When Comcast won the bidding war for the cable television rights to the NHL over ESPN, there was a pretty consistent reaction.  There was no longer any reason to take the NHL seriously.

     And throughout the regular season, it looked like that might be the way it was going to be.  On opening night OLN presented their first ever hockey broadcast.  The New York Rangers battled the Philadelphia Flyers.  The ratings were some of the highest that OLN had ever had, but the quality was seriously lacking.  The camera was far too close to the action, the audio was a bit fuzzy, and the set for the intermission reports looked like one made for a college television station.

     OLN's broadcasts slowly improved, but the ratings didn't.  Their national broadcasts that aired several nights a week went largely unnoticed by everyone except hockey diehards.  The national appeal of ESPN's National Hockey Night still seemed to be a thing of the past.

     But for this year's playoffs OLN has brought something to the table that has never been there before.  They show hockey every single night, often more than one game.  You can turn on your television any night of the week and watch playoff hockey.  Not only does OLN present a game every night that there is one being played, but they also show games that are being presented by CBC.  Imagine ESPN caring so much about their coverage of a sport that they would actually show another network's broadcast.  It would never happen. 

     OLN shows hockey on nights that there isn't any hockey to be seen.  They show classic games and any of a number of hockey related programs when there are no games being played or a local game is blacked out.  Again, that isn't in ESPN's forte. 

     Sure, for the casual fan or just the occasional observer, OLN is still not the ideal place to expose the sport, but for those of us that are truly passionate hockey fans, these are the best playoffs we have ever gotten a chance to see in the U.S.  It's all hockey, all the time.  American hockey fans have never been able to watch so many playoff games in one year. 

     In the past, ESPN's idea of playoff hockey coverage was to show a few games a week, then take over every game when it started to get down to the nitty-gritty.  During those other nights that they didn't present hockey they'd show other programming.  Understandable, since they are the leading sports network in North America if not the world, but it gets a little ridiculous when you consider the content of the programming. 

     ESPN was skipping out on playoff hockey so that they could show programming like meaningless, early-season baseball games.

     That's right.  People were missing grueling, intense, heart-pounding playoff hockey so that ESPN could show two baseball teams with 150 games remaining square off in a game that meant absolutely nothing.  Interestingly enough, early season National Hockey Night never seemed to get too much in the way of ESPN's baseball playoff coverage in October.  But then, that's just the way it is when you are a fan of the fourth ranking sport.   

    So as hockey fans, let's all be grateful for OLN.  Sure, it isn't the major network exposing the sport that we would all like it to be, but at least it cares.  For the first time, an accessible network is making hockey its top priority.  That has never happened before.  Ever.  Even if it is only because hockey is the only major sport they have to show, they are still making a bold statement.  Playoff hockey is great, and OLN believes in it.