The NHL's continued quest to sell the game is filled with several missteps and questionable strategy.

The NHL had a better than expected return coming off the lockout, which saw the league set attendance records and reinvigorate interest into a very dark period for hockey.  The post-lockout popularity stemmed from a combination of rule changes which have brought back an exciting offensive element to the game, the arrival of Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin and a general longing for the game while it was away for a year.

With a terrific product and plenty of young star power the building blocks so to speak are there for the league to aggressively market themselves. Inexplicably though, the league has not taken full advantage of selling its greatest strengths and has in fact taken several missteps in their strategy.

Need examples of some recent NHL faux pas?

Tasteless Promo

During a recent Ottawa Senators - Montreal Canadiens game the hometown Sens erred heavily in their lack of common sense. As part of an in-game skit shown during a stoppage in play the Sens filmed a short video that had mascot Spartacat on a boat with several Senators fans when he suddenly spots someone on board wearing a Montreal Canadiens jersey. Upon encountering the fan Spartacat proceeds to toss cede fan into the water. Considering Habs GM Bob Gainey just lost his daughter to unfortunate and tragic circumstances it was clearly an unintentional yet extremely idiotic move for the Sens to air the video.

Hockey Day in Canada

The playoffs aside, the country’s day-long celebration of hockey is annually one of the top-rated programs on Canadian television. With the annual event being such a success you have to ask yourself why the NHL would directly position the event against the opening weekend of the NFL playoffs.  When you have 82 regular season games over the course of a 6-month period, why on earth would you want to go head-to-head with the powerhouse of the NFL playoffs?

As if the league’s timing of the event wasn’t bad enough, as it stands now under the current rivalry-based format of the NHL schedule there is no way for next year’s Hockey Day in Canada event to include three all-Canadian match-ups because the current league schedule doesn’t allow for cross-over between the Western and Eastern conference Canadian teams.

NHL All-Star Game

When a show like Lost changes its timeslot just to avoid even trying to compete against a juggernaut show like American Idol that should be signal enough for the NHL to follow suit, yet for some unexplainable reason the NHL shifted from their usual weekend timeslot to a midweek broadcast of the YoungStars game and Skills competition on Tuesday and the All-Star game on Wednesday – both of which will run directly against the biggest show currently on TV.

Certainly the NHL and American Idol have different demographics but why even get caught up in the competition when a weekend timeslot would have served the NHL perfectly well. Plus by having a weekday broadcast the NHL is relegating themselves to being shown on the little watched cable network Versus in the U.S. instead of being played on NBC in a national broadcast afternoon timeslot.

NHL’s Trinity

It’s nothing new to hear fans voice their opinions on all-star game snubs; it’s become an all-star tradition across all sports. This year’s crop of notable snubs include Anze Kopitar, Ilya Kovalchuk, Marc Savard and Dominik Hasek just to name a few but without a doubt the biggest omission is that of Evgeni Malkin.

Malkin, along with teammate Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, form the NHL’s young trinity. It’s quite evident already after a season and a half from Sid and AO and just a half season from Malkin that the league’s future rests in these three players’ hands. The NHL erred big time in naming Malkin to the YoungStars game instead of his rightful place in the big game. Just imagine how incredible it would have been to see the Eastern Conference roll out a line of Ovechkin, Crosby and Malkin – the NHL’s equivalent of what the NBA has in Melo, D-Wade and LeBron.

Opportunities to see the three best young players play on the same team and the same line need to be capitalized on at every instance.

Before the league restarted coming off the lockout I wrote that the NHL would need to spend their focus on marketing the heck out of 5 players: Crosby, Kovalchuk, Martin Brodeur, Rick Nash and Jarome Iginla. I’d like to officially change that list to now include Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin, Iginla and Brodeur.

The NHL’s Trinity is on that list for reasons stated above and Brodeur and Iginla are on the list because not only are they two of the most clutch performers in the league but they also possess two of the biggest and fun personalities in the league. Brodeur is also on the verge of breaking Patrick Roy’s all-time wins record and surpassing Terry Sawchuck’s shutout record. Iginla is the most complete player in the league and is unrivalled in his on-ice and off-ice leadership qualities.

In conclusion, the NHL’s struggle to sell hockey and generate mass exposure on par with other North American sports outside of their conventional ‘hockey markets” has been well documented. There are plenty of positives working in the NHL’s favour of turning the seemingly insurmountable challenge of making themselves more relevant amongst the crowded and competitive sports landscape. As long as the league focuses on selling their strengths and minimizing their mistakes they should see a growth in popularity for the game.