Wayne Gretzky is responsible for the genesis of my love for the sport of hockey.

On this specific day, I have to pay some homage to another big name in sports that I had the great luck of growing up with: Gretzky.

Where I grew up, the only sports the kids cared about were football, basketball and baseball (albeit to a much lesser extent).  Hockey wasn’t even a thought near the intersection of 55th and Girard Avenues back in the 80s and 90s — unless you were hanging out in my house.

If any of the neighborhood kids talked about “The Great One” outside those boundaries, they were referring to Michael Jordan ten times out of ten.  Imagine my embarrassment the first time I thought my friends were talking about the best hockey player in the NHL — a league many of them didn’t know existed.

I knew who Wayne Gretzky was thanks to the fact that I was the only kid on the block playing NHL ’94 on the Sega Genesis.  At least once a week, I would grab the controller and have myself a nice little seven-game Stanley Cup Playoffs series with me playing as Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings against Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Unfortunately, I only knew Gretzky as a member of the Los Angeles Kings.  Much of what I knew about Gretzky came via television clips of his winning four Stanley Cup Titles.  When “The Trade” happened in 1988, I was only eight years old and had no idea how important the move was and how it changed the hockey landscape.

17 years ago, I saw Wayne Gretzky for the first time live, and my life changed that night.

On January 16, 1994, I saw Wayne Gretzky live for the first time in my life at the Philadelphia Spectrum.  He scored one goal and one assist in a 5-2 loss, but it was an experience I will never forget because he lived up to every bit I had seen both on television and in the virtual world.

After that game, I was hooked on the sport and tried to learn everything I could about it — the rules, the good players, the teams, etc.  I was a big fan of Gretzky, but I ultimately settled on being a New Jersey Devils fan, which is both ironic and insane as a Philly kid.  There was something about a team that had punishing bruisers like Scott Stevens and Bobby Holik with a goalie in Martin Brodeur who never seemed to let anything past him.

It goes without saying that I was a bit of a social outcast in high school because of my affiliation with the Devils — something that continues to this day since the Flyers stumbled against the Devils in the 90s.  Since watching Gretzky for the first time, my love for hockey has grown, and the team I followed went to three Stanley Cup Finals winning three (’95, ’00 and ’03).

I owe all of my joy for the sport to Mr. Gretzky.  I was excited when he broke Gordie Howe’s record of 1,851 points.  I was completely in awe when Gretzky scored his 802nd career goal — since I followed a team that had a reputation of stopping more goals than they scored.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Gretzky.  No matter what Trent said in the movie “Swingers” in 1996, you changed my life by planting the seed of your great sport which has blossomed to full blown passion for the game today.

In other words, it’s about damn time!

So I fixed myself a delicious sandwich, watched the end of a thrilling Rose Bowl between TCU and Wisconsin, and the time has come to shift my attention to NBC for the Winter Classic.

Pregame Notes

• I just sent out the following tweet: “Awesome Rose Bowl! Congrats to TCU Horned Frog fans! Tonight is your night, no question! Now it’s time to switch over to the #WinterClassic.”
• Bob Costas opens with Mike Milbury (on skates). Costas made a joke about how he’s taller than Millbury. The stage that Costas is standing on has to be about two feet high, judging by how it looks across the way. Costas is proof that good things come in very small packages. And that’s not what she said.
• Mario Lemiere (SP), Jerone Bettis, Franco Harris, and Sgt. 1st Class Bradley T. Tinson out to drop the ceremonial first puck to Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin as Heinz Field began to chant “MARIO! MARIO!”
• After an A-plus national anthem from a young Pittsburgh area girl has the crowd rocking. It’s game time!

First Period

20:00 – As we start i’m surprised to see such a wide camera angle. I don’t like it. Look, I know that Heinz Field is much larger than the Igloo, but couldn’t NBC try to zoom in a bit more or put some cameras on a crane by the ice. Not that much to ask for…

18:02 – Pierre McGuire reporting about the “balmy” conditions. I like his French/Irish name. Not a common combo.

15:44 – Back and forth early on. The Penguins are wearing their dark blue throwbacks with sky blue trim (which makes goalie Marc Andre-Fleur’s yellow and white helmet look off) and the Capitals are in their white 80s throwback. Between the weird uni’s and the wide camera angle, it isn’t easy to know which team is which.

