SIMMONS SAYS: NHL, Rogers need to figure out, together, how to make more games accessible

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Dear Gary Bettman,

You happily took Rogers Sportsnet’s money and sold out Canadian hockey fans in the process.

The price has become too high to watch hockey on television in this country the way we did just a year or so ago. And when the price isn’t involved, the decisions of which games to broadcast have been poorly executed.

Someone from the league needs to step in and do something here. Make hockey more accessible or available than it currently is.

And someone from the league needs to sit down with executives from Sportsnet and oversee some of the dubious decisions the network is making.

The other night, with the Stanley Cup-champion Carolina Hurricanes visiting the two-time finalist Edmonton Oilers, with Connor McDavid lighting up the league in a way it hasn’t been lit it up in decades, the national audience on Sportsnet (on my television, anyhow) did not get the Oilers-Hurricanes game.
Which was a brilliant 6-5 game, I am told. McDavid and Leon Draisaitl had five points apiece.

The late game on my television that night was Detroit versus Vancouver. And I’m sure everyone stayed up late for that one.

On Wednesday night, Brady Tkachuk went back to Ottawa with the Florida Panthers in a hockey game everybody talked about. But how many saw that game? You couldn’t see it, unless you subscribe to Amazon Prime.

So to recap, to watch hockey in Canada, you need to subscribe to Sportsnet, you need extra Sportsnet to get games that aren’t on your regular cable, and you need to subscribe to Prime for its one game a week which, combined, at least gives you Ted Lasso through Apple TV. Combined, though, that’s several hundred dollars a month: It’s great for the collector, not for the consumer.

Hockey shouldn’t be free on your television — no sport should any more. But it shouldn’t be knocking you over the head, either. Maybe it’s time for the commissioner to have a conversation with the good folks at Rogers. He is supposed to be commissioner of the fans, as far-fetched as that concept seems to be.

THIS AND THAT

In McDavid’s best season so far, he scored 153 points. Heading into Saturday night, he had a breathtaking 31 in his first 10 games of this season. That start has some people wondering if he can become the second player in NHL history, after Wayne Gretzky, to hit the 200-point mark. Gretzky did it four times. Mario Lemieux got to 199, once. To play all 84 games, McDavid would need 2.38 points per game to reach that milestone. His career average is 1.55. For him to score 200 points, he would need to score 53% more than he’s produced regularly throughout his career and 30% more than he has in his best season to date. In other words, it’s fabulous theatre and conversation for now, but 200 isn’t going to happen … When Mike Babcock coached the Maple Leafs, he said more than once that he thought McDavid was playing too much in Edmonton. Now that Babcock is coaching the Oilers, he’s playing McDavid 23:46 a game, the most for any forward in hockey … It’s only 11 games, but these are the most complete games Auston Matthews has begun a season. Goal-scoring, you expect from Matthews. Strong defensive play, that you also expect. But Matthews is on pace for 70 assists when the most he’s ever had in a season is 46 … There is much to be impressed with about Leafs sophomore Easton Cowan. What impresses me the most: His ability to find and comprehend open ice and use it to create offence for himself and those he’s playing with. It’s something most players can’t do … Our friends, the insiders, are telling us the Leafs want a defenceman and will give up premium assets to get one. Which begs the questions: Which defenceman are they looking at and which assets do they consider premium? Truth is, the Leafs don’t have many premium assets beyond Matthews, William Nylander, Kirill Marchenko, the injured and old John Tavares, Cowan and Gavin McKenna, none of whom they’re trading. And please, don’t buy into the online nonsense about teams clamouring for AHL defenceman Ben Danford and Colorado’s first-round pick in 2028. They’re not … Babcock was a big Morgan Rielly supporter when he coached the Leafs. Rielly is playing better than he did the previous two seasons, but still has a long way to go.

