We always have a few tears every spring when a postseason ends for a Canadian team. Doesn't matter if it's a Calgary team that barely made it or a Vancouver team that won the Presidents Trophy. But this one hurt a little more.
After last year, the consolation appeared to be "well, they can come back next year." But every year is different. Vancouver can point justifiably to Duncan Keith's cheap shot that knocked out Daniel Sedin for the rest of the regular season and the first 3 playoff games. Or the trade of Cody Hodgson on a team desperate for offense. Or an underrated Los Angeles Kings that didn't deserve its 8th place status. Or a goalie controversy that wasn't really that controversial, unless the team trades one of the goalies next year.
If the Canucks had won last year, this would be an easier pill to swallow. But they didn't, and it's not.
Canada's quest to retain the Stanley Cup is in the hands of the Ottawa Senators.
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I tried to stir things up by throwing out the name of Gord Miller for NBCSN's coverage of Game 6. Canadian Sports Media reported that Miller will be in Chicago with Ray Ferraro on Monday. Oops.
Still, the idea was brilliant. Dare to dream.
The schedule is winding down for the first round. You have to figure that Doc Emrick and Pierre McGuire will be in Boston Wednesday night. Some team will have the Panthers-Devils Tuesday night, the only game scheduled that night. Dave Strader and Brian Engblom might be in Chicago, but we deserve them to be in Ottawa. (Updates on our Twitter feed.)
The Ottawa Senators hope that CBC will only carry two more games in the first round. Dean Brown and Greg Millen will call their final game for the network this season for Game 7 of Washington at Boston Wednesday night.
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I have missed Daryl Reaugh.
His color analysis wasn't that noticeable on Versus. But I did enjoy his guest appearances on CBC this season, until the NHL Network stopped carrying the late HNIC game.
Compared to Brian Hayward, who worked Game 1 of the Canucks series, Reaugh was sunshine after 40 days of flooding. Reaugh has one huge advantage that the other U.S. announcers haven't had: he had actually done Canucks games.
John Forslund (Game 1) and Rick Peckham (Game 5) did one Vancouver game each this year for their local teams.
Reaugh's sharp analysis has been missing from the U.S. coverage.
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Peckham and Reaugh meant no CBC simulcast by the NBCSN on Sunday night. The prime time slot forced NBC's hand to send a crew. Kings fans wonder why that didn't happen for Game 4, but the rest of the country benefited. The loss of Hughson/Simpson wasn't good, but one of the unanswered questions was why Hughson/Simpson was OK to sim sub, but not Cole/Galley.
We've seen our last CBC sim sub of the year, though a potential Ottawa-Florida series might prove tempting.
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Can't leave without mentioning NBCSN's coverage of a different Canadian team: Toronto FC. The Toronto contest on Saturday is one of two games involving Canadian teams as part of NBCSN's deal with MLS.
This isn't a good time to show the Toronto FC team, having gone winless so far this season. The Chicago Fire handled Toronto FC 3-2 at BMO Field.
The coverage was good. Soccer announcers with British accents aren't freaked out by being in Canada, and you have to love the Toronto skyline east of the stadium, especially the CN Tower. Would have been nicer if it was sunny.
The other MLS game will be at BC Place on September 29 on NBCSN as the Seattle Sounders travel to play the Vancouver Whitecaps.

