Glenn Healy was in between the benches. Mark Lee called the West Coast game. Bob Cole did a Montréal game. Same as it ever was?
We certainly got the impression when the season started that the CBC wanted a streamlined smooth change with Rick Ball out west and Glenn Healy in the studio. Human nature and practicality means the CBC schedule will be in flux and that's OK. A Rouge Point has contests to predict which broadcast team will be doing a particular game.
As regular reader Tyler noted, Ball didn't have to do Friday's night broadcast since TSN handled the TV feed. Yet, Mark Lee was in Calgary.
Rick Ball has a day job, radio voice for the Vancouver Canucks during Rogers Sportsnet Pacific telecasts. Ball will do some telecasts, and when he does, those will likely be with Kelly Hrudey.
Bob Cole made his first appearance, well, two appearances in Montréal. Cole did both games with Garry Galley and Cassie Campbell-Pascall. Nice to have a job where you are paid to stay in Montréal on a Saturday night. While Americans outside of CBC range were shut out of the Cole telecasts, the Ottawa-Montréal matchup did air tape delayed Monday afternoon on the NHL Network.
Healy was in the studio for the matinee, in-glass in prime time, and didn't go back to the studio because he had to get on a plane to go to Montréal to be at ice level, but not between the benches, at the Bell Centre on Super Bowl Sunday.
In other words, things will be as they are supposed to be, unless they're not. Same as it ever was.
---
Blink and you might miss it. That's right: NBC Sports Network makes its only regular-season trip to Canada. The crew will be in Montréal as the Habs welcome the Boston Bruins. Yes, this is a 48-game season, but one game in Canada for the whole season. Shameful.
Since the game airs on Rivalry Wednesday, the #1 crew will be in La Belle Province — Doc Emrick and Pierre McGuire. Like Healy, McGuire will be off to the side at Bell Centre. Ed Olczyk is out west with the Chicago NHL team.
The action gets underway on the NBC Sports Network at 7:30 pm Eastern. The other two appearances by Canadian teams, meaning Montréal, are road games in Boston on March 3 (7:30 pm) and March 27 (7 pm). You can likely assume that the rebroadcast Thursday afternoon will be the NBCSN feed, though TSN is also carrying the game.
---
Canadians complain when simsubbing means getting back to programming late. NHL Network in the U.S. was guilty of that quite a bit in the Boston-Toronto game. The feed came back to David Amber in the middle of an interview. After the big show open, the U.S. cable channel tried to go to commercial and we lost a few seconds. The board operator doesn't need 5-hour energy, but 3½ hours will do just fine.
---
LeBron James is one of the best and well-known NBA players. The CBC cameras found him in a skybox at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. Jim Hughson noted that James tweeted that this was his first NHL game.
Yes, James started in Cleveland, which doesn't have a NHL team. He plays for Miami, a city that technically has a NHL team, though hardly anyone goes to the games, and the NBA and NHL teams play in separate arenas.
Still, if your first NHL game is an Original 6 matchup on Hockey Night in Canada, you're doing OK, even if you are a superstar adult. And James said he was having a good time.
---
Some American viewers of Comcast Philadelphia and Mid-Atlantic got the Comcast Chicago feed for the Calgary Flames contest.
The lopsided on paper contest proved much more bizarre. Calgary outshot Chicago 47-19, 24-6 in the third period. The Flames gave up the game tying goal with 3 seconds left and true to recent form, lost the shootout.
The Flames haven't played that many games as most other teams, but Calgary fans may have to wait for later this year.
---
When NHL Center Ice screwed up the TSN-Jets feed, we wondered why Center Ice didn't switch to the TSN-Habs feed. Turns out that those in the TSN-Habs area also got the same feed. The Canadiens fans can look at it as an extra game in English in their market, but certainly would be frustrated to hear Jets bias in the calls.
Dennis Beyak, Jets play-by-play announcer, noted in the telecast that Jets on TSN would carry 38 of the 48 games, a stark improvement from last year when the channel only carried 26 of the 82 games.
TSN-Habs is carrying 18 games this season, including potential TSN-Jets feeds. At least all the Habs games are on RDS, albeit in Francaise.
Good post. As long as Vancouver Canucks fans aren't stuck listening to Mark Lee, all is well (just kidding - he's a capable pbp man).
But, it is interesting that he has not worked a Canucks telecast yet this season. Much like how he almost never works Maple Leafs games unless it's late in the season and they're out of playoff contention...
Posted by: Tyler | February 13, 2013 at 02:28 PM
Thanks Tyler. I really do appreciate the feedback.
I and you and several others have figured on a few patterns. The one game Rick Ball did was in Vancouver. Jim Hughson did the other game in Vancouver, so Ball will likely do the games in Vancouver if Hughson stays back east. A far cry from the West Coast pbp guy the CBC led us to believe Ball would be in 2013.
Posted by: Chad | February 13, 2013 at 02:44 PM
It will be interesting to see what happens this weekend. You would think Hughson and Simpson would work Penguins/Jets on Friday and Senators/Maple Leafs on Saturday but it's hard making guesses the way it's been going this season.
The next late game I'd expect to see Hughson and Simpson working would be Kings/Canucks on Mar. 2 since there's no Maple Leafs game that particular Saturday.
Posted by: Tyler | February 13, 2013 at 07:23 PM
I would go out on a limb to predict Mark Lee and Kelly Hrudey will be in Winnipeg on Friday and Edmonton on Saturday. Jim and Craig handle the Battle of Ontario and Cole and Galley are in Montreal (the game the U.S. gets on the NHL Network).
I would agree that Kings/Canucks will be Hughson/Simpson also because the NHL Network is picking up the second half of the DH, a highly unusual move.
Posted by: Chad | February 13, 2013 at 11:18 PM