15:20 – Washington about to go on the power play as Pittsburgh head coach Dan Bylsma is shown wearing a fidora! I’m calling him Tom Landry the rest of the game.

14:00 – Awesome blimp shot as Jordan Stall (Pittsburgh’s third line center, playing in his first game of the season) has a great shorthanded chance. He left the ice to a good ovation in his first game of the year. But back to the blimp shot…

13:20 – Pittsburgh just killed off the power play as Washington’s Jay Beagle and Pittsburgh’s Zbynek Michalek (a buffalo nickel for whomever can pronounce that right) get into the first official post-whistle scrum of the game just to the left of the Pittsburgh net. I feel like all hockey announcers should have a degree in Russian or some other Eastern European language to pronounce some of these names. Zbynek?!

12:32 – Our first commercial break of the game. One thing the NHL has over the NFL: two or three commercial breaks would have already occurred during an NFL telecast.

11:39 – Crosby just got around Green to draw a holding penalty on a play that could have very well ended up in a penalty shot. The Penguins are going on the power play.

10:31 – Back-to-back shorthanded chances from Washington, the Penguins answered with a good chance of their own in the transition. Two more good chances from Pittsburgh and the first Penguin power play is half gone.

9:39 – A great scoring chance from the second power play unit (Tyler Kennedy), but Washington goalie Semyon Varlamov held tight, and Washington killed off the power play.

9:02 – Staal with a good scoring chance. Pittsburgh now has the momentum after the power play. When we later returned from a commercial, Tom Landry talked with McGuire about the impact of Staal in this game. He’s been the best player on the ice thus far.

8:08 – Pittsburgh’s Michael Rupp and Washingtong’s John Erskine are fighting! For anyone who thinks that fighting is bad, bite me.

6:41 – A Capitals shot just rang off the post. Nearly had our first goal. I have a feeling that Fleury, whom the announcers said was admittedly having difficulty adjusting to Heinz Field, is going to be shaky in this one.

5:43 – Mark Letestu just rang one off the post for a near Penguin goal.

2:40 – I was just thinking that we haven’t heard much from Ovechkin when he fell down attempting a slap shot at the blue line. The crowd laughed at him, but I wonder if the warm weather had something to do with it. What temperatures are hockey arenas? They aren’t 32 degrees right, so why should the warm weather matter? Is it the rain we’re worried about? Speaking of Ovechkin, isn’t it ironic that a Russian hockey player star plays his home games in Washington D.C.? Wouldn’t anyone from the 1980s and before think he was a Communist spy? Let’s run it by Marty McFly and Doc Brown when they visit Hill Valley in October of 2015.

1:33 – Jim Cantore, a.k.a. the Fox Weather guy, just came on and said that the atmosphere will draw the moisture out of the air and keep the ice in good shape. As I type this, Fleury just made a sprawling save as the period goes under 1 minute.

0:00 – Pittsburgh has one final push at the end of the period, which ends with some sparring between the two squads. Good emotion for a big time game. Unfortunately, no one’s scored.

1st Intermission

Here’s a good video if you’re into the whole Ovechkin vs. Crosby debate.

2nd Period

20:00 – The weather guy just came back on to talk about how the rain that’s starting. He’s saying that it shouldn’t be a big deal. There just can’t be a major sporting event anymore without a story being beaten into the ground. I’m glad I could join in … Let’s get back to some damn hockey!

19:27 – Crosby just fed Chris Kunitz (a member of my fantasy hockey league team “The Zig Zags”) for a good scoring chance. In more weather related news (yay!), the rain should only last 5 more minutes.

19:00 – Ovechkin was just denied by Fleury on a breakaway chance and stoned the Russian spy, excuse me, star yet again just seconds later. Fleury looked really good there. Guess he’s doing just fine after all. Must be my Flyer-fan bias coming out. Don’t you hate when that happens?

17:47 – Malkin scores on the breakaway just seconds after Fleury again stoned Ovechkin. Wow, Heinz Field just erupted! Malkin looks pumped. He just jumped into the arms of his teammates at the bench. Think the players know how big this game is?

Washington 0
Pittsburgh 1

17:01 – Washington Brooks Laich was pushed into Fleury and whistled for goalie interference. It could have been interference on Pittsburgh, but it looks like the Penguins just caught a break. Penguin power play time.

15:31 – Crosby had a good chance in the slot, after a nice feed by Malkin, but the shot went high and wide. That would be the best scoring chance before the Capitals killed off the power play.

