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Norman Chad is a freelance writer from LA writing a quick article on hockey. Why do I care? Well frankly, if this game is going to grow and if Yankee teams keep winning cups, we should listen to what people have to say to make it 'marketable' in the States. If you don't like that idea then we should can 15 teams in the South US, but since that won't happen, let's see what 99% of the population in the States may be thinking about our game.

I'll take some quotes from the article and comment on them, I'll try to be honest too

I [have] realized the NHL on TV can only be saved by two radical measures:

1. The game needs to be televised north-south, not east-west.

2. The game needs to eliminate one intermission.

Opening with a bang hey Chad? Comment on 1 --> Interesting, maybe get those wires from NFL games that hang over the huddle. Otherwise, won't fly, there's safety netting. About 2. That would be nice but for TV, but you can't be changing the entire game for TV can you?

(I understand that I've just lost contact with all hyper-serious NHL fans, so I'll just speak directly to the other 99 percent of the U.S. population for the remainder of this column.)

He's got a point there, 99 percent (around there) of people in the US don't care about hockey and never will.

(By the way, let's be honest here: To see if a goal is scored, many of us don't look into the net, we look for a team's celebration. My eyes can't follow a puck, even on a 52-inch screen.)

Interesting. I can see the puck fine cause I know where to look. Sure I can't see the super fast puck after a shot, but when was the last time you cared about that in golf?

Frankly, almost every sport televises better north-south than east-west.

I dunno, maybe, but what sport is? Not football, basketball, etc. Some networks have put cameras at the end glass though... those are cool. Only sport that isn't that I can think of is baseball.

OK, let's talk about intermissions -- thank goodness I ran off the NHL crazies earlier because they would forecheck me into my own shower door at this point -- and why there are too many of them.

It's a fast-moving, short-attention-span society out there. In the clicker culture, people switch from Leno to Letterman if they don't like a monologue joke, they jump from "Cold Case" to "The Closer" if the crime isn't unsolvable enough.

(The moment "Seinfeld" used to end, you think I stuck around for "Suddenly Susan"? I can operate a remote with my foot; within seconds, I was over to Nick At Nite.)

The NHL should not continue to give viewers two 15-minute opportunities to find a more violent TV option. Let's say you're grazing around during the second intermission of a Penguins-Rangers game and come upon "The Godfather." Are you going to reject Vito Corleone and return to Jaromir Jagr? I think not.

NHL games should have two 30-minute halves rather than three 20- minute periods. And don't tell me they need that extra intermission due to technological limitations in smoothing the ice -- I'm sure Toyota makes a Zamboni that can deliver twice the performance of its American counterparts.

Firstly, although you may be right, that would be a monstrous change for the game. Secondly, the Zamboni's clean up in like 5 minutes and if Toyota really could make a better one they would and we'd see them in the Olympics, etc.

So, in summary, we're talking about a single intermission, a north-south camera axis and -- pardon my French -- but que le diable est-il Versus?

There you have it -- I've done my part to save the NHL.

P.S. If all else fails, replace the puck with a beach ball.

We tried that in 2004 and Vancouver got upset cause Dan Cloutier couldn't stop it.