On top of the frustration of not having a Canadian style Heritage Classic, the new pattern from the NHL Network is clear: outside of Toronto/Montréal matchups (and the Winnipeg Jets home opener), no U.S. national outlet will carry two Canadian teams live.
NBC and Versus/NBC Sports Network have never carried one live, except for last year's Heritage Classic from Calgary. The NHL Network will gladly carry a number of games involving 2 Canadian teams on tape-delay. Just not live.
The Vancouver at Ottawa game on December 10? Not on. Vancouver at Toronto on December 17. Nope. Coincidence?
This irony will blow up come playoff time when the NBC Sports Group will be forced to carry all-Canadian playoff games live on an established signal. Don't "worry," that won't be on NBC (unless it's deep enough in the playoffs) or the NBC Sports Network (if it can help doing so). CNBC will be the likely home for such a game; if the matchup isn't Toronto/Montréal, it will be a first in the United States in the 2011-2012 season.
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In the category of "Great Minds Think Alike," this entry from Puck the Media had really good timing. He echoed much of my sentiment on the NHL Network bailing so quickly on Saturday's Hockey Night in Canada and the constant crawl on live games. He and the commentators had other issues with the NHL Network where all parties, especially Canadian Crossing, are in agreement.
As Puck the Media put it: "The NHL Network Crew Barely Broke the Game Down Themselves." The game-winning goal was particularly controversial; what was frustrating on top of cutting away so soon was that unlike the viewers who saw the goal, the NHL on the Fly guys didn't even mention a controversy if they knew one existed. In hockey, when a goalie covers the puck, as Carey Price clearly did, the whistle should blow. Often, when a referee thinks the puck is covered when it's not, they blow the whistle if they don't see the puck. Later replays showed Price covered the puck after everyone thought he covered it. Kris Letang was able to steal the puck from Price's cover for the game-winning goal. Even later, after the NHL Network guys would have seen the same replay we saw, they never said anything prudent about the game-winning goal.
Hopefully, folks at the NHL Network read these blogs to get some idea of what fans think. If Kansas Governor Sam Brownback can find a tweet from a high school student, then the NHL Network can read what we're thinking. Otherwise, contacting them remains a mystery.
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Speaking of last Saturday's game, Max Pacioretty is serving a 3-game suspension for his hit on Letang. Now many see through my bias to say Pacioretty aimed for Letang's head and deserved the suspension. I would honestly argue after numerous replays that Pacioretty went for the shoulder, not the head. P.J. Stock of the CBC would disagree with me, and he played the sport. And if Pacioretty did hit Letang's head directly, he deserved some punishment.
Three games is rather harsh given that Letang got up and scored the controversial game-winning goal minutes after the hit. Three games is three more than Milan Lucic got for his slam on Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller and Zdeno Chara's deliberate incapacitating hit on Pacioretty last spring. Miller is still out and Pacioretty missed the last two months. Lucic and Cahara play for Boston; Pacioretty plays for Montréal.
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So you won't see Pacioretty as the Canadiens are in Los Angeles tomorrow afternoon (CBC, NHL Network). You might start doing your holiday time appreciation of NHL Canadian-based teams now since you won't see much of them live in this Yuletide season. Versus will never carry another Canadian-based team in its existence. Oh, that's right, the NBC Sports Network debut day will feature San Jose at Vancouver on January 2, 2012, unless the Winter Classic gets pushed to the nighttime (again). That will be the Canucks' 2nd and final regular-season appearance on U.S. basic cable.
This Saturday's Toronto-Boston matchup marks the final live Hockey Night in Canada Saturday night game of 2011. CBC is taking Christmas Eve off, but its nighttime presentations of December 10, 17, and 31 will not be shown in the United States. After this weekend, the NHL Network will only show Montréal at New Jersey on the afternoon on December 10 and Philadelphia at Montréal on December 15 in 2011. The first day of 2012 will bring Calgary at Nashville on the NHL Network.
This doesn't count any tape-delayed games, such as the 2nd half of the Hockey Night in Canada doubleheader and Monday's tape-delay of Calgary at Vancouver.
NHL Center Ice looks more and more tempting if only I could get more than 1 HD game at a time.
I prefer the NBA over the NHL anyways but this is still interesting.
Posted by: outside games | March 07, 2012 at 07:03 PM