Forget about Crosby and Ovechkin.  If I'm writing about hockey I have to post a picture of the First Lady of the NHL, right?   Here are Elisha Cuthbert and Dion Phaneuf (love the name).  

After hearing from a couple readers about the battle between the two best players in the league earlier this week, I located Versus on DirecTV (no easy task) and watched the overtime period on Wednesday night.  I think at one point the announcer proclaimed that the action was spine tingling.  While my spine certainly didn't tingle, I will acknowledge that the O.T. was compelling.  

From time to time I've watched bits and pieces of hockey on television.  The two most recent examples being forty-five minutes or so of the outdoor games in Buffalo and Chicago.  As always, I have the same two problems:  1)  It's too hard to follow the puck and 2) The players are indistinguishable without numbers

Even on the game winning goal in the Penguins-Capitals game, it was virtually impossible to see without super-slow-motion instant replay.  Until there is a technological solution to this problem I'm afraid the sport will never translate well to non-hockey fanatic viewers.   

I also think it's extraordinarily difficult to tell 90% of the players apart.  With the exception of former players like Eric Lindros and Mario Lemieux, I'd venture to say that the vast majority of guys are between 5'10" to 6'2" and weigh in the neighborhood of 190 lbs. 

Conversely, it's very easy to follow the ball in an NBA game and the players come in all different shapes and sizes. It's also relatively easy to differentiate players in the NFL even though they wear comparable clothing and pads.  

With that said though, I'm going to record and likely watch an entire NHL game tonight.  Who knows, after watching Crosby and Ovechkin for a couple hours maybe I'll become a fan of the sport.  I tend to doubt it though...