Stupid fu&%$ng NBC.
The U.S. OTA network decided to take a Saturday night for an all-U.S. game. So the NHL Network won't carry the Toronto-Montréal game as scheduled Saturday night.
Toronto-Montréal is a better matchup than the U.S. game. Maybe NBC is afraid of another NHL telecast that might outdraw its game.
This means the NHL Network goes at least 2 weeks without a game with a Canadian-based team.
The CBC will carry the Toronto-Montréal game in the early slot with St. Louis at Edmonton for the late game.
Unlike last week's heavy early schedule, City TV sits out Saturday night (carrying the U.S. game), but will have Sunday's Hometown Hockey game as the Maple Leafs travel to the U.S. capital to meet up with Alex Ovechkin. The Hometown Hockey festivities are in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, just across the Michigan border.
Rogers Sportsnet has a Saturday game in the late slot as Ottawa finds the way to San Jose. The channels will have 3 Canadian teams Wednesday night as the Senators travel to Winnipeg in the early slot and Les Habs are in Anaheim in the nightcap.
By my count, this is Bob Cole's first week off this season. His best possible slot this week would have been San Jose, a long trip from St. John's. Cole had more weeks off in the CBC schedule. So Mr. Cole, enjoy your week off.
The NHL Network will simulcast TSN's TradeCentre on Monday. Coverage starts at 8 am Eastern and runs 10 hours straight. We thought the Rogers deal would force the channel to usethe Rogers feed. TSN's coverage is so much better, though this year, Rogers will have former CBC people as resources.
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NHL Network
Tape delayed
Friday Philadelphia @ Toronto, 2p
St. Louis @ Winnipeg, 3p
Tuesday Montréal @ San Jose, 4p
Wednesday San Jose @ Vancouver, 4p
Thursday Montréal @ Anaheim, 4p
CBC
Saturday
Toronto @ Montréal, 7p
St. Louis @ Edmonton, 10p
City
Sunday
Toronto @ Washington, 7p
Rogers Sportsnet
Saturday
Ottawa @ San Jose, 10p
Wednesday
Ottawa @ Winnipeg, 7:30p
Montréal @ Anaheim, 10p
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We missed the first 13 minutes of the Hometown Hockey pregame, our first interruption all season. The delay was due to a minor league hockey game. The game ended 11 minutes in but the NHL Network still ran a 2-minute ad break before joining the program in progress. That is not cool.
Hometown Hockey aired from Boischatel, Quebec, in the Quebec City area just northeast of the city.
In the time shown on the NHL Network, the show had a segment on Marie-Philip Poulin and her relative anonymity as a student/athlete at Boston University. Given that she has scored the winning goal in the last 2 gold medal games in the Winter Olympics, Poulin should be more famous.
We missed on TV but I watched online about the story of Manon Rheaume, the first and only woman to play in the NHL. Now her sons are involved in hockey, including her older son who is also a goalie.
We realize interruptions happen, but the NHL Network would benefit from a rerun airing to get the full program on the air. We also could get the pregame portions that air after the 30-minute mark. The NHL Network could use up an hour and throw in more commercials to fill the timeslot: more money for the channel, better programming for the viewers.
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No game also meant no Coach's Corner. Don Cherry went on about stars not fighting, because Sidney Crosby actually got into a fight. Cherry showed other stars fighting to prove his point. Then again, the segment celebrated Steve Montador's life, dying tragically at the age of 35. If fighting had something to do with his early death, then maybe non-stars shouldn't fight either.
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The U.S. outdoor game forced changes in a couple of local Rogers games. Jim Hughson called last Friday's Maple Leafs game against Carolina on Rogers Sportsnet Ontario. Hughson replaced Paul Romanuk. Garry Galley worked Friday night in Calgary on Rogers Sportsnet West to replace Kelly Hrudey.
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Tim Thompson, the genius behind the Hockey Night in Canada montages on CBC, was let go by Rogers. Thompson also announced that he is going back to work for CBC.
Rogers had hired Thompson more as a PR move. Clearly, Rogers had little to any intention of using Thompson. If Rogers let him do 2 montages, I missed the 2nd one.
The montages Thompson will do for CBC will be likely non-existent to the U.S. audience, though they could end up on YouTube. They belonged on Hockey Night in Canada, especially come playoff time. But that won't happen now.
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The kids introduced the night's games. In the teaser from last week about this week, the kids left out the Edmonton Oilers game. Sure enough, in the teaser for the week, the kids also left out the Oilers. Adding insult was a mention both times of the U.S. outdoor game.
Edmonton was forced to play in the early slot but was ignored when listing the night's games.
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Winnipeg is one of 11 teams that have not played an outdoor game. The plan is to eventually rectify that omission so that each Canadian team has had at least one outdoor game. While Edmonton hosted the first regular season outdoor game, the gap is 12 years and running.
Montréal is the only Canadian team to be outdoors twice (both in Alberta), and the Habs have a 3rd scheduled in Massachusetts in 2016.
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U.S. feeds dominated the Friday rebroadcasts. We were not subjected to Joe Beninati on the Caps feed against Winnipeg since Beninati was out with laryngitis. Whew. The NHL Network used the MSG+ feed for the Canucks at Madison Square Garden.
The MSG feed came up for the Hometown Hockey from Long Island. The move proved egregious when the original look showed an Islanders player hitting Jannik Hansen into goalie Ryan Miller yet the MSG replays left out that part of the play.
Using the NESN feed is a sign of weakness and neglect, especially with a Canadian feed carried nationally. The Canucks in Boston as well as the Habs in St. Louis both used U.S. feeds Wednesday afternoon.
More MSG+ was in play on Thursday afternoon with the Flames rebroadcast in New Jersey. Using the Anaheim feed for the game against the Senators in southern California gave the U.S. feeds a clean sweep.