Given the poor treatment the U.S. cable channel has given to CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, we are very delighted to report that the NHL Network will carry the extra coverage from Summerside, Prince Edward Island.
The coverage begins at noon Eastern, leading up to the Winnipeg at Pittsburgh game, which the channel will also carry. The special coverage continues after the game, breaking only for the CBC 6 pm newscast. The NHL Network will show Montréal at Toronto, but will leave off Vancouver at Calgary.
We would have hoped for a live broadcast of the late game. But in keeping with its new unofficial policy, the late game won't be shown on American TV, even on Sunday morning.
Not to sound ungrateful, but what would you rather watch on Sunday morning, mindless reruns of "NHL Tonight" or a hockey game?
Now that Canada has seven teams in the NHL, CBC had to modify the schedule to include an American team. The CBC set this up with the Penguins, assuming Sidney Crosby would be on the ice. Crosby has severe neck problems well beyond the concussion that has kept him off the ice.
With the late game not on the schedule, the NHL Network will only show 3 of the 7 Canadian teams. The maximum was going to be 5, as Edmonton is at Ottawa opposite the Jets and Penguins. Those in Canada can stream either early game on cbcsports.ca. American viewers are out of luck, except for those in Pittsburgh that will get Edmonton at Ottawa on the NHL Network..
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A Canadian-based team finally makes the Winter Classic. The Toronto Maple Leafs will be the opponent for the Detroit Red Wings for the 2013 Winter Classic from Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on January 1. The power of hockey in Southeastern Michigan and Southwestern Ontario will come together in an Original 6 matchup: the stadium holds well over 110,000 people and you could easily sell 200,000 tickets to see these 2 teams play.
Several teams consider the Red Wings their primary or secondary rival, so Toronto is a bold choice. We want to sincerely thank Gary Bettman for letting a Canadian-based team into the Winter Classic. He won't be disappointed by the response.
Comerica Park in Detroit will reportedly be used for an alumni game. Mike Illitch owns the Tigers and Red Wings, and wanted to use his baseball stadium. Comerica Park is a very short distance from Canada. Ann Arbor is about 40 miles away, but the city is closer to Detroit Metro Airport than Detroit is.
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We missed the first 4 minutes of the Calgary-San Jose game. A combination of an unnecessary fight and an extra long commercial break after the first game didn't help. But it felt good to have late-night hockey on U.S. television, especially with two western teams.
CBC and TSN show doubleheaders all the time. However, NBC won't show any team west of Minnesota in the regular season, and the NBC Sports Network rarely has late games, despite a channel that has no significant programming outside its hockey coverage. The NHL Network won't show the CBC late game live, and lately hasn't been showing it at all.
The Canadian channels understand that the NHL has 8 teams in the Mountain and Pacific time zones; we aren't sure the American channels get this.
The local Comcast channels were on display on Wednesday (Calgary-San Jose) and Thursday (Toronto-Philadelphia). While we would have preferred the TSN feeds (TSN carried both games), better to have American feeds than no feeds at all.
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You may have blinked when the Stanley Cup Playoffs promo played during the Super Bowl. The clues within give us an idea as to which Comcast/NBC properties will carry post-season hockey besides NBC and the NBC Sports Network.
As you might remember, we were told in the new 10-year contract that every single playoff game would be carried on a prominent Comcast/NBC cable outlet. Even if Winnipeg-Ottawa was an option, all those games would be on U.S. television.
Looks like CNBC and the NHL Network will do the honors. CNBC is the best choice imaginable. No worries about programming, great clearance across the country, and available in HD. The NHL Network is great for those who get the channel. Sucks if you don't.
We'll know more in April. You would think the Canadian-based teams would get pushed to the secondary channels, so it could go 50/50 for which channel we would get. Also, if Detroit, Chicago, Nashville, Dallas, and St. Louis all make the playoffs, the early games will have lots of conflicts.
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