Get ready for another hockey night in Canada

Don't know if you saw them, but NHL honchos Gary Bettman and Bill Daly were in Toronto last week.

But they weren't here to catch any of the film festival's offerings or get their pictures taken with Rob Ford. They were here to meet with Sportsnet and Bell Media executives in hopes of flogging a third national television hockey package. According to industry sources, the National Hockey League is trying to sell a Sunday night hockey page -- sort of Hockey Night In Canada for the sabbath -- and Rogers is looking like the most likely buyer.

Things are starting to heat up as the NHL attempts to up-sell its Canadian TV package with deals expiring at the end of next season. Bettman and Co., not surprisingly, are looking to squeeze more revenue out of the networks that bring their sport to a hockey-mad nation.

They're hoping first and foremost to get a few more dollars (read millions) out of CBC, which is desperate to hang on to Hockey Night In Canada. That's one reason why the NHL let CBC's exclusive negotiation window expire at the end of September. As one industry source put it, creating more suitors always helps drive up the price.

That's where Bell Media comes into the picture, with its CTV flagship and TSN. It would dearly love to steal the country's No. 1 sports property from the CBC, though the price may prove to be too high -- especially when CTV might have to sacrifice its lucrative U.S. drama and sitcom simulcasts.

But insiders doubt that will happen, partly because the NHL is loath to cut its six-decades history with CBC and partly because knocking such a big player out of the market wouldn't be good for business down the road. Bell Media will more than likely retain its national cable deal, possibly with a few enhancements.

So CBC is not likely to be holding a garage sale featuring Don Cherry's suits any time soon. It might have to hold a bake sale though, because the public broadcaster is going to have to pay substantially more than the $100 million it shelled out in its last deal.

But that increase -- and the extra dollars TSN will surely pay to keep its national cable package -- won't be enough to keep the NHL happy. It wants more and that's where the Sunday night game comes in. A schedule that features top Canadian teams on Saturday night, Sunday and Wednesday would provide league owners with a substantial raise over the last go-round.

"I think the league would love to have a Sunday night package to go with its other deals," said Brian Cooper, president and CEO of S&E Sponsorship Group. "It would be similar to the NFL approach, with Sunday being a prime-time game."

If Sportsnet gets the new Sunday night deal, it would mark a return to the network's roots. When it broke into the business in 1998, its marquee property was the NHL cable deal -- a deal it eventually decided was too rich for its blood and too much out of sync with its regional approach.

But times have changed and Sportsnet has set its sights on knocking off TSN as the country's most-watched cable channel. Getting back into the NHL game would be a pretty good start on that quest.