NHL & ESPN TALKING ABOUT TV RIGHTS FOR 08-09

Interesting article, but Versus maintains the rights to the games and paid sixty millon dollars for the priviledge and have those rights until 2011.

On Espn, Hockey will always be the eighth or ninth sport but clearly Versus does not get it when they do not have studio shows or post-game press conferences for fans when finals games are on NBC.

Two finals were shown on NBC, twenty minutes after the cup was awarded they were off the air, Versus did not have the common sense to do coaches, players press conferences and a live studio show for the fans either year?

You may ask, they may not have had the rights to do any postgame following NBC coverage, but here's the kicker.

The only places to see the post game press conferences and the coverage were, you gussed it....ESPN NEWS.

Why pay for something, show it all year and then not be around for the end of the finals?

This even happened on some long ot games where Versus did the game, if a game went three overtimes, they got off almost immediately the show re-runs or repeats of programs.

I'm sure at 1am on the East Coast Bill Clement and the crew want to go home, but such great games require live coaches press conferences and player comments. They usually have people working the benches, go work the lockerooms.

I'm a die-hard fan, this is want I'm looking for.

Also what happened to all that programming Versus had on in year one for hockey with those old Islander History of Hockey segments?