This Week's Newsmakers: NHL Scores With Penguins-Red Wings

THE DAILY each Friday offers our take on the performances over the past week of people and entities in sports business. Here are this week’s newsmakers.

NHL Likely To See TV Ratings Boost With Crosby's First Appearance In Stanley Cup Finals

WIN: NHL -- The league has all the pieces in place for its Stanley Cup Finals. The Penguins-Red Wings Stanley Cup pairing has been called a dream matchup, and the league finally seems to be back on track after the '04-05 lockout. TV ratings, league revenue and merchandise sales are up, and the Penguins and Red Wings give the NHL star power -- notably SIDNEY CROSBY -- around which to market its marquee event.

LOSE: WILLIE RANDOLPH -- The team is struggling and the Mets manager brings up a topic that is often discussed behind closed doors but rarely in the news pages -- suggesting his race negatively affects the way he is portrayed by SNY. He later is forced to apologize with the oft-used excuse that he thought remarks to veteran scribe IAN O'CONNOR were off the record.

DRAW: CHAMPIONS LEAGUE -- It was an up-and-down week for the greatest prize in European club soccer. The game was not decided until after 1:30am local time in Moscow by penalty kicks in a driving rain. The pre-game concerns about Luzhniki Stadium's turf were affirmed, as footing became an issue near the end, most noticeably on JOHN TERRY's missed penalty kick. But the match was an instant classic, and stateside, it was the most viewed UEFA game ever on ESPN2 and garnered more interest and media attention than typical.