado Avalanche) which could hurt its cause, but it also could be a positive as Daly stated: "Both Winnipeg and Quebec have already done that (supported an NHL team). We'll see how things evolve."

This past Memorial Day weekend my parents visited Los Angeles from Washington, DC and I wanted to show them the renaissance taking place downtown so we hopped on the subway (no Jack Bauer sightings to report) and ventured into the heart of Lakerland -- the Staples Center and the adjacent L.A. Live entertainment complex. My parents are still following the NHL playoffs despite the disappointing end to the Caps' season at the hands of the hated Pens and we were determined to find that elusive channel called Versus since, like many other basic cable subscribers, I don't receive the former Outdoor Life Network (but I do get three ESPN channels!).

Following an excellent guided walking tour of the historic core, we went on a journey to find a single TV showing the Pittsburgh-Carolina game in a sea of purple-and-gold clad Lakers fans clamoring for a good vantage point of the Los Angeles-Denver game in the bars and restaurants surrounding Staples.

Now, the fact that every television set within a 50-mile radius of Los Angeles was showing the Lakers game is entirely understandable (we finally found one TV showing the Pens-Canes game at a downtown hotel thanks to a couple of Avs fans from Denver who weren't much into the Nuggets).

But it is what happened the previous night that convinces me that if the NHL has any intention of spreading its fan base beyond traditional puckheads, the league must re-sign with ESPN when its contract with Versus expires in 2011.

The Blackhawks-Wings series should have garnered the national attention at least somewhere close to the level of the Cavaliers-Magic NBA playoffs series. The matchup featured two of the NHL's Original Six teams. One: the defending Stanley Cup champs. The other: a proud franchise making a comeback in the third-largest media market in North America behind rising young stars Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews.

So, you would think a large sports bar in Los Angeles would be showing Chicago-Detroit Game 3 (which the 'Hawks won in OT) on at least one TV screen amongst at least 30 showing the Cleveland-Orlando game. Nope. I asked the server why every single TV was showing basketball and she responded with an emphatic and assured "It's the playoffs!" before calling the manager over to change the channel to Versus.

When we finally settled in to watch the game I overheard a couple of buddies asking what channel Versus was on: "Isn't Versus on channel 9,000?" said one friend to the other in a mocking tone.

I asked my colleague, Variety managing editor Stuart Levine, who recently wrote an article about Versus' improved ratings during these NHL playoffs, if he thought it was a mistake for the NHL to leave ESPN for Versus.

"While I think Versus is doing a nice job with the NHL playoffs, and their production has been terrific, having the games over there lacks the buzz that hockey so desperately needs had the action been on ESPN. Like it or not, ESPN is the sports behemoth and anything telecast on there will usually get more play and coverage -- whether it's worthy or not."

Levine added: "If Alex Ovechkin vs. Sidney Crosby was on ESPN, it would've been huge, and made a big impression beyond traditional hockey cities, i.e. the West Coast and Midwest towns."

For years hockey fans have complained about the sport playing second fiddle on ESPN, but until Versus gets the penetration of ESPN and is picked up by every cable provider and hotel, classic games such as Caps-Pens game 2 in which both Ovechkin and Crosby scored hat tricks, will not generate much excitement outside of Washington, Pittsburgh, Canada and Russia.

And yes at least some of the playoff games are televised on NBC. That's great. But it's not enough. Not when Versus is carrying Games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals, meaning many won't be able to watch what is possibly the final game if one of the teams sweeps. All the Stanley Cup Finals games should be on NBC. And Versus can keep Professional Bull Riding while the NHL goes to ESPN and gets the national attention it deserves.

Here is the Stanley Cup Finals TV schedule:

Saturday, May 30

5 PST/8 EST: Pittsburgh at Detroit, NBC

Sunday, May 31

TBD: Pittsburgh at Detroit, NBC

Tuesday, June 2

5 PST/8 EST: Detroit at Pittsburgh, Versus

Thursday, June 4

5 PST/8 EST: Detroit at Pittsburgh, Versus

June 6

5 PST/8 EST:* Pittsburgh at Detroit, NBC

June 9

5 PST/8 EST:* Detroit at Pittsburgh, NBC

June 12

5 PST/8 EST:* Pittsburgh at Detroit, NBC

* – if necessary