The Montréal Canadiens have blown 2-goal leads in the 3rd period of both games in Boston. Blowing the 2-goal lead is a theme in this year's Stanley Cup playoffs. The Habs won Game 1 in double OT but couldn't come back in Game 2.
While Montréal has home-ice advantage, the Canadiens can't rest easy, even for a second.
Game 3 is tonight at the Bell Centre. Game 4 is Thursday.
---
While my knowledge of Canada is considerable, I don't get the name Boston Pizza. Why Boston? Is Boston known for its pizza?
Most Canadians tolerate the Boston Pizza name except when Boston Pizza wants to temporarily change its name. We saw this in British Columbia for the Vancouver Canucks in 2011 for the Stanley Cup finals. This is only the second round.
So until the end of the series, all Quebec outlets will be known as Montréal Pizza. That sounds better even if it tastes the same.
---
P.K. Subban gets booed in Boston. Loudly. That's fine. Subban secretly likes it. But that is a fan's perogative.
Habs fans boo Zdeno Chara, but that is because he deliberately seriously injured one of their players. What has Subban done? Been a good player.
But watching a man of colour get booed in Boston looks bad, given the history of the city, even if colour has nothing to do with why he gets booed. This is especially true after Subban was the subject of racist tweets on social media after Game 1.
Bruins president Cam Neely:
"The racist, classless views expressed by an ignorant group of individuals following Thursday's game via digital media are in no way a reflection of anyone associated with the Bruins organization."
Well put. Though, Neely could have noted that real Boston fans don't do that. Even if they do.
These Boston hockey "fans" that sent out those tweets should ask themselves: "What should Malcolm Subban think?"
Malcolm is a goalie in the Bruins organization. His hope is to someday wear a Boston uniform. What does what happened say to Malcolm Subban?
What does that say to Jarome Iginla? Here is a talented player and an even better human being off the ice. Boston doesn't deserve someone as awesome as Iginla. How is he supposed to feel?
The Boston Bruins were the home of the first NHL player of colour, debuting on January 18, 1958. The Bruins beat out the baseball Red Sox, whose first player of colour was Pumpsie Green in July 21, 1959, 12 years after Jackie Robinson made his MLB debut.
If you don't like Subban because he scored on your team, that's cool. But that should be the only reason to boo him … or anything else.
---
NBC did acknowledge the racist tweets against P.K. Subban during the Game 2 telecast. Doc Emrick referred to Subban as an African-Canadian. That isn't true. Subban's lineage is Jamaican.
The casual hockey fan probably doesn't know that. Those with the racist tweets don't care. But the #1 announcer should know that.
Emrick called 1 Montréal game this season, but has covered Subban in the past. Let's hope Emrick doesn't do the same to Malcolm Subban.
Emrick also joined in the trend from the local Pittsburgh and Boston TV announcers to Americanize Michel Therrien's name. I've said it enough times that you may be exhausted, but when Doc Emrick called him "Michael," he was being racist.
---
The Boston fans pelted the Habs players with beer cans and various debris. Did we learn about that on NBCSN? No. How did I learn about it? Twitter.
I saw a gif file of Subban being hit with a water bottle while on the ice in Game 1.
The U-S-A chants? Learned about that through Twitter, too.
NBCSN covers the surface of the games. CBC gives us the whole picture.
---
Subban gets his hand caught on Brad Marchand's skate early in Game 2. We don't see it happen live. Subban goes off the ice twice before we see what happened.
We finally get to see what happened as a montage of physical play. In that montage, we see Zdeno Chara hit 2 Habs players in the head, neither of which were penalties. Eventually, we saw what happened to Subban.
We don't know if this is biased or sloppy coverage. But if anyone thinks NBC's coverage is even remotely close to CBC or TSN, this is grand proof. A major moment with a key player in the playoffs and we get this kind of crappy coverage.
---
As for the NBC telecast, Ed Olczyk's key role was to tell us how Boston could or should score. If Olczyk said anything about the Canadiens, I missed it. I've seen Olczyk be less biased when he calls national games involving his day job (the Hawks). The CBC crew cared too much IMHO about how Tampa Bay needed to score in the first round.
McGuire did throw in some good points about the Habs, such as praising their shot blocking ability, and threw in some love for Alberta, pointing out the Albertan roots of Johnny Boychuk (Boston) and Rene Bourque (Montréal).
Olczyk will be in Montréal for Game 3 on NBCSN; Daryl Reaugh was on the original schedule. Let's hope he brings something to the telecast about the home team.
---
We like Pierre McGuire because he's nerdy, anal with good info, tell great stories, and used to work in Canada.
But in the last few Habs-Bruins telecasts, we find him pulling in a Boston direction — and it's quite unsettling.
McGuire screaming about too many men for the Canadiens earlier this season is the prime example.
But it's small things such as praises for Montréal but in a way for how Boston will stop that. What about how Montréal will stop Boston?
McGuire will tell us what is happening on the Boston bench but not the Habs bench. If the Canadiens bench is quiet, that is news.
McGuire had his moments in Game 1, such as praising the Canadiens as "kings of opportunism."
---
Game 2 was much worse than Game 1 for Boston bullying. I still don't get the bully tactics used by the Bruins, but the refs let them do what they want.
