Adam Proteau: Time to invest in NHL broadcasts

Adam Proteau: Time to invest in NHL broadcasts
ADAM PROTEAU
The Hockey News

There are a couple ways to interpret the news that the NHL will be the first pro sports organization to partner up with Internet phenomenon YouTube.

The optimist in me says the league deserves a whole heap of credit for hitching part of its wagon to a cutting-edge technology. He also says youngsters who spend much of their spare time perusing the world wide web – on which YouTube is now ubiquitous – will become familiar with the game and its players in ways they wouldn’t have otherwise been able to using the Betamax video terminals mom and dad still have hooked up in the rec room.

The pessimist in me counters by noting that a greater degree of familiarization with the NHL will breed contempt among fans when they realize what those of us lucky enough to have the Centre Ice satellite package already know: the stark disparity in the production quality of televised U.S. games remains a sore spot for a league eager to expand its horizons beyond the gate-driven present.