HEAR AND THERE

You rarely win when you trade away your star. The Raptors didn’t recover after trading Vince Carter. The Canucks didn’t win trading Quinn Hughes to Minnesota. And the Winnipeg Jets won’t win sending Connor Hellebuyck to the New Jersey Devils. At least, the Jets got back a lot of pieces in a goaltender, a prospect and a 40-point forward. So, goalie aside, the Winnipeg roster got better. Just not a lot better … What we still don’t know about Hellebuyck after 11 NHL seasons, with one Hart Trophy and three Vezinas won: Can he carry a team through a Stanley Cup run? He’s never done anything like that before. He’s 24-34 lifetime in the playoffs … Three words came to mind watching Zack MacEwen on Thursday night: Motor City Smitty. When at his best, MacEwen plays the game like Brad Smith, the unforgettable showman who played just 222 NHL games in parts of 10 seasons … I can’t imagine the fear there must have been around the Pittsburgh Penguins when young Ben Kindel collapsed on the team plane. The Penguins have three players — Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang — all old enough to be Kindel’s father. That’s something that will stay with this team for a long time.

SCENE AND HEARD

The Milwaukee Brewers will likely win the World Series and their owner, Mark Attanasio, is still among the 20 or so in baseball demanding a salary cap for the coming season. Which means we’re going to lose some scheduled games — impossible to say how many — for the coming season. Assuming there is a coming season … Personal memory of covering baseball in Milwaukee. Great brats aside, it was Bud Selig walking around the press box for nine innings, before he was commissioner, talking to everyone and anyone … When the NHL fought for a salary cap in 2004, the Maple Leafs were against it. When baseball fights for a cap now, the Blue Jays’ natural instincts will be against it. The Leafs lost way back when and the Jays will lose this time around … I like the World Series better when Shohei Ohtani reaches base nine times in a game and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., is almost matching him swing for swing. According to jersey sales, the biggest stars in baseball right now are Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Mookie Betts, Julio Rodriguez, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Justin Verlander, Bryce Harper and Mike Trout … The part of baseball I don’t like any longer: Likely Cy Young Award winner Jacob Misiorowski goes five innings in Game 1 against Tampa Bay and people want to give him a purple heart for his bravery. And I wonder what Jack Morris thinks of all of that … Aaron Boone is back as Yankees manager, which is dumb. The Yankees need a managerial change. They need to improve fundamentally. That’s on the manager and the coaching staff … Great move by the Argos. They have a playoff game on Halloween and have moved the game to 1 p.m. If you buy a ticket, you can bring two kids under the age of 12 for free. The early start is so the kids can watch football in the afternoon and be home in time for Halloween at night. If I had two kids under 12, or two grandchildren old enough, I’m there in a second.

AND ANOTHER THING

A chip off the old block, Cate Shanahan is lighting it up on the volleyball court at Santa Clara University, Steve Nash’s alma mater. Brendan Shanahan’s daughter has been offensive player of the week in the West Coast Conference in each of the past three weeks. Mom and dad are regulars in the stands … Canada is spending more money on sport than ever before. That’s good. Wasn’t it necessarily good is the Canadian money-for-everyone, approach. The government should be more prodigious in determining which sports get big money and which do not … Mike Morreale was one of my favourite football players to cover. He was smart, attentive, progressive and interested. And now he’s the president of the Ottawa Redblacks and that may be the toughest job in Canadian sport … The New York Knicks are 0-2. The San Antonio Spurs are 0-2. The Blue Jays will tell you: There is such a thing as a championship series hangover … I’d like to be Dylan Larkin’s dad for just a moment to educate him on a fact of life in sport. There are special places to play in every league that are different than other places. They are places of privilege, such as playing for the Yankees or Dodgers in baseball, the Dallas Cowboys or Green Bay Packers in football or the Lakers in basketball. In hockey, that place is Montreal. The Red Wings, by the way, are scouting virtually every Habs game, so they haven’t given up on acquiring Larkin … I first met George Hopkins while covering the Calgary Stampeders in 1979. He was a fixture then as equipment manager and has remained that all these years later. Hopkins is retiring from the Stampeders. He’s like part of the furniture in Calgary. The couch you can’t bear to throw out … I don’t remember an NFL season like this one, where nobody looks like a Super Bowl champion … Happy birthday to Wendel Clark (60), Drake (40), Joe Siddall (59), Pedro Martinez (55), Juan Soto (28), Mike Eruzione (72), CM Punk (48), Wilton Guerrero (52), Jim Peplinski (66), Harold Snepsts (72) and Amon-Ra St. Brown (27) … And hey, whatever became of Pokey Reddick?

Simmons is Canada’s longest-serving sports columnist

ssimmons@postmedia.com

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