Even Beer Couldn't Make Me Happy

In this space I would love to regale you with the details of what happened in vicious battle between two of the biggest rivals in the NHL. I would love to continue my game-by-game observations and analysis. I would love to curse out the NHL more for allowing Simon the Barbarian to play even though he is suspended.

But I won't, because I can't.

You know why? Because I didn't see the game!!!! In an abrasive, aggressive and pathetic move, the Islanders/Rangers preseason battle was not televised. Now MSG has made it clear that they are not doing preseason games away from Garden ice, so FSN New York should have picked up the ball but they were too busy airing, and I kid you not, the Wrangler Pro Tour: Ariat Playoffs Rodeo.

Without any kind of press statement, I can only hazard a few guesses as to why it didn't go to air:
1 - FSN decided not to cover it to save costs as it is 'only hockey' - a quite likely explanation that is quite likely the real reason, it is utterly infuriating considering FSN doesn't cover the live games - regular season or not - of any other local professional sports.
2 - The Islanders encouraged this to promote their top-notch broadband service Islanders TV.
3 - The Islanders encouraged this to promote the Islander fan blogs that they support in their Blog Box.
4 - The Islanders did both 2&3 to make the Rangers' services look bad as their On Demand video service has comparably weak content and does not play on many computers well. And the Rangers fan bloggers were shut out. The top beat writer blogs who did live updates didn't capture the action nearly as well as they were too busy working on deadline for their papers.

Now I know that it's only preseason and in most sports many of the exhibition matches don't make air, but it isn't like the local broadcasters were booked with football (just one game, on ESPN, not like either MSG or FSN air NFL games), basketball (hasn't started yet), or baseball (both networks lost rights to the two local teams). So the only live franchises that these regional networks cover all year long aren't worth showing? I am at a loss here and at this point am too aggravated to bother trying to come up with an explanation for the inexplicable.

EDIT: Gotta love YouTube. I love how the Islanders after the game bitched about the Rangers sending a third man in on Simon when in both cases he clearly jumped Hollweg. What scum.