Editor's note: The Saturday night early games have been switched around: CBC will have the Canadiens while City TV has the Maple Leafs.
The NHL Network will have another Original 6 matchup for the Montréal Canadiens as the Habs host Detroit. The channel will use the CBC feed.
The CBC nightcap features the Battle of Alberta from the Scotiabank Saddledome.
City TV still gets a rather good game with the Toronto Maple Leafs in Pittsburgh against Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel.
Rogers Sportsnet, given its baseball commitments, will have the Wednesday night game as the Maple Leafs travel 2 hours south to Buffalo.
Rogers Sportsnet One gets a busy week of hockey with the Ottawa Senators hosting Nashville on Saturday night. The channel will host Hometown Hockey with the Edmonton Oilers in Vancouver on Sunday. The Oilers will also be on the second half of the Wednesday doubleheader hosting the Detroit Red Wings.
Rogers Sportsnet 360 follows Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals into Calgary on Tuesday and Vancouver on Thursday.
The Habs home game on Tuesday against St. Louis airs on City TV Montreal CJNT 62 instead of Rogers Sportsnet East thanks to baseball commitments.
Week 2 and the NHL Network isn't carrying the Hometown Hockey pregame in North Bay, Ontario. Its game airs before the Hometown Hockey game. We don't mind a tape-delayed version but the channel refused to do that last year and so far this season.
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NHL Network
Saturday
Detroit @ Montréal, 7p
Tape delayed
Friday NY Rangers @ Montréal, 3p
Saturday Calgary @ Winnipeg, 2p
St. Louis @ Vancouver, 3p
Sunday Edmonton @ Calgary, Noon
Monday St. Louis @ Winnipeg, 2p
Wednesday St. Louis @ Montréal, 2p
Thursday Toronto @ Buffalo, 1p
Detroit @ Edmonton, 3p
CBC
Saturday
Detroit @ Montréal, 7p
Edmonton @ Calgary, 10p
City
Saturday
Toronto @ Pittsburgh, 7p
Rogers Sportsnet
Wednesday
Toronto @ Buffalo, 7p
Rogers Sportsnet One
Saturday
Nashville @ Ottawa, 7p
Sunday
Edmonton @ Vancouver, 9p
Wednesday
Detroit @ Edmonton, 9:30p
Rogers Sportsnet 360
Tuesday
Washington @ Calgary, 9p
Thursday
Washington @ Vancouver, 10p
NHL Center Ice
Friday Toronto @ Columbus, 7p
Calgary @ Winnipeg, 8p
St. Louis @ Vancouver, 10p
Saturday Toronto @ Pittsburgh, 7p
Nashville @ Ottawa, 7p
Edmonton @ Calgary, 10p
Sunday St. Louis @ Winnipeg, 3p
Edmonton @ Vancouver, 9p
Tuesday St. Louis @ Montréal, 7:30p
Washington @ Calgary, 9p
Wednesday Toronto @ Buffalo, 7p
Detroit @ Edmonton, 9:30p
Thursday New Jersey @ Ottawa, 7:30p
Washington @ Vancouver, 10p
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The coach's challenge has gone well so far. The 3-on-3 overtime is very encouraging. If you can make the Toronto Maple Leafs look interesting, as they did Saturday night against Ottawa, and get me to care about overtime, the NHL might have done something well.
The Calgary-Vancouver 3-on-3 overtime was more about trying to outlast the opponent, leading to some cool plays in a more thinking fashion. The Sedin twins can have a lot of fun with this format.
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Hometown Hockey returned from Season 2 from Kitchener. Tara Sloane has jumped into a stronger role on the show and she even got to introduce the Barenaked Ladies. The band performed "Duct Tape Heart" from the new album "Silverball." We are always up for the Barenaked Ladies (though we miss Steven Page), but we definitely would love more Canadian music on the show this season.
