Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

League hires a former NFL executive to beef up programming, NHL Network to see overhaul

Even the most cynical hockey fan should value the NHL Network to at least some extent, especially if you’re an American puckhead. For all its faults, the channel often covers the league’s big events (trade deadline coverage, later rounds of the NHL draft, the occasional live game during the regular season) and NHL on the Fly is the best TV show for hockey highlights.

Still, there’s no doubt that the NHL Network has a long way to go before it becomes a must-watch channel for hockey fans. While I think their snark was a little bit excessive (the network features some decent original programming, particularly their day in the life series that follows a hockey player from their homes to the rink), Orland Kurtenblog captures some of the weaker points of their programming. Here’s their take on how the network’s Top 10 programs compare to the superior NFL Network versions.

The bigger problem, though, is poor execution. Each NHL Top 10 has a similarly stale feel. Host Dan Pollard stands in front of a television (I think it’s a Magnavox) and introduces the show. He then segues into No. 10. The list runs in reverse sequential order; each number is accompanied by a vignette of mashed-together, unnarrated highlights culled from a box of VHS tapes found in the network basement *. Pollard will only explain between three to five of the 10 on any given list, which leaves the viewer with a lot of questions: Why is this guy at No. 6? How come that game didn’t make the top three? Who exactly compiled this list of Top 10 shorthanded goals scored in 1997?

The Top 10 shows definitely have a low-tech feel and, as they point out in the article, it would be nice to gain greater context to their random lists. Why not throw in some interviews as players and coaches look back at those rivalries, if nothing else?

Well, as Greg Wyshynski of Puck Daddy points out, the NHL hired Charles Coplin (former NFL vice president of programming) to overhaul the league’s content across a variety of platforms. Coplin’s title will be executive vice president of content. As such, he hopes to overhaul the NHL Network (among other league vehicles) to compete with other networks in breaking news and - perhaps most importantly - to generate original content.

First big news: The NHL is taking over its own Network from CTV, and a new Hi-Def studio will be built in Toronto. Which is great news for anyone wondering why Kevin Weekes(notes) keeps appearing on a public access set five times a week to talk about the Predators.

Second big news: NHL Network is going to stop being a meandering home of highlight reels and random archival programming, and start becoming a place that breaks news and creates timely shows throughout the year.

While it will take some time for the network to transition from “Low budget station that features many reruns and strange informercials about Randy Couture’s exercise equipment/the occasional creepy spot about catheters” to a top-notch operation, it’s exciting to hear that the league is going to put some resources into NHL Network. I think I speak for most hockey fans when I say: the more hockey, the better.