Rest up today for all 7 Canadian teams wrap up their NHL season on Saturday.
The final CBC regular season doubleheader starts with the Maple Leafs in New Jersey in the opener and Edmonton out west in Vancouver in the nightcap.
City TV ends its NHL coverage for the season with the Calgary Flames in Minnesota Saturday night.
Rogers Sportsnet starts out Saturday night early with the Montréal Canadiens hosting Tampa Bay. The nightcap has the Winnipeg Jets in Los Angeles.
Rogers Sportsnet One gives us a Saturday matinee with the Ottawa Senators in Boston.
The NHL Center Ice free preview wraps up tomorrow.
The NHL Network is not running the Saturday pregame.
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NHL Network
Tape delayed
Sunday Ottawa @ Boston, 1p
CBC
Saturday
Toronto @ New Jersey, 7p
Edmonton @ Vancouver, 10p
City
Saturday
Calgary @ Minnesota, 7p
Rogers Sportsnet
Saturday
Tampa Bay @ Montréal, 7p
Winnipeg @ Los Angeles, 10p
Rogers Sportsnet One
Saturday
Ottawa @ Boston, 12:30p
NHL Center Ice free preview
Saturday Ottawa @ Boston, 12:30p
Tampa Bay @ Montréal, 7p
Toronto @ New Jersey, 7p
Calgary @ Minnesota, 7p
Edmonton @ Vancouver, 10p
Winnipeg @ Los Angeles, 10p
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Kudos to the NHL Network for stepping up on the Rexall Place finale. The channel showed the postgame coverage and had a 2-hour matinee rebroadcast of the game on Thursday. The channel did cancel matinee rebroadcasts for the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday afternoon and the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday afternoon. That is a trade I would make anytime.
Having the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra was a nice touch. Playing Procol Harum was poetic, even if that wasn't the song that made the orchestra known to classic rock fans.
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Bob Cole along with Greg Millen and Glenn Healy called the Maple Leafs game on Saturday. This was a very nice gesture on both sides of the border. It's been a long time since U.S. viewers, even those with a CBC feed, have heard Cole's voice. Bob Cole also called the Rexall Place finale with Drew Remenda.
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We were sarcastic (what a surprise) last week about the Winnipeg Jets game in Anaheim being on the NHL Network in the last week of the season. The telecast was necessary because the game otherwise wouldn't have been seen in Los Angeles. Too many games and not enough outlets in the #2 largest U.S. city. So the local Anaheim feed had to be shown across the country to get to Los Angeles.
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Since NBC always seems short of announcers in the first round, even worse with Dave Strader not being available, we have a few Canadian suggestions for announcers who are suddenly free. The obvious choice in Ottawa Senators radio voice Dean Brown. In the CBC days, Brown would call a first-round series. Now that the Senators are not in the playoff mix, Brown is available for duty south of the border.
Mark Lee has always been available since the Rogers takeover. Like Brown, Lee would call a first-round series when the CBC was in charge. Many hockey fans might not agree with me, but given the NBC allotment, they literally can do better with Mark Lee.
Since Vancouver is also out of the mix, John Shorthouse is also available. In fact, Shorthouse and John Garrett would make a fine combo to cover West Coast games, an area of concern for NBC. Last year, Rogers used Rick Ball and Garrett in a series. If that pattern holds, Shorthouse could team up with Edmonton colour analyst Drew Remenda on NBC.
This assumes Rogers will produce 5 series. Given the financial bath the company will take by having 0 Canadian series this spring, we can't imagine Rogers producing more playoff hockey in 2016.
Gord Miller and Chris Cuthbert will get plenty of work in the first round for NBC. Ray Ferraro has an open invitation from NBC. Let's see if some of their Canadian brethren will enter the NBC mix.
Speaking of the TSN personnel, Miller and Pierre McGuire worked for NBCSN in Boston last night.
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The Montréal Canadiens brought up John Scott from their farm team in St. John's to play a game in the final week of the season. Scott was the contract the team took to trade defenceman Jarred Tinordi. The last game Scott had played on the NHL level was the All-Star Game. I didn't think Scott would play at all, though with so many injuries, Scott could have made an impact. If they don't see Scott having a future in Montréal, then the Habs would rather give playing time to young prospects.
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For the second year in a row, a British Columbia town has won Kraft Hockeyville. Lumby, BC won the 2016 crown and will host the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings on October 2. The city also gets $100,000 in arena upgrades.
Lumby is east of Vernon in the B.C. Interior. The town might be closer to Calgary than Vancouver, but definitely not near Edmonton. Last year, North Saanich got the nearby Vancouver Canucks.
Saint-Isidore, Quebec was the runner-up. That community will also receive $100,000 in arena upgrades.
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The U.S. audience hasn't had a CBC game in a long time, but we do remember that the CBC gets 2 promos per period. Bob Cole only read 4 promos for the whole game. Admittedly, the winter TV season is winding down for the CBC. But the network needs the publicity value of every promo the network can air. After all, there is $0 for 7 hours of prime Saturday night programming.
We were hoping for a 3rd period look-in on the last CBC game from Rexall Place in Edmonton, even for purely sentimental reasons, but were denied.
Next week, we hope to get both CBC feeds but might only get the late feed.
Early game: Mr. D (1st); X Company (2nd); 2016 Summer Olympics; Dragons' Den (3rd).
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NHL Network matinee feeds
Friday Montréal @ Tampa Bay*; Calgary @ Los Angeles*
Saturday Chicago @ Winnipeg (unknown due to blackout)
Thursday Vancouver @ Edmonton (Rogers Sportsnet*)
Looks like Rogers will only produce three first round series, plus a couple of games from other series scheduled to air on the CBC. Not surprising given all sorts of indications lately that cost-cutting is a priority.
Posted by: Tyler | April 11, 2016 at 01:22 PM
Rogers only produced 5 series last year down from the 6 in the CBC/TSN era. This move in 2016 is a bit extreme. The CBC games have to be produced. The fun part is whether Canada will get to see lots of Gord Miller and Chris Cuthbert on Rogers via NBCSN.
Posted by: Chad | April 11, 2016 at 04:44 PM
It is extreme, but they really have no choice. With the number of make goods they'll have chewing up their advertising inventory and almost certainly way less viewership in the first two rounds than usual, producing 5-6 series just isn't justifiable.
Having said that, at least NBCSN produces more games than they did say, 3-4 years ago. I recall TSN being forced to take local feeds quite a bit which sucks during the playoffs.
Posted by: Tyler | April 11, 2016 at 06:03 PM
I see where Rogers has no choice, especially with no Canadian teams. But you could put a crew in New York City and have them do all the Rangers and Islanders home games. Sure TSN had its share of local feeds, but Rogers will set a new record.
Posted by: Chad | April 12, 2016 at 07:15 AM
When Bell concluded they were "ultimately outbid" for this rights deal, it was a sobering truth for them at the time. But right now it looks like the right decision.
Posted by: Tyler | April 12, 2016 at 10:23 AM