The Edmonton Oilers now have the longest string of missing the playoffs. The team had one scheduled live telecast on the NHL Network and lost that game. You can see the Oilers in Minnesota on the rebroadcast Saturday midday. We can plead for U.S. television to show more Canadian teams, but they do need to win. Still, bad U.S. teams get plenty of appearances on the U.S. networks. Someday, Edmonton will be back, and when that happens, they shouldn't be complete strangers to the U.S. audience.
Thanks to the lack of the NHL Center Ice free preview, you can't monitor the Sens or Canucks on Saturday night or watch "After Hours" on TV. Still, the NHL Network will show the crucial Habs-Leafs matchup Saturday night. NBC Sports Network shows Calgary's last game (via CSN-Chicago) and the Ottawa-Boston game. NBC should send either its primary crew (Saturday in New York) or its secondary crew (Saturday in Dallas) to Boston. The alternative is sticking Jack Edwards on a national audience, and no one is ready for that to happen.
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NBC Sports Network
Friday
Calgary @ Chicago, 8:30p (CSN-Chicago simulcast)
Sunday
Ottawa @ Boston, 7p
NHL Network
Saturday
Montréal @ Toronto, 7p (CBC simulcast)
Tape delayed
Friday Anaheim @ Vancouver, 1p
Saturday Edmonton @ Minnesota, Noon
CBC
Saturday
Montréal @ Toronto, 7p (nationwide except Ottawa)
Philadelphia @ Ottawa, 7p (Ottawa)
Vancouver @ Edmonton, 10p
TSN
Friday
Calgary @ Chicago, 8:30p
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Yes, you could have only paid $50 for NHL Center Ice in this shortened lockout season. And you would have had all the exciting games this week that you would normally get for free. But you (meaning me) decided that principle was more important and you didn't pay your money.
Then again, a lot of what you missed was Eastern Canadian teams losing in crucial moments. Last year, we saw Ottawa fall in the last week. Montréal fell in the standings in 2010. Winnipeg's only regulation loss in ages was to the team the Jets couldn't afford to lose to that way. The Maple Leafs lost to Tampa Bay.
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If the NHL Network had left the schedule as is, the cable channel would have had to make a move Saturday night. The original game — Buffalo at Pittsburgh — got moved to Tuesday after the Bruins-Penguins game had to be moved to Saturday because of the search for a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing. It didn't have to take the Toronto-Ottawa game, but the channel made the correct choice. What a game with such electricity. There were a lot of Leafs fans who made the trip to Kanata.
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The CBC Toronto-Ottawa coverage gave us an intriguing combination. Bob Cole was given the game as Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson went West. Garry Galley, former Ottawa colour analyst, worked with Cole and Greg Millen, current Toronto colour analyst, worked between the benches. Can't remember the last time Millen worked a Leafs game for the CBC.
The strategy is definitely to expand the personnel between the benches for the playoffs. The CBC has some intriguing decisions to make for playoff coverage.
Hughson and Simpson went out West because everyone expects them to call Vancouver's first-round series and possibly stay out West, depending on the Canucks run. The East could be more compelling, especially if the Habs and Leafs do match up. Asking Cole to travel between Vancouver and St. Louis? would be asking a lot.
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The U.S. audience got the last minute or so of the Canadiens-Capitals thanks to the NHL Network picking up both ends of the HNIC doubleheader. So we got a snippet of Dean Brown handling the broadcast with Kelly Hrudey in Montréal. Mark Lee was calling curling so he wasn't available.
Brown might get the call Saturday night to do what he normally does for the CBC: call the Ottawa Senators game. This is the only game of the year that is just going to Ottawa. If Lee works in Edmonton, Brown would go to Ottawa, giving Bob Cole a week off before the playoffs. And Brown might work with his old Ottawa partner, Garry Galley.
Brown might be the odd one out of the CBC play-by-play guys for the playoffs. Brown or Rick Ball will handle one of the CBC series in the first round. Ball won't be doing radio in the playoffs, but Brown will call Ottawa on radio in the first round if the CBC doesn't use him.
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While getting bonus coverage of the Canadiens Saturday night was quite fun, the only two things that ruined it was the Habs' performance and Joe Beninati. Jimmy Roberts hosted the studio segments, and he provided more humor than insight. When doing the Winnipeg highlights early in the program, Roberts said "Uh-oh" as the Jets tied the game at 3. Nice professionalism … not.
The network waited until after the 2nd period to mention the crucial Toronto-Ottawa game. Seemed relevant after the 1st period, too. Roberts knows enough about a lot of sports to do what he does for NBC, but showed he was a bit slow on his hockey knowledge. We might not be as good as Roberts can be on TV, but almost everyone watching had a better hockey sense.
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As Rush went into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Thursday, you knew the CBC would incorporate Rush into the show open. "Limelight" was a beautiful choice for several reasons. Nicely done. A nice reminder on Junos weekend of the sizable impact Canada has made on the music world.
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