Sydney Crosby... Alexander Ovechkin... Evgeni Malkin.

These are all names that most sports followers have heard. Turn on SportsCenter and you'll see a goal or two from these guys on any given night.

We know the names, we know they can score, but beyond that, we barely know anything about today's NHL. We aren't seeing the new rules, the new speed, or anything else the league has done to make it better.

Why? Because we can't watch it regularly.

Yeah, the games are shown regionally to fans in their respective markets, but that's about it. We get 2-4 games weekly on Versus, the former Outdoor Life Network. Good luck finding that on your cable system.

This is the same network that airs the Tour de France, bull riding, and other extreme sports. They also get a game a week on NBC. Wow. Color me unimpressed.

Is this really the best television deal Gary Bettman (who, incidentally, is NBA Commish David Stern's protégé. A man that knows how to make a deal) could make?

Look to your mentor and the deal he has for the NBA. Go back to ESPN. Go back to ABC, which no longer has football. Put a game on Saturday afternoon or night and one Sunday afternoon.

Go with an NBA-NHL double-header on Sunday. Get a night on ESPN when you can have a double-header. Make those games feature stars like Crosby, Ovechkin, or Dion Phaneuf of Calgary. Feature long standing rivalries like Philadelphia and New York or Colorado and Detroit. These are what people remember of the NHL pre-strike.

Let us see teams like Buffalo and Anaheim that are tearing up the standings with great overall team play and great goal tending. The last two Stanley Cup champions come from the Southeast Division. Show games from there and let people see that even in the south, where ice is not a natural occurrence, great hockey can be played.

There is one year left in this crappy deal. As far as I am concerned, that is one year too many. If there is any way for the NHL to get out of this contract and go back to a legitimate sports network *cough*ESPN*cough* then get on the telephone now.

If you are forced to wait, then someone needs to be in Bristol, Connecticut the morning after the Stanley Cup is handed out this June to begin negotiating the next TV deal. We have teams on verge of collapse (it would be a travesty to have one of the cornerstone franchises – Pittsburgh – move because there isn't enough money coming in from television revenue to help sustain it and assist it in the building of a new arena).

Other franchises are also feeling the pinch financially in terms of a lack of ticket sales. This has to do with the lack of any real marketing force in the league. You have these stars. We should be seeing them all over our TVs, in Sports Illustrated, and every where else.

Did you know that this week was the All-Star break in the NHL? Not a lot of people did. This is the week when hockey fans get to see the bright stars of tomorrow play together on the same team. There hasn't been an All-Star game in three years thanks to the Olympics and the strike. This would have been an incredible opportunity to showcase these young kids that have take the league over by storm.

Again, Bettman blew it. The game was on a Wednesday night and competed against American Idol. This was the first week in nearly five months without any form of football. Why wasn't the skills competition and young-stars game on Saturday night (it could have been called "All-Star Saturday Night") and the game could have been shown mid-afternoon on Sunday. NBC usually shows a game or two on Saturdays. This would have been a perfect opportunity for the NHL to get itself in front of a large audience. This was a gross mistake and falls squarely on the shoulders of the Commissioner.

Lastly, the schedule needs to be changed so that it is balanced. As it stands currently, not every team plays against one another annually. Currently, each team plays eight games against its division rivals, while playing four games against each team in the other divisions within its conference, and then ten games against the other conference.

The best way to fix this is to cut the number of divisional games back to six. This saves eight games that can then be used to play against the opposing conference. That would balance the schedule and allow teams three games in which to schedule an extra "rivalry" game, or maybe bring in one of the stars of the league that their fans wouldn't normally get to see play in person.

There are ways to fix the NHL and bring it back to prominence in America. Maybe the place to start would be finding a Commissioner willing to take a chance.