It would've been interesting to see what Al-Jazeera reporters would've asked Scott Niedermayer following Game 3. Bruce Bennett /Getty Images

Ottawa -- The blogosphere has created a minor problem for the NHL public relations department, which isn't always sure which organizations merit credentials for the Stanley Cup finals. Maybe this is a dotcom world and we're just living in it (or typing for it), but not every one of the mushrooming sites is going to get into the official hockey tent -- as was discussed at the Professional Hockey Writers Association meeting Sunday morning.

Of course, some better-known news organizations also have been shut out.

Like Al-Jazeera.

Al-Jazeera has no one at the Stanley Cup finals, its credential request having been turned down. Given the paucity of non-aligned (i.e. Southern California) newspapers from the States covering the final between the Anaheim Ducks and Ottawa Senators -- the Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Globe, both Denver papers, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, New York Daily News and the Buffalo News have been spotted through three games -- you might have thought the NHL would have been happy to reach a, hmmm, really non-traditional hockey market, but, alas, that didn't happen. Why Al-Jazeera saw the news value in something that, say, the Detroit News apparently hasn't is for deeper thinkers than me.

So no Al-Jazeera. And no Chicago Tribune.