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The NHL Network had Jack Eichel's first NHL goal in its rebroadcast of the Senators and Sabres. Even with the Buffalo feed, we saw a poor angle of the goal with no replay. The channel has a nasty habit of blowing off replays of goals during matinee rebroadcasts. If the channel can blow off that replay about an American player the league really cares about, you won't see too many this season in the matinee replays.
At least we got to see that goal. The first Winnipeg goal in the Monday game in Brooklyn didn't even make the matinee rebroadcast. 6 goals in the game but only 5 made it to the screen. The NHL Network should be able to fit 6 goals in an hour.
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We rarely get a peek into Canadian film, even with the CBC, on Hockey Night in Canada. Scott Oake did a really nice interview with Paul Gross and Corporal David MacDonald with Wounded Warriors about the new film "Hyena Road" before the beginning of the 3rd period of the Ottawa-Toronto game.
Gross directed, wrote, and stars in the film, which opened last Friday. The film deals with the Canadian army experience in Afghanistan.
The other war film tied to Paul Gross was "Passchendaele," a film about World War I that played at TIFF in 2008. "Hyena Road" played at TIFF 2015.
Americans likely know Gross from either "Due South" or "Slings and Arrows." Canadians have seen him everywhere from films such as "Men with Brooms" or guest starring on TV shows such as "Republic of Doyle."
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During the Ottawa-Toronto game, Scott Oake teased us with an "After Hours" type interview with Maple Leafs forward Joffrey Lupul that would air after the second game.
We weren't sure Oake could even say the words "After Hours" on the air after the Rogers takeover that ended the long-running show that aired after the second game of the Saturday night doubleheader on CBC.
Whatever we might think about Rogers' coverage, we really miss "After Hours."
There were definitely "After Hours" elements in the interview. A noise in the background threw off Lupul. He said the noise sounded like a birthday celebration. Oake threatened to have Lupul play the guitar just like 9 years ago on "After Hours" (for which we got a clip sans audio). Lots of pictures and old video of Lupul. Oake even had his trademark notebook in his hand.
Of course, some elements were definitely missing. No Kelly Hrudey to ask questions, no questions from Twitter or fans or even a surprise teammate question. And unlike "After Hours," the Lupul interview was less than 6 minutes long.
We absolutely appreciate Oake and Rogers trying to give us a sliver of what we have missed for slightly over a year now. We will have to live with the memories of what was through YouTube and the moments that still play in my head.
NHL Center Ice viewers were able to see the interview as the coverage went to 1:30 am. This used to be the norm in the "After Hours" era but that didn't happen last season. If you didn't see the interview, you can click here.
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NBCSN drafted Chris Cuthbert into a game Tuesday night in Detroit. On Monday, Cuthbert was in Montréal for football, not hockey.
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We will track CBC in-game promos whenever possible this season.
Early game and late game (same pattern): Murdoch Mysteries with special guest William Shatner as Mark Twain; Rick Mercer Report (1st); Romeo Section and Heartland (2nd); Canada's Smartest Person with special guest Mary Walsh; Keeping Canada Alive (3rd).
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The NHL Network had a lot of Canadian teams in the matinees this past week. In the new system, we will record which feed was used with the asterisk.
Friday Ottawa @ Buffalo*; Edmonton @ St. Louis*
Saturday Toronto* @ Detroit
Sunday Ottawa @ Toronto (CBC*)
Tuesday Winnipeg @ NY Islanders*; Vancouver @ Anaheim*
Wednesday Montréal @ Pittsburgh*; St. Louis* @ Calgary; Vancouver @ Los Angeles*
Thursday Ottawa @ Columbus*
Looks like a late change for channel assignments tomorrow. Red Wings-Canadiens on CBC and Maple Leafs-Penguins on City in the 7 pm ET slot.
Posted by: Tyler | October 16, 2015 at 12:08 PM
Just saw this. Have updated the text. Speaks volumes that Sid the Kid with the Leafs is on City.
Posted by: Chad | October 16, 2015 at 02:21 PM