Was watching the Red Wings handily defeat the (personally hated) Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals on NBC and the coverage was embarrassing. I sure wish ESPN was covering it. But, what was most frustrating, was that I wasted the entire first period of game four trying to get the player-cams to work at NHL.com or at nbcsports.com. Lidstrom, Fetterberg, Crosby and a few others were all supposed to be broadcasting live, for the entire game, from their helmets. They even ran some promotional spots in the first period. I thought, holy shit, this is awesome. A legitimate dual-screen experience. A reason to have the website up and open throughout the ENTIRE game. A breakthrough. I started to wonder if they sold joint media packages to advertisers on the TV and on the computer. I envisioned four live feeds on the website running continuously throughout the entire game and even during the breaks. I was hoping Crosby would throw his helmet down in disgust when the Wings scored and I would just see the corner of their box for a few minutes. That would have been awesome.

When I went to the site there was a link to Wing-Cams and Pen-Cams but, of course, when you clicked on them it merely went to the standard NBC video player and fed that video player the exact same feed that was on television, only a little bit shittier quality. Not only did it not have a grid of player-cams to choose from or even better look at simultaneously, but it didn’t have a player-cam of any kind. I tried it several times and bounced back and forth between nhl.com and nbcsports.com (the promo ad said it was featured in both places) hoping one of the sites would get it right, nope. Ok, I guess it was a nice try. Maybe someday.

But after thinking about this experience and bit more (it’s been five days now) and getting past the fact that by searching for this feature I missed the Wings tie the game up with a beautiful wrist shot by Lidstrom here’s the real question, the question every network needs to think about: Why the F would I want to watch on my computer the VERY SAME live video feed that’s on my television? Don’t think too hard about it network execs, it’s a trick question. We wouldn’t.

Here’s what networks should do on their websites while they are broadcasting live events like sports: show us something else. Stop protecting your precious broadcast on the television. It’s nonsense. Supplement it with other cameras and angles and just plain facts and figures. Show us the same data the announcers get to see. Let us watch the entire period from inside the goal. Maybe even give us a control room and let us cut our own feed (awesome). You know, it’s fine if the camera exposure is a little too hot or if it’s simply pointing at the corner of the box. It’s the Internet. We like that. The key is to be bold and creative. For example, give us some helmet-cams and just let them run for three hours. I guarantee a significant increase in traffic and time spent on your site.

Oh yeah, and now the best part: