Ice hockey broadcasts scattered

For the first time in 16 months, the National Hockey League will drop pucks in 15 cities tonight.
Does anyone south of the U.S.-Canadian border really care?
In Pittsburgh, they do. That's because the Penguins -- the worst team in most recent NHL seasons -- hit the lottery jackpot on July 22 when they won the right to draft 18-year-old phenom Sidney Crosby.
How good is Crosby? If he lives up to the hype, he could mean as much to the NHL as LeBron James does to the National Basketball Association (except that a lot of sports fans actually watch NBA telecasts and buy the products their players endorse).
Pens owner Mario Lemieux almost immediately reversed his plans to sell his team.
Lemieux was in the process of selling and there was no guarantee the team would remain past 2007 if Pittsburgh, Allegheny County and Pennsylvania didn't come up with a plan to build a new arena to replace Mellon Arena, the oldest and smallest building in the NHL.
Now, talk of the Pens leaving has been silenced.
Signing free agents
Lemieux's front office took another drastic step by signing free agents. Now, defenseman Sergei Gonchar (Capitals) and forward John LeClair (Stanley Cup winner with the Canadiens and a longtime Flyers standout) will skate with the Pens.
Penguins tickets have become hot commodities again, almost as difficult to find as Steelers tickets.
But does the broadcast industry care?
Locally, it's a mixed bag.
Pens fans who subscribe to Armstrong Cable Services are in luck because Armstrong carries FOX Sports Pittsburgh. FSN Pitt will carry 72 of the Pens' 82 regular-season games this winter. The other 10 will be broadcast by NBC or OLN.
OLN? What's OLN?
That's a good question for Armstrong subscribers. OLN was once known as the Outdoor Life Network. Today it's the new home of the NHL's national cable telecasts.
Why OLN? Because ESPN decided it's through with ice hockey after the NHL owners locked out the players last Sept. 16 and shut down for the entire season.
NHL has salary cap
Remember when the lockout began how the players insisted they would never accept a salary cap? Today's NHL operates with a salary cap -- guess that tells you all you need to know about who won this labor war.
As a result, a lot of big-name players saw their contracts bought out so high-payroll teams could get under the cap.
The result should be a much-more balanced NHL -- a la the National Football League and its salary cap.
OLN now has NHL telecasts, including tonight's New York Rangers/Philadelphia Flyers game.
Armstrong is the dominant cable-TV carrier in Mahoning County, servicing just about every community not named Youngstown. Will Armstrong add OLN to its lineup? A telephone call to Armstrong asking that question was not returned.
Time-Warner, Youngstown's cable-TV provider, carries OLN but not FSN Pitt.
Both Armstrong and Time-Warner carry FOX Sports Ohio, the broadcast home of the Columbus Blue Jackets. But because eastern Ohio is considered to be Penguins' territory, FSN Ohio broadcasts of Blue Jackets games are blacked out.
No local radio
As for radio, no local station will be carrying Pens games.
When asked about ice hockey broadcasts, Clear Channel Radio executive Bill Kelly said, "We have no room for hockey on any of our radio stations due to other commitments."
Clear Channel stations include WKBN-AM 570, WNIO-AM 1390, WBBG-FM 106.1 and WNCD-93.3. Among the sports events Clear Channel covers are the Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Ohio State Buckeyes, Pittsburgh Steelers and NASCAR racing.
Cumulus Radio, which operates WBBW-AM 1240, Hot 101 (WHOT-FM 101.1), Y-103 (WYFM-FM 102.9) and K-105 (WQXK-FM 105.1), won't be carrying the Pens on any of those stations, but might carry a few Blue Jackets games on WBBW.
Hockey and downtown
Why does anyone in Mahoning County care about a sport played with ice, skates, sticks and a rubber puck? Because Youngstown's government believes ice hockey will be the sport that revitalizes the downtown when the Youngstown Convocation Center opens.
The Youngstown SteelHounds are joining the Central Hockey League as an expansion team. Their first game is Oct. 21.
All 64 SteelHounds' games will be carried on WBBW, creating a problem with what to do with the station's high school football broadcasts from Week 9 through the end of the playoffs.
The SteelHounds play every Friday through Dec. 2.
Christian Aleshire, WBBW program director, says it's possible their high school football broadcasts will be moved to another Cumulus station on SteelHounds nights, but no decision has been made.
So whether you have access to FSN Pitt or OLN, hockey is back.
Game on!
Tom Williams is a sportswriter for The Vindicator. Write him at williams@vindy.com.