NBC and NBCSN can afford maps of places beyond the United States, but we have joked that they know very little in Canada beyond the Big Three of Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver. To make sure they don't get lost, NBCSN features a TSN reunion of Gord Miller and Pierre McGuire to do the lone Winnipeg Jets game this year Monday night on NBCSN.
You may recall that Miller worked a NBC game on Hockey Day in America (oooh, the irony) last month.
Maybe we should look at this as a nod to get a crew that knows Winnipeg rather than bring in people who don't know Portage and Main or the Red River. Normally, the Monday game gets the #1 crew of Doc Emrick and perhaps Eddie Olczyk with McGuire. Emrick's last game in Winnipeg would have been more than 15 years ago.
Unless you live in a market with a Southeast Division game, you have seen very little of the Winnipeg Jets on U.S. TV. NBC won't show any Canadian teams in the regular season. This is NBCSN's only Winnipeg Jets game. The NHL Network only carried one Jets game: a CBC sim sub of the home opener against Montréal. Toronto at Winnipeg was the New Year's Eve HNIC game, but the NHL Network blew that off.
Seeing the Jets has been difficult in Canada, too. TSN carries some of their games nationally, but TSN-Jets is limited to the Manitoba/Saskatchewan areas (and missing from the recent NHL Center Ice free preview). The CBC games, except for that New Year's Eve game, have been regional in nature.
Other than those contests, I've only had two Jets games come into my home via basic cable: its second game ever in Chicago (local telecast) and a simulcast of CSN Mid-Atlantic as the Jets took on the Capitals.
The Jets are in the playoff hunt thanks to a lackluster Southeast Division. The franchise in Atlanta never won a playoff game. If the Jets do make the playoffs, it would be nice to see them play before the spotlight of the postseason.
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Let's not overlook Saturday night's Toronto-Montréal matchup on CBC and the NHL Network. This is, after all, the only live national game involving a Canadian-based game this week. While this is hockey's best rivalry, neither team is doing well. Still, it should be a good game as the Leafs try to bounce back from a horrible week.
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Doc Emrick and Pierre McGuire will call the Toronto game on Wednesday in Pittsburgh. Emrick and McGuire called the only other Toronto game on then-Versus on October 17 against Colorado at the Air Canada Centre. This will be Toronto's last scheduled appearance on NBCSN.
If the Maple Leafs play as bad as they have lately, this won't be much of a game. I do deride the U.S. TV powers that be, but I honestly think they would want to show Toronto more. When you don't win, you can't make a convincing case. And unlike the other U.S. TV properties, the NHL Network shows its share of Maple Leafs games.
The NHL Network will show the Flyers in Toronto on March 10 as part of the Hockey Night in Canada package.
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Cody Hodgson knows his way to Rogers Arena, the place which up until February 27 was his only NHL home. In a quirk on the schedule, Buffalo's every 2-year trip to Vancouver is Saturday night. Hodgson was the key player in the trade with the Sabres.
The game will air on CBC's late HNIC game, though the only Americans who will see the game will be those that get the CBC feed through OTA or cable.
Besides sitting through a rough Sabres season, Buffalo fans have suffered from a lack of games thanks to squabbles with MSG and Time Warner Cable. This game was circled as one of the few remaining non-MSG telecasts that Buffalo residents could see. Those in the Buffalo area can easily get CBLT/Toronto through the antenna and cable TV.
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