Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin will share the ice on Thursday night for the first time all season, but two mysteries remain about the matchup.

No. 1: Why did it take until January 2010, three and half months after the start of the season, for the Pittsburgh Penguins to play the Washington Capitals?

No. 2: Why isn't this game on network television in Canada or the United States?

We at TORO are itching for this game – the first rematch after last year's thrilling East Conference semifinals  – but it's nowhere to be found on the TV dial. That is of course unless you've got the NHL Network on your cable package.

I simply don't understand why the league, through whatever revenue scheme is at play here, has buried its most entertaining young stars on its specialty cable channel. This is taking your audience for granted, something hockey fans in Toronto are familiar with, but it's a stupid move in the long run.

Teen interest in the NHL has dropped 28 per cent since 1990, according to research by University of Lethbridge sociologist Reginald Bibby, who spoke to the Toronto Star recently about the issue. Even more surprising, Bibby found that interest in all pro sports has declined for young Canadians since 1992.

But are those stats really shockers? Every video-game console in a Canadian basement speaks to the trendy way young males get their entertainment fix in 2010.

Crosby and Ovechkin's next meeting, scheduled for February 7 in Washington, will be broadcast on NBC.

Washington at Pittsburgh
7:30 p.m. ET
NHL Network