NBCSN jumps back to its favourite Canadian team with a pair of Montréal Canadiens games this week. The Habs host the New York Islanders on Monday and travel to Boston on Wednesday. That Wednesday game is also on Rogers Sportsnet.
CBC has more of Montréal as the Canadiens welcome the bullies from Boston in the Saturday early game. The NHL Network will simulcast the early game. The Edmonton Oilers go out to the bright lights in the desert in the late CBC game.
City TV has the Midwestern battle of the Winnipeg Jets in Minnesota Saturday night.
Rogers Sportsnet gives us Hometown Hockey in the Twin Cities with Vancouver as the opponent with festivities from Kamