I'm hoping that once it is up and running NHL Network US version will show some of the Canadian games, like HNIC. Conceivabely they could show more in the US than they can in Canada. In Canada they can't show a game when any Canadian team is playing, to keep viewers from watching it instead of the home nation teams.
In the US, they just have to avoid the national broadcast time slots on VS Mon/Tue nights and the Sunday brodcasts on NBC. I think the HDNet broadcasts are not exclusive, so Thursday/Saturday nights would be open still.
Eventually they could do live games Wed-Sat nights season round on NHL Net US.
Now it is just up to them to do it, and get it launched. I was hoping it would be up with the new HD launch today. Could still come Wednesday, or next week.