The Patrice Bergeron hip check that was blatantly a penalty in the 3rd period of Game 1 was a sample of what we are used to seeing.
3 penalties in the whole game, 2 in overtime. 2 power play goals for Montréal. Sweet revenge.
---
Craig Simpson and Scott Oake had a long Thursday. The two gentlemen was covering Game 7 in San Jose on Wednesday night.
Oake said during the broadcast that they left their hotel in San Jose at 4 AM. Let's be kind and say they woke up at 3 am PDT.
They flew to Boston, losing 3 hours in the shuffle, and then working a double OT game in Boston Thursday night. Hope they let them sleep on the plane.
---
Steve Lepore reported that Game 1 drew nearly 2 million viewers for NBCSN. Yes, it was the only game of the night just after 3 exciting Game 7 contests. Still, as Lepore put it, "I don't know how it happened, but the Habs are TV stars in the United States."
We could have told him that. Actually, we did on Twitter.
There are a lot of us. RT @stevelepore: My next big project going to physically track down where all these American Habs fans came from.
Canadian teams can draw in the States; NBC Group hasn't given much of a chance to let that happen.
Let's crunch the U.S. TV numbers from Game 1 for a Canadian-based team NHL playoff game.
The game averaged 1.925 million viewers with a peak of 2.547 million viewers from 10:00-10:15 ET. This was the 3rd-most watched 2nd round game ever: Game 6 and Game 7 of last year’s Detroit-Chicago series did better.
NBCSN trailed only TNT and CBS among men 18-49 in primetime (8-11 pm ET), and this was during May sweeps.
This needs to be reflected in next year's NHL U.S. TV schedule.
---
You can make many excuses for why the Canadiens blew the 2-goal lead in the 3rd period. But the short time in between Game 1 and Game 2, in a very physical series, didn't help. Whatever we might make of mistreating teams, NBC shouldn't affect what happens on the ice. Clearly, CBC has had no influence with 0 Montréal telecasts on Saturday nights.
The CBC should finally get its wish for Game 5. If the Canadiens were at home, would NBC still have put them in the early Saturday slot?
---
photo credit: Boston Pizza
When it comes to Canadian teams being a draw in the US, the Leafs and Habs are pretty much teams that can bring in good ratings simply because they are original 6 teams so they've been around a long time.
NBC the past couple of years has been really pushing rivalry matchups during their broadcasts. Montreal and Toronto have long standing rivalries with other O6 teams, the Habs with Boston, the Leafs with Detroit.
I've always believed that if you have the national TV rights to a sports league, you should go out of your way to do at least 1 home game for every team in the league, so every team has some national exposure.
To go back to NBC promoting rivalries, they still can't remove themselves from the usual group of teams that they focus on (Rangers, Flyers, Pens, Bruins, Hawks, etc.). I'll admit that the Flames aren't the greatest team on the planet, but even most casual hockey fans know about the rivalries they have with the Oilers and Canucks. Guys like Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau are going to be stars in this league, too bad most hockey fans won't know about them.
Posted by: Kyle | May 06, 2014 at 02:10 PM
I would go even further on the topic of Canadian teams being a draw in the U.S. I suspect there is an element of American viewers cheering *against* the Canadian based team. Hockey being considered "Canada's game" and such. Think of the big numbers for Canucks-Blackhawks and Canucks-Bruins in recent playoffs.
Posted by: Tyler | May 06, 2014 at 04:52 PM
On the topic of Pierre McGuire screaming about too many men for the Canadiens earlier this season... well, those of us who watched him all the time on TSN know that it's one of his things being down at ice level. He always screams when there are too many men out there. Doesn't matter if the play-by-play guy is talking or not.
And Boston attempting bully tactics is simple. They do it because they can. Sure worked well in the 2011 SCF...
Posted by: Tyler | May 06, 2014 at 04:55 PM
NHL Network never did carry a Calgary Flames game this year. And they won't show either Alberta team at home. Wonder if the Rogers deal will change this. Flames were an interesting team to watch, even if "Americans" have no idea.
NBC has horrible biases against Western teams (outside of Chicago and Detroit, when in the West). Canada is one of those biases.
Posted by: Chad | May 07, 2014 at 12:57 AM
I appreciate Pierre McGuire yelling when necessary. My concern is that it's one-sided.
I realize the anti-Canadian sentiment is up. Crowds in Tampa and Boston with USA chants. I could see more of that anti-Canadian sentiment if the Stanley Cup was consistently won by Canadian teams. A 21-year gap should make anti-Canadians sentiment milder, not heavier.
If that draws better TV numbers, then U.S. outlets should schedule more Canadian teams.
Posted by: Chad | May 07, 2014 at 01:04 AM
Do you think Canada defeating the U.S. in the last two Olympics has anything to do with that?
Posted by: Tyler | May 07, 2014 at 01:19 PM
I don't think most in the U.S. can remember who won the Olympics 2 weeks after the Olympics. 2010 was a bit different since Canada beat the U.S. in OT in the gold medal game. You saw how badly the U.S. played against Finland in the bronze medal game. The U.S. hasn't won gold since the Miracle on Ice in 1980.
Posted by: Chad | May 08, 2014 at 08:52 PM