Cup doth not runneth over with press

The NHL hit the jackpot this year by having the two top offensive and defensive squads in the playoffs make it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. A better pairing even Lord Stanley himself couldn't have conceived of.

NBC takes over from Versus tonight in the U.S. to televise Game Three of the series between the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins riding a wave of encouraging ratings. The first game, for example, was the most-watched final match on cable in six years and got Versus its best number yet.

While the league has come a long way back from the damaging 2005 work stoppage and is now celebrating an influx of young superstar talent that has reinvigorated the game in many of its key markets, it is also an unwitting victim of the deep recession that continues to plague the newspaper business.

According to William Houston in the Toronto Globe & Mail, only eight American dailies are staffing the series from start to finish. Canadian papers outside of Toronto and Vancouver are also opting for wire copy. Just 20 years ago, Houston notes, papers from every NHL city were represented at the championship series.

Houston reports those staffing the final are The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, New York Post, The Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, USA Today and The Columbus Dispatch. The New York Daily News and The Washington Times are joining the series in Pittsburgh, while The Buffalo News will have a reporter at games that coincide with its deadlines.

Then there's the Minneapolis Star-Tribune's Mike Russo, who is missing the final for the first time in 10 years due to budgetary reasons.

The Los Angeles Times — a newspaper that's seen its share of upheaval in recent years — made the call to send columnist Helene Elliott. The hometown Kings are still years away from serious Cup contention but have embarked on an ambitious rebuilding effort that will decide whether the franchise can regain the swagger and interest generated in the Wayne Gretzky era and thus reignite the No. 2 media market.

“If hockey is to make a comeback and again take its place among the top four or five sports in our circulation area, it will be through series like this between two very interesting teams with dynamic, young players,” Times sports editor Randy Harvey said in an e-mail message to the Globe & Mail.

It's clear from Harvey's statement this was a choice the Times made for its readers. As newspapers continue to hemorrhage, choices like this one and those made by the other pubs to cover the series will become more the exception than the norm. They should be acknowledged while there's still time.