A few months ago, the NHL announced a deal with YouTube to bring game highlights and other video packages to the online video superstore. As an out-of-market Red Wings fan who still hasn't ponied up for the package, this sounded like a great idea.

Well, a few weeks after the NHL started posting these videos I'm here to call it an unmitigated failure. Sure, I can get Red Wings highlights. Here's the clip for the most recent game, a Wings loss against our hated rival, the Colorado Avalanche.

There are two major problems.

1) The clips go up too late.

This game happened on Saturday night. The highlights weren't posted until midday Monday. The clips absolutely have to go up no later than the morning after. I wake up and say to myself "Hey, how did the Wings do last night?" If the video's not online, I'm not coming back.

ESPN can cut up a highlight package in minutes. I know there are a bunch of games on any given day, but I gotta figure the NHL can get these packages up a few hours after the game.

2) The highlights are terrible.

Watch that Wings-'Lanche video. It's terrible. There's no voice-over telling you what's going on, just the game announcers in mid-call. Think about an ESPN highlight package. They always use nice graphics to tell you if someone reaches a milestone or to give you key stats. Not here.

Unless the NHL improves these packages, there's really no point to their YouTube venture.

The good news is that there is an alternative. I've been talking about ESPN highlights a lot in this piece - for good reasons. They're the gold standard when it comes to this sort of thing.

ESPN has their own online vide initiative called ESPN360. It's terrific. The video fidelity is a step up from YouTube. The packages are ESPN productions, so you know they'll be high quality. You can watch a sample highlight package here. You can even get a Red Wings specific RSS feed.

I don't know if they post clips in a timely fashion. They haven't yet posted a clip for this weekend's Avalanche game. So that criticism still stands. All tolled, however, ESPN's offering is far superior to the NHL-YouTube version.

At the end of the day, though, I'm still rooting for YouTube. The downside to ESPN360 is that it only works with certain ISPs. Much like with their cable channels, ESPN gouges the networks to allow their users access. That just seems kind of unseemly to me. Not to mention unreliable. The NHL-YouTube version is much more open and, of course, totally free to anyone with an internet connection.

Second, I have to think that if the NHL ever got really serious about putting together stunning video packages, they'd put out a lot more and a lot better content than ESPN ever would. I love ESPN's hockey coverage, but it's tough to deny the sport is more of an afterthought to the network.

Hockey is all the NHL ever does. If they really started trying, I'm sure they could beat the pants off ESPN.