Over the years my personal relationship with Google has been a bit shaky. Even if I give them a hard time, from time to time, I love them for all their geeky goodness, even in the face of some of their imperialist evil doing. Today though, I love them for all the right reasons.

Earlier this morning, I read a post by Jennifer Slegg over at Search Engine Watch that made me howl in delight and anticipation. Google Video has teamed up with the National Hockey League to present classic and current NHL games on demand. From where my sofa sits, hockey is Canada’s greatest athletic export, far surpassing basketball and the forward lateral pass in American Football.

On a personal note, I can’t resist asking,
Hey Richard, wanna watch the Leafs win the Stanley Cup? :)

Anything’s possible in this day and age eh? The 1967 final between Montreal and Toronto is available, along with countless other classic games.

So, aside from my own love of the game, I hope the deal between the NHL and Google Video is the first of many content distribution deals Google is able to ink in the coming months. This sort of thing makes opportunities for webmasters and online entrepreneurs. In the long run however, what seems to be an altruistic act on the part of Google is actually Google moving into a highly profitable position.

By making premium content available, Google is giving webmasters the tools they need to build content-rich sites carrying Google advertising. Google is positioning itself between entertainer (on in the case of the NHL, entertainment corporation) and entrepreneur, absorbing the licensing costs while ensuring the availability of that content. In return, webmasters are going to run Google AdWords on their sites. That kind of relationship makes a lot of ad-sense.

From the NHL’s perspective, this sort of deal only enhances the reach of a league desperate for an expanded American audience. The NHL is not the only game in town and, for that matter, sports is not the only interest-area Google Video could service. Perhaps the deal between the NHL and Google Video is going to provide the model through which Google handles copyrighted content. Instead of allowing individuals to upload copyrighted materials to YouTube, Google Video makes agreements and presents licensed content.

However all that licensing stuff works itself out, having an archive of the best hockey ever played at my fingertips works for me. As an entrepreneurial hockey fanatic, this is a no-brainer for me. Watch for the 10-Best Hockey Blog, coming to a RSS Feed near you and if you are so inclined to purchase, please feel free to click on the ads.