The National Hockey League completed its matchup for the Stanley Cup Finals last night with a game intensely followed in Upstate New York and in those small pockets of North Carolina where folks are more interested in Eric Staal than Hermie Sadler. For NHL executives, who hoped to construct a brave new league in which small markets and cash-strapped franchises have a chance to excel, this is a good example of the need to be careful what you wish for. Since the subject is hockey, very few of you are still reading at this point and still fewer care that the last paragraph ended with a preposition. Like the NHL itself, we will press on and hope things turn out all right.

While CBC is barely able to contain its enthusiasm, the folks at NBC and the NHL have to be dreading the final match-up. Whether it's Buffalo or Carolina taking on the Oilers, there's a good chance this series could score the lowest prime-time ratings in U.S. television history. That dubious distinction belongs to the XFL, which once brought a 1.6 prime-time rating to NBC. Since the network is averaging but 1.1 for its Saturday afternoon playoff games this year, the possibility of a record certainly exists. NBC boss Dick Ebersol could top himself as the purveyor of America's least-watched show. The reasons for that possibility are legion.