14:04 – Ovechkin just drew a holding penalty on a good burst through the neutral zone to put Washington back on the power play.

13:06 – Former Flyer fan favorite Mike Knuble pokes the puck through Fleury’s five-hole off a scramble in front of the net to tie the score. Remember how the coach in Mighty Ducks 3 talked about blue collar hockey and cleaning up the trash in front of the net, well tonight I’m bestowing Knuble with the nickname “Blue Collar Hockey”.

Washington 1
Pittsburgh 1

12:30 – Good pressure by Washington followed by a transition play by Crosby that set up Malkin for a big drive. Now it’s Washington getting good effort on their next offensive zone possession. This game has finally opened up!

10:59 – Yet another weather update. Is there are term for when a story is past “beaten into the ground” status?

8:50 – Jason Chimera just whiffed on a wrap around attempt that would have given Washington the lead. Needless to say that the Phoenix, whom I have been exchanging text messages, was incredulous after that. Pittsburgh’s Brooks Orpik appeared to get a piece of the puck on a later replay. Time to calm down, Adio

7:57 – The announcers just had the following exchange: “Rain seems to be coming down a little harder now.” — “It is.” Please stop.

7:14 – Caps head coach Bruce Boudreau talks about how he told his team to stop trying to stick-handle as much due to the weather. Must stop talking about the weather.

6:29 – Ovechkin just played one in front of the net and Knuble, a.k.a. Blue Collar Hockey, again tried to poke the rebound past Fleury, but this time the Penguin netminder was up to the task. Blue collar hockey but no blue collar goal.

5:15 – Blimp cam as we come back from commercial just in time to see Eric Fehr score off a turnover from Fluery behind the net. Go to the net and good things happen. OH I LOVE HOCKEY! P.S. File this under I hate modern sports coverage: the announcer to Darren Pang: “Did the weather play a factor in that goal?”

Washington 2
Pittsburgh 1

4:23 – Tripping call on the Capitals as Maxime Talbot was dragged down in front of the goal. Good penalty as it could have easily resulted in the tying goal. The Penguins, 0-for-2 thus far on the power play with seven shots, have a chance to get the quick equalizer.

2:56 – After an early Malkin slapper, Washington has done a good job during the power play and killed it off rather easily.

1:30 – The ice is looking kind of weird with some rain puddles on it. Corny joke alert: Pucks will be rolling in Pittsburgh tonight!

0:34 – A Pittsburgh goal was immediately waived off as Rupp slammed into Varlomov and knocked the puck into the net. No penalty but rather “incidental contact”. As the announcer said in Might Ducks 2 after Dewayne (the Cowboy) got two minutes for roping, “Well that’s a new one on me…”

0:00 – Crosby got nailed away, um, accidentally by Washingtong’s David Steckel from the puck a few seconds before the intermission, and he is indeed shaken up. Now that’s what I call incidental contact!

2nd Intermission

Jerome Bettis and Franco Harris squared off in a friendly shooting contest between periods. Bettis got two more pucks in the net, but Harris won when he threw a football (the money ball) into the net for four points and the Bus’ shot did not. Solid effort between periods, even if it did publicly embarrass Jerome Bettis. Programming during hockey intermissions are usually disasters.

Before we go back to play, I just saw the NBC promo for the Rams-Seahawks contest for the NFC West title, or as I call it: the newest event at the Special Olympics. Normally, I would root for the Rams — who have a former Eagles coach (Steve Spagnuolo) and a rookie quarterback (Sam Bradford) — but why not go for broke and have a 7-9 Seahawks team in the playoffs? It is, after all, the NFC West manifest destiny. I’m done thinking of this as a bad thing. Go Seahawks!

3rd Period

20:00 – Crosby is back on the ice, warming up, so it looks like his injury at the end of the 2nd period wasn’t too serious. In other news, the rain has stopped. Thank you, Sports Gods!

19:11 – Malkin is skating with Staal early on in the 3rd. Malkin is sort of a like a free agent in the Penguin lines tonight. Interesting move by Tom Landry, always an innovator!

16:09 – Play was stopped as the net became dislodged after a Sidney Crosby stuffer attempt. Old Sid the Kid looks a-ok. What doesn’t look okay is the now pouring rain. (Damn! Damn! Damn!)

15:21 – Varlomov made a trio of nice saves, one courtesy of the post off a backhand from Malkin.

12:31 – Knuble was just called for a delay of game penalty when he flipped a puck over the glass. Blue collar hockey fail!

10:59 – The Penguins just got some major pressure, but Crosby’s shot from point-blank range went wide off strong defensive pressure from Laich.

10:25 – The Caps kill off the penalty but mistakenly ice the puck, giving the Pens an offensive zone draw. Pittsburgh has four scoring chances thus far this period and none from Washington.

9:59 – Both teams switch ends. I guess that’s a Winter Classic tradition too?

9:03 – I just replied to an @NHL tweet that offered a $100 credit to the NHL Shop for whomever could answer which Washington player took the delay of game penalty. (crosses fingers) I hope I win.

8:01 – Chimera just scored his second goal of the game on a breakaway wrist shot. A bicentennial quarter to anyone who saw Chimera as the star of the game.

Washington 3
Pittsburgh 1

6:59 – Damnit! @Josh__Anderson won the NHL Shop competition. I thought I got on that reply quicker than Knuble on a rebound, but Mr. Anderson was just better than me today. I just sent him a threatening by congratulatory text: “Damn you, @Josh__Anderson for winning the contest!!!! (j/p congrats).” I want to seem nice but also scary.

4:30 – Apparently Washington’s AHL affiliate is something of a dynasty. That’s a good sign of depth for Blue Collar Hockey and the rest of the fighting Ovechkins.

3:43 – Another goal has been waived off from incidental contact! This time Ovechkin was the culprit. The good news for everyone involved, no one should be complaining about incidental contact — except maybe Crosby.

1:34 – Pittsburgh with some extended pressure. Again it’s the Staal line getting good pressure, though Staal whiffed on a one-timer from the slot. That would have been a huge goal right there.

1:00 – Fleury is on the bench for an extra attacker. It’s 6-on-5 time.

0:15 – The Caps clear the zone, and it looks like they’re in the clear for a tough win over the Penguins in the 2011 Winter Classic.

:00.6 – Some slashing before the final faceoff leads to a good scrum between Kunitz (I will remind you again, one of my fantasy hockey players) and Ovechkin. No fisticuffs but it’s a fitting end for two teams that don’t appear to like each other one bit. Team Ovechkin (excuse me, Chimera) and Blue Collar Hockey rule the New Year in 2011.

Final Score – 2011 Winter Classic

Washington 3
Pittsburgh 1

Alexander Ovechkin. Sidney Crosby.

They’re the NHL’s two marquee players. And they hate each other.

Forty Percent.

That’s how many cable subscribers had the opportunity to watch these players and their respective teams do battle for seven games to win the right to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.

As elementary math will tell you, Sixty Percent of cable subscribers do not get Versus, the primary carrier of the NHL playoffs this season and the previous three seasons. Have you wondered lately, or anytime in the past four years, what happened to hockey and why it isn’t on TV anymore?

Answer: Hockey never left TV, it’s just only on 40 percent of TVs with cable.

With all do respect to the probably great people who work over there, Versus is basically the Detroit Lions of cable channels. That’s bad news for hockey fans, and for sports fans across the board who will tune in to any sport come playoff time to watch a good, competitive series with the top players in a sport. I’m at best a casual hockey fan, but having more free time then I’d like, I’ve been tuning into Versus the past month to watch the NHL playoffs for the same reasons sports fans in general might tune in. A sport I do not care about whatsoever is soccer, but come World Cup time, I’ll watch, because it’s the World Cup, the premier event of a top sport featuring its best players.

Perhaps this season more than ever, the presence of the NHL Playoffs on Versus has proven to be a disaster to the sport. The reality is (take it from Jack, who has watched quite a bit of playoff hockey this season and has followed the sport over the years at least enough to talk intelligently about it) this year’s NHL playoffs have been awesome. Among the best ever probably (I defer to the other fine writers of Taking Back Sports to offer a more precise ranking of these playoffs in the historical realm). Even ESPN — which is second only to Gary Bettman in responsibility for you, the fan, missing playoff hockey — is giving the NHL a lot of airtime on it’s various programs. (Editor’s Note: Gary Bettman isn’t the only dim-witted commissioner out there.)

I’ve also been following the NBA playoffs very closely, as my loyal readers well know. And I must say, in spite of not getting Versus in HD on my top-of-the-line package with Cox Communications (if anyone who works for Cox is reading this, I mentioned the name of my cable service on purpose for a reason), I have enjoyed watching the NHL playoffs almost as much as the NBA playoffs. Allow me to briefly recap all of the great things that have happened so far in the NHL Playoffs:

Ovechkin leads the Capitals back from a 3-1 deficit against the Rangers to win in 7 in round one.

Bitter rivals, the Flyers and the Penguins met in round one. Pens won in six tough games.

The sixth-seeded Hurricanes knock off the No. 1 seed Bruins in seven games in round two after upsetting the Devils in round one in another seven-game series.

The No. 8 Ducks knock off the top-seeded Sharks in round one to meet the Red Wings in round two. This has become one of the great rivalries in hockey this decade, as the teams have won the last two Stanley Cups. The Wings outlasted the Ducks in 7.

“Sid the Kid” and Ovechkin square off in Round 2. The Pens score the minor upset (based on seeding), crushing the Caps in D.C. in Game 7.

Nothing gets sports fans more jacked up then the excitement of a Game 7  in any sport (maybe Phil Jackson isn’t a sports fan anymore). The NHL has already had five, and there are two more rounds of playoffs to go.

This year’s NBA playoffs had an all-time series between the Celtics and Bulls, as well as two other good ones in Boston-Orlando and L.A.-Houston. The Hawks and Heat also went seven games in round one, but that series was not that exciting and of little consequence because everyone knew the winner of that series would get smoked by LeBron and Co. — which is exactly what happened. That’s only four Game 7s (not that that is weak by any standards, but that’s less than the NHL this year).

NHL Commish Gary Bettman and the Boss from Dilbert. Two beacons of mismanagement and stupidity. Speaking of ideas and marketing, are those words even in Bettman's vocabulary?

The NHL playoffs also have storylines this year that are just as intriguing as the NBA playoffs’. For the first time in a long time, the NHL playoffs have been worth watching.  Unfortunately, many can’t because of Gary Bettman, the dimwitted commissioner of the NHL.

A figure familiar to many who’ve worked in an office environment, the Boss from Dilbert, is a striking comparison. Dilbert fans out there (including yours truly) know how incompetent, lousy, and mundane a manager the Boss is. For those non-Dilbert fans, we’re not looking at Al Davis stupid, we’re looking at worse! The Boss in Dilbert has no common sense, no ability, no talent, and in all of the years of the comic, has accomplished nothing and has made life miserable for everyone around him.

With that brief description, I introduce Bettman, the man who has ruined not only the NHL, but the entire sport of hockey (at least this country). After the lockout that cancelled the 2004-05 season, ESPN declined to renew its option to broadcast NHL games. Bettman then negotiated a deal that landed the NHL on … Versus? That’s the best you could do, Bettman, commissioner of a major sport? Worse, NBC got the rights to certain weekend and playoff games for FREE! Charge them something, Bettman, even if it’s just a nominal amount!

So this is why many of you reading may have in fact only seen a handful of NHL playoff games this postseason. Because the commissioner, in a desperation move to get games on the air after the lockout — which he caused by years of mismanagement of the league and ensuing losses — made a long-term deal with Versus in exchange for a few beans that haven’t grown into giant beanstalks.

Talk about a “master of panic.” With all due respect to Stan Van Gundy, who has lately been a shining representative of his Shaq-anointed title, Bettman was even more of one. Van Gundy has one more game to prevent ruining an entire team’s season by being a “master of panic,” but Bettman has ruined an entire league and it’s associated sport.

Did Bettman seriously think he could grow a disgruntled fan-base post-lockout by putting the NHL on a station few people get, let alone watch if they have it? Worse, the long-term survival of the sport in this country is in danger because of this move. Young kids aren’t watching hockey on Versus, so I can’t help but wonder: Will there be a next generation of hockey fans in this country?

Sadly, Bettman probably did think this. This is the same Bettman who actually thought the NHL could succeed in the state of Arizona. Let’s see how much longer until the Coyotes hail from Southern Ontario.

Bettman did not, nor did he have to, do anything to generate what has been a terrific postseason for the NHL at a time that the league – and the sport — need it more than ever in this country. The only problems are that Bettman has deprived viewers the opportunity to see the playoffs, and Bettman has done no marketing of the sport – even with two great young stars in Crosby and Ovechkin.

Speaking of marketing, the quote from the Boss in the comic sounds very familiar to something Bettman would say, if he even has a Director of Marketing …