COMMENTARY : To Regain Network TV, NHL May Need to Alter Image : Hockey: Renewed Olympic interest may translate into network bonanza.

All over America Friday, CBS affiliates ditched popular midday programming for a seldom-seen live network alternative--the United States against the Unified Team in an Olympic semifinal hockey game.

Normally, mention hockey and network TV in the same breath, and the boys in the board rooms at ABC, NBC and CBS laugh hysterically. Can’t see the puck, they cackle. Too many fights, they howl, adding that dismal ratings are the major reason hockey hasn’t been shown regularly on an American network since NBC carried the NHL in 1974-75.

Twelve years ago, an American hockey team played a team of Soviets in an Olympic semifinal. When the U.S. team won that game and then beat Finland for the gold in the Miracle on Ice, many people thought hockey might make a network comeback considering the huge audiences watching the 1980 Games from Lake Placid. It never happened.

Now, with another mega-hockey game, is it possible all this renewed interest will translate into network hockey, perhaps with this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs? John Davidson, a former New York Rangers goalie and the insightful CBS analyst for these Games, says the NHL must change its thinking.

“The league right now will never get bigger (on TV) unless it does a couple of things,” he said this week in a conference call. “The NBA led the way by creating media stars. It’s not Chicago coming to town to play Milwaukee, it’s Michael coming to town, it’s Bird against Magic. We have to sell the players more than the team. It’s Brett Hull coming to town, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux.

“Then there’s the fighting question. As long as fighting is in the game, it (the sport) will not get bigger in the U.S. In reading columnists and listening to what reporters say, fighting continues to be the number one bone they pick at. . . . The problem is, the people who run the teams aren’t interested in changing the game. They think it’s fine.”

Mike Emrick, a Philadelphia Flyers broadcaster who has been another gem for CBS on play-by-play, says the best thing that could happen to the NHL this year would be to have two glamour teams from major markets--the Kings and Rangers, for example--advance to the Stanley Cup finals. “If one of the networks didn’t have other commitments, they might want to televise a couple of those games,” Emrick said. “In the last five Stanley Cup finals, there were only five fights.”

With a little help from the man at the satellite store, I was able to pick up the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s Olympic telecast one afternoon this week, and vive la difference from CBS. CBC is carrying 179 hours of live programming morning, noon and night, including a replay of the day’s top hockey game starting at midnight.

CBC uses two hosts operating out of a studio in France with a number of crews out in the field. With far fewer features, the programming is competition-oriented, and commercials are much less intrusive.