NBCSN has another Montréal Canadiens game as the Habs host Chicago Tuesday night.
CBC has the Toronto Maple Leafs in a rare Saturday night road game in the U.S. at Carolina. Sidney Crosby brings the Pittsburgh Penguins to Vancouver in the nightcap.
City TV takes the Ottawa Senators in a road game in Denver.
Rogers Sportsnet has a pair of all-Canadian matchups over the weekend. Calgary travels to Winnipeg on Saturday night. Hometown Hockey will be in Lloydminster, SK/AB as the Edmonton Oilers welcome the Montréal Canadiens. Wednesday Night Hockey has the Calgary Flames hosting Boston.
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NBCSN
Tuesday
Chicago @ Montréal, 7:30p
NHL Network
Tape delayed
Monday Montréal @ Edmonton, 1p
Wednesday Dallas @ Edmonton, 2p
Chicago @ Montréal, 3p
Thursday Boston @ Calgary, 1p
CBC
Saturday
Toronto @ Carolina, 7p
Pittsburgh @ Vancouver, 10p
City
Saturday
Ottawa @ Colorado, 7p
Rogers Sportsnet
Saturday
Calgary @ Winnipeg, 7p
Sunday
Montréal @ Edmonton, 7p
Wednesday
Boston @ Calgary, 9p
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We lost about 8 minutes of the pregame show thanks to the London Knights and the Windsor Spitfires. We have had worse excuses for lost pregame time. Sounds like we missed mostly the Habs preview.
There were 5 games and no Maple Leafs last weekend, but they still had time for a John Tortorella segment. The Canadian angle was "you [bleeped] up in Vancouver but doing really well in Columbus, why?"
We didn't get much other than Tortorella was "embarrassed" about the hallway incident with Calgary. Nick Kypreos may have summed it up best by saying some teams can handle what Tortorella does. Vancouver foolishly let Alain Vigneault go especially with Tortorella as a replacement. Willie Desjardins seems better by comparison but the Canucks don't have much of an identity under his tutelage.
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Rogers had 5 games but with no Maple Leafs. Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson got the weekend off, solidifying their Maple Leafs connection. So Rogers needed to be creative with the announcer pairings. Unfortunately, Rogers' version of creative is the polar opposite of Tom Hanks' character in Big. This scenario screamed for a Bob Cole appearance at Madison Square Garden, but Cole was not called in to work. Paul Romanuk/Garry Galley were in New York City; Dave Randorf/Greg Millen were in Winnipeg. The Montréal crew did the game in Ottawa, a move we've seen before.
Rogers decided to go local for the late games with the old Oilers combo of Kevin Quinn/Louie DeBrusk and the current Vancouver crew. Rick Ball would have lent some national credence in the late game.
I get Rogers wants to "save money" and look cheap in the telecasts. My primary issue is that the CBC late game should have the feel of a national game. A Sportsnet late game can have whatever crew Rogers wants. Here is how I would have set up last weekend (knowing I am forced to use DeBrusk):
Cole/Galley: NYC; MTL crew: Ottawa; Romanuk/Millen: Winnipeg; Randorf/DeBrusk: Edmonton; Vancouver crew: Los Angeles.
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Did Rogers really have no one better than Quinn and DeBrusk to call Pittsburgh-Winnipeg on Wednesday night? The NHL's 2 top scorers in a national game and Rogers went with its worst possible crew. Still better than John Forslund and Brian Boucher but Rogers need to get good announcers on national games. The Calgary crew would have been better. Romanuk/Millen would have been better.
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Gord Miller works another Sunday night for NBCSN.
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The NHL Network carried its first CBC game since December 10, 2016. There is only one other chance amusingly on April Fool's Day. So let's see the CBC promos.
Paul Romanuk read the promo for Bellevue but may not be familiar with Canadian-born Anna Paquin. The last name of the Oscar-winning actress has the accent on the first syllable. Romanuk put the accent on the second syllable.
Anne still won't make its debut until March 19. Keeping Canada Safe is a docu-series in the Firsthand late Thursday timeslot starting March 16. This is considered a follow-up to Keeping Canada Alive from 2015. The show features a look at people who perform emergency services.
We also had our first CBC matinee rebroadcast since December 11, 2016 and got a couple of promos.
Early game: Bellevue; Anne (1st); Schitt's Creek; Workin' Moms (2nd); Keeping Canada Safe; Rick Mercer Report (3rd)
Matinee rebroadcast: Bellevue (1st); Rick Mercer Report (3rd)
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