Maybe it was Joe Beninati talking about how warm it was in Montréal, or the fact that there was a shot of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, but maybe Versus is finally catching on to the glory of broadcasting playoff games from Montréal.
While last night's 5-1 Canadiens win over the Philadelphia Flyers was the 7th playoff game in Montréal (only 5 have aired on Versus), there were signs that Versus finally gets the impact of hockey in Montréal.
There were the obligatory shots in the open — showing fans excited before the game started. There was the attempt in the pre-game to show the frenzy of the sold-out crowd at the Bell Centre. Though the creepy box featuring the in-studio analysts was an odd compromise between hearing what they had to say and showing the crowd.
A glimmer of hope hung in that Versus would finally break down and show the anthems. Alas, no. Their timidity toward showing the anthems is now insulting to both countries. The only anthem Versus showed was Game 4 before the Chicago-Vancouver game, and that intro only went to the Chicago market.
After the second intermission, the Versus crew had a segment on the impact from the player point of view of playing in Montréal. What was funny — intentional or otherwise — is that every player they interviewed — Brian Gionta, Scott Gomez, Hal Gill, and Mike Cammalleri — were all playing their first postseason in Montréal. There was no perspective outside the tiny bubble where Versus lives in the moment.
One extremely logical person to interview for a perspective was Montréal Canadiens assistant coach Kirk Mueller, who was on the last Stanley Cup winner for Les Habs in 1993. But Versus has tunnel vision when it comes to marketing.
The only shot of Montréal that showed any element of the city was a shot of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel next to Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral. You could tell it was the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, but there was no other context. Still, this was a sign that Versus was willing to shoot new footage of Montréal.
There were still holes in the coverage. The announcers made reference to a few scattered Philadelphia Flyers fans in the crowd. Having a shot of opposing fans is standard, especially when their team scores. But Beninati and color commentator Daryl Reaugh went out of their way to draw attention to them. This is something you do if you are the Philadelphia announcers, not someone who is pretending to be neutral.
There are still too many "bad situations for Philadelphia" scenarios in the telecast. These "bad situations" for one team are "good situations" for another. I thought Beninati would be the worse offender of the two, but so far, Reaugh is more guilty of it, at least by my unofficial count.
The announcers do a good job of talking about how loud the crowd was, though Reaugh used that as an excuse to imply that the crowd made it difficult for referees to not call penalties against Philadelphia. Of course, the penalties were justified, but this didn't concern Reaugh. Philadelphia likely gets the benefit of the doubt on its home ice, and Reaugh doesn't say anything about it.
To be fair, this has been the problem. U.S. media assumes no one watching is interested in the Canadian team. And because they push this mentality, Versus and NBC freaks out over the idea of having Canadian-based teams in the Stanley Cup final because they fear ratings will go down. If they would cover hockey as a sport, and not as a marketing tool, their ratings wouldn't have to suffer on a whim based on who is playing.
After all, a Chicago-Montréal Stanley Cup battle could be marketed as the possible revenge over the Olympics. The United States and Canada played to some good ratings in the Olympics, and NBC would have kicked butt if it had showed the first matchup, instead of pushing it off to cable (and not even in HD).
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It is all but certain that NBC will have its primary — and apparently only crew — available for Saturday's Game 4 in Montréal. Doc Emrick, Ed Olczyk, Pierre McGuire, and Mike Milbury will be along in French Canada. While NBC carried Game 2 of the Canadiens-Penguins series, this will be the network's first trip to Montréal for a sporting event in a long time.
Let's give a shout-out to WPTZ, NewsChannel 5, the NBC affiliate licensed to North Pole, New York and also serving Plattsburgh, New York and Burlington, Vermont. WPTZ is the NBC station found on cable systems in Montréal. So if are in Montréal, and can't get tickets to the game, and absolutely want to watch the NBC feed, WPTZ is the place to be.
The number of viewers in the licensed areas are not high, but Montréal and southern Quebec offers hundreds of thousands of potential viewers for NBC programming. Then again, there are Americans along the border who pull in CBMT Channel 6, the CBC English station in Montréal. Americans have an easier time pulling in CBMT since Canada still has analog broadcasting until the summer of 2011.
We realize in the NBC hierarchy that WPTZ is not as important as WMAQ-TV (5, Chicago), KNTV (11, San Jose/Oakland/San Francisco), or WCAU (10, Philadelphia). Especially since NBC Universal owns WMAQ, KNTV, and WCAU. But WPTZ is the local affiliate for one of the last four teams in the Stanley Cup finals.
Ken Campbell of The Hockey News notes that "NBC had apparently originally planned to not air any of the games in Montréal during the playoffs, but has since backtracked on that decision." Assuming this is true, NBC may be in Montréal very reluctantly. Let's hope its attitude doesn't reflect its earlier offensive, insulting position.
Hope that NBC shows off some of the charm of the fabled French Canadian city, and shows the anthems. Unless Montréal comes from behind to win this series, this is the only opportunity to showcase the city for an over-the-air national telecast. This is rare stuff, so there will be a lot of hope riding on how this turns out.
In an amusingly ironic twist, I may be watching Game 4 from a different perspective. Depending on how that goes, I'll share the details then. Hopefully, I will have a true multiple look at how Game 4 is covered.