To: Gary Bettman

From: Andrew Marchand

Re: Has The NHL Season Started?

CC: Peter Puck

Dear Commish:

We are not sure if anyone even realizes the NHL season has begun.

Sure, the true, loyal hockey fans are on board, but the fair-weather NHL fan looks at the league and sees melted ice.

One problem is your national cable TV deal. No one knows you are on Versus. (What’s Versus? It’s OLN’s new name. What’s OLN? Oh, never mind.) Versus’ telecasts have improved in the last year, but your game is best suited for HDTV. It is inexcusable that your main national cable package only offers 26 of 54 regular-season games in HD.

Listen, The Memo applauds you for taking a chance on Versus. And who doesn’t want to see some real competition for ESPN? But Versus didn’t snare the NFL or MLB, to make it a go-to network.

So what we recommend is sticking with Versus, while also returning to ESPN next year. The more channels you are on, the more chances to remind the on-the-fence fans why your sport is a fun watch.

For more Marchand Memos, check out “The Best Sports Blog in Town” at http://blogs.nypost.com/sports/