A story of two teams: Carolina and Winnipeg played Friday night in Winnipeg. Each team flew out to the next city. The Hurricanes reportedly got to Toronto at 2 am while the Jets got to Detroit at 4 am. The instinctive guess was "Customs."
Kelly Hrudey: "Customs"
Ron McLean: "Maybe, customs. Two hours in customs?"
Hrudey: "I've been there."
Glenn Healy: "Only in Montréal when you land, that's when they keep you on the plane for two hours, no place else."
Well, McLean got Elliotte Friedman to go on the Twitter and find out. Friedman's research?
"Carolina landed in Toronto at 2:25; Winnipeg landed in Detroit at 2:55. Must have been some extra time at Customs and also it's a bit of a hike from the Detroit airport downtown to probably where they are staying."
Before we found out the answer, McLean had another customs point about the line on "Have you visited a farm." The joke was on Friedman since he has been to a few farms to interview players for "Inside Hockey."
Detroit Metro Airport is just east of Ann Arbor, a good distance from Detroit. While Pearson is a long distance to travel by subway and bus to get downtown, the actual kilometres distance isn't as far. The other unsaid part is that Detroit is closer than Toronto from Winnipeg. Then again, we don't know when the flights took off.
Given that the Customs line isn't very long at that hour, any Customs delay would be unfortunate.
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This was the weekend of CBC musical chairs. Bob Cole was reunited with his old partner, Greg Millen, in the Montréal matinee. Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson split up, Hughson followed his old team, the Vancouver Canucks, to Ottawa with former Senators color guy Garry Galley and Simpson hung out with Mark Lee for the Battle of Alberta. Only Dean Brown and Kevin Weekes had previously worked together this year, this past week at Joe Louis Arena for the Winnipeg game.
Mark Lee has now worked with Kevin Weekes, Daryl Reaugh, Cassie Campbell-Pascall, and Craig Simpson so far this season.
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Though the Vancouver-Ottawa game was limited in the United States to those who could pick up the CBC feed and in Tampa and Philadelphia on the NHL Network, we missed having two women ice-side for the game. Cassie Campbell-Pascall worked in between the benches, and Andi Petrillo was the sideline reporter. This means Cassie has her own hat trick already this year, having worked as a sideline reporter and a colo(u)r commentator.
The old Versus used women as sideline reporters, but the current NBC/Versus coverage features no females on air.
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I can tell you first-hand that Windsor has its share of Detroit Red Wings fans. Windsor also has its share of Maple Leaf fans and those who root for former Windsor Spitfires players, such as Edmonton's Taylor Hall. So when the CBC features the Detroit Red Wings, you can be sure that CBET-9 in Windsor will have the game.
Those who cable in the Detroit area in the United States can get every single Red Wings game through Fox Sports Detroit, Versus, and NBC. Fans in Windsor have no access to Fox Sports Detroit or Versus/NBC Sports Network, but can watch NBC on-air and through cable (3 games this year) and possibly 2 more games that will air either on NBC or the NBC Sports Network. This year, TSN has 5 Red Wings games and CBC has 3 games.
This forum mentions that CBET did NOT carry the Jets-Red Wings game in Detroit, instead running Vancouver-Ottawa on Saturday night. This goes against the original schedule. Unfortunately, I don't have way to confirm one way or another, but if CBC in Windsor didn't carry the Red Wings, that would be a surprise.
The person on the forum is from the metro Toledo area, so the signal would be via cable. It's possible there was a split feed, offering the Detroit Red Wings over the air and Ottawa Senators via cable. Again, we offer that as a long shot.
Since the Red Wings are only on cable in Detroit (except for NBC telecasts), American viewers in Detroit could have had the Red Wings on over-the-air TV on Saturday night. Then again, if that was a problem, it could explain why the game wasn't on in Canada. If you are in the Detroit area, please weigh in on this in the comments section.
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Outside of Tampa and Philadelphia and those that can get CBC, American viewers were also shut out for Coach's Corner and the Hot Stove.
So you aren't deprived, here are the online feeds for Coach's Corner and the Hot Stove. Unlike After Hours, these two segments are easy to access for American viewers on their computer.
If you are having trouble with the Coach Corner's video, like the last minute of the segment, try this instead.
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Don Cherry brought up Tyler Seguin's healthy scratch for oversleeping a team meeting. The Boston Bruins were in Winnipeg and Seguin overslept, missing a meeting. Seguin blamed it on being on Boston time, not on Winnipeg time, for oversleeping. There is one problem with that theory.
If you are traveling west, you gain time, not lose it. If your alarm is set for 7 am Boston time and you wake up at 7, it's 6 am in Winnipeg. You would be early for a meeting, not late.
This would have been Seguin's first trip to Winnipeg as a NHL player, so he may not have known Winnipeg is on Central time. But if your excuse is that your alarm was on Boston time, that still wouldn't make you late. Yet no one else in the media picked up on that point.
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Depending on your Comcast availability, Thursday could be a busy hockey day. The NHL Network will have Philadelphia-Montréal from the Bell Centre. We are hoping for a TSN feed, though Comcast Sports Net Philadelphia is a distinct possibility. And some Comcast areas will get Washington at Winnipeg that same night. Coverage for that game will definitely come from Comcast Sports Net Washington. Unfortunately, this will mean Joe Beninati, hockey's worst PBP guy, will be spouting his clichés. Still this is one of the few times to see a game live from Winnipeg in the United States without Center Ice.
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Even in weeks where the NHL Network won't carry the primary HNIC game, the channel will still show Hockey Tonight (yay!). To offer a somewhat smooth transition between the two programs, the commercial break in between can run a little long. This week, the channel had a 6:10 break, rather long even by cable TV standards. If the CBC segment had run longer, the break wouldn't have been as long.
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Tomas Kaberle has been a frequent player on Hockey Night in Canada for his many years with the Toronto Maple Leafs. In the calendar year of 2011, Kaberle has gone from his only NHL home of Toronto to Boston (Stanley Cup) to Carolina (3-year free agent contract) to Montréal. Along the way, Kaberle got a new pronounciation of his last name. The name had been pronounced Kab-ber-lay; now it sounds like Kah-ber-lay. The Canadiens need help on the power play, if Tomas can supply that, they will call him anything he wants.