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Make Hockey Day In America great again (or for the first time)

How did you celebrate “Hockey Day In America,” assuming this isn’t the first you’re hearing of it?

Did you wear your jersey to the supermarket? Paint your face? Did you plant your butt on the couch for multiple games, before inevitably flipping over to HBO or the NBA All-Star Game in the evening?

The made-for-TV “Hockey Day In America” unspooled on Sunday, with four games that featured American teams, with American players who were identified with gusto by American Pierre McGuire. (“BA BA BABA BA [insert obscure NCAA hockey fact here] BA BA BABA BA DOC.”)

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There were a dozen original video projects created for the day.

There was a really well-done feature on Kelsey DiClaudio, the first woman to compete with the U.S. Development Sled Hockey Team, which also served as a celebration of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ backing of such programs. There was the continuing inspirational tales of Jack Jablonski and Josh Sweeney. There was a feature on Bill Belisle, head coach at Mount Saint Charles Academy for 42 years in Rhode Island. There was an Olympic infomercial with Hilary Knight. There was a feature on Tony Granato in Wisconsin and pond hockey in Minnesota. And how Warroad, Minnesota, is really Hockeytown, except so is Detroit, where Dylan Larkin plays. And of course, there was a visit with Willie O’Ree, that Canadian import that continues to inexplicably be the only face of diversity in hockey when it comes to the NHL.

The closest thing we got to the rest of America was a feature on a St. Louis Blues AAA hockey program, and the five players it produced in the first round of the 2016 NHL draft.

All of it was outstanding looking, professionally done, one Bob Costas voiceover away from being at home on Olympic coverage. For the kind of general audience that they’d expect to tune in, this was probably comfort food.

But again: Shouldn’t Hockey Day In America have a scope that goes beyond a few obvious subjects and standard geographic locations?

Shouldn’t Hockey Day In America be more than “things that are tangentially related to the NHL … in America?”

NBC’s coverage choices have gotten the same knocks that hockey gets in the U.S.: Same several teams, same expected matchups, grab the local ratings and be happy about it. In the U.S., hockey’s had to battle against the idea that it’s strictly a regional sport, which is a primary factor in a lack of coverage from national sports media, which basically ignores the sport if it doesn’t feel it has enough fans in its audience.

(It’s a vicious cycle, as hockey fans don’t watch sports coverage that ignores hockey, but by ignoring it they create the notion that the audience doesn’t have hockey fans.)

It’s a tough enough battle for the sport in the U.S. without “Hockey Day in America” being restricted to a handful of cold-weather locales.

Which is to say that this would have been a great spot for a feature on Alabama–Huntsville Chargers ice hockey. Or the success of some non-traditional minor league markets. Or a gay beer league. Hit a tailgate in Raleigh or Tampa or Nashville. (Or all three, which would have been a great segment.) Show us Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn in Texas. Show us Brent Burns and Joe Thornton at the beach.

NBC does uplift really well, but needs a GPS and a Sherpa to find whimsy.

You guys know I loathe crediting Canada with doing anything better, but they do their Hockey Day better. There’s more of a sense of community, of shared experience. It’s about people who are players rather than the person behind the player, and that makes all the difference. It’s as relatable as NBC’s coverage is obtuse.

It’s actually maddening to think about where hockey in America is right now vs. how it was presented on Sunday.

The biggest American hockey star is Auston Matthews. He’s a product of Scottsdale. There’s a video listed under the Hockey Day In America banner that’s a rerun from last year, and he was hardly a focal point in the coverage.

Which is, frankly, why Hockey Day In America fails to reach its modest goals: It’s not actually about hockey in America, but rather hockey in specific places in America that are advantageous to NBC, the glamour franchises it covers and its sponsors.

A player like Matthews shatters the myopic view that hockey belongs in several frozen pigeonholes, and does more to demonstrate that Hockey Is For Everyone than the 10,000th appearance of Willie O’Ree at a diversity event. There are so many stories to tell away from New England and Minnesota, so many stories that grow the game rather than simply reinforce the NHL’s brand – stories that actually explain what it is to be a hockey fan or player in American in 2017.

Hockey Day Is America should be about breaking out of the niche, not reinforcing it.

Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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