ESPN Removes Blackhawks Game From National TV

At this point, Gary Bettman needs to step down from his position as commissioner of the NHL.

He's gone AWOL and has failed to grow the sport of hockey as he should've and this latest example is another reason why he needs to be gone.

While the Blackhawks are in a slump as a whole, Connor Bedard continues to be the only bright spot on an underperforming team.

Given the fact they're at the bottom of the Central Division, gives Bettman a pretext to remove the Pittsburgh Penguins and Chicago Blackhawks game from national television.

But, instead of removing two rivals from the spotlight, he could've sold the match differently.

Instead, he caved to the storylines which have been prevalent since Mark Messier, and Jeremy Roenick have been haranguing Connor Bedard in the media.

Connor Bedard has produced 49 points (16 G, 33 A) in 58 games for the Hawks. The Messier discourse has spilled over into how the Blackhawks are viewed, overall, and now Bettman is pulling the plug on the Hawks vs Penguins on April 8th in favor of another game.

The Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs.

Instead of caving to peer pressure, which is all that it was really Bettman could've used a pitch that once again placed a generational talent against his idol.

It should've been plastered all over the internet, and given a specialized commercial to mark how significant each match Bedard vs Crosby is.

Now viewers and Blackhawks fans will be deprived of another match on tv, thanks to issues with CHSN, Comcast, and Xfinity.

Could this match have gone on if Bedard had better numbers this season? We could hypothesize about the fact of how this all went down, but the Atlantic Division is hot right now, and the Maple Leafs and Panthers will deliver playoff-style hockey.

Nevertheless, this was an easy layup for the NHL and instead, they took a premade dish and heated it up once again for fans everywhere.