Pens get their first win

[IABucFan]

4-1 over the Flyers.  Nice to see them come out and play well right out of the gate.  If Fleury gets hot, this team has what it takes to make a deep playoff run.

[AVS4MGR]

I'm not a huge hockey guy but I have been following the Capitals series. I cannot believe after how much the Penquins have outplayed them, Washington has still forced a game 7.

[IABucFan]

Huge win tonight.  Outright domination for the Pens.  I think the score was actually closer than the game.

[AVS4MGR]

Great series. Hockey has some great young talent that it has not had for a while. The NHL is really blowing an opportunity to make hockey relevant again by not having the games broadcasted on actual network television.

[IABucFan]

Great series. Hockey has some great young talent that it has not had for a while. The NHL is really blowing an opportunity to make hockey relevant again by not having the games broadcasted on actual network television.

I actually just posted the exact same thing on the ESPN board.  The NHL needs to do whatever it takes to get games back on ESPN.  Pay ESPN if you have to.  In the long run, it will only help the league.  Guys like Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin, Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toes, Phil Kessel, Jordan Leopold, Paneuf and others are just the kind of talented guys the league needs to showcase.  Even if it's not ESPN, they could work out a national contract with Fox Sports Net or TNT, or something.  There are probably ten or fifteen networks that are in more homes than Versus that broadcast sports.  Heck, most NHL teams already have deals with their local Fox affiliate (i.e. FSN Pittsburgh or FSN Rocky Mountain where I'm at for the Avs).  If they can do local games, have FSN pick up two or three games a week nationally.

[MaineBucs]

I do not regularly follow the NHL, but I do watch college hockey now and then.

That said, I was really surprised to find game 6 of the Pens - Nats series on the VS channel that I get as part of my DirecTV package.  I didn't turn the game on until the mid-way through the 2nd period, but I found myself enjoying every minute of play.

If this game is indicative of the quality of play in the NHL at the present, then I agree, the NHL should do whatever it takes to get greater coverage of the league.  Stars, particularly likable stars, can make it happen.       

I am now regularly checking my DirecTV channels to see if any of the next round of the NHL play-offs mysteriously appear on some other obscure channel that I normally don't watch.

[AVS4MGR]

How about tonight? Both huge series with game 7's between the Red Wings vs. Ducks and Bruins vs. Hurricanes. However, the Bruins/Hurricanes game is nowhere to be found on television until the Red Wings/Ducks game is over. There is no excuse for that. I actually like playoff hockey, there is a lot of drama in there. I tried my hardest to watch the NBA playoffs, but for the life of me cannot do it. It is just too boring. They don't play defense anymore and it is no longer about teams playing each other, it's about individual players playing each other.

How can you turn on your cable and find things like bowling, lacrosse, poker, billiards, bass fishing, TNA wrestling, weight-lifting competitions, spelling bee's, hunting, soccer, Skip Bayliss, volleyball but cannot find a single second of live coverage of a game 7 in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Something is wrong there.

[IABucFan]

Could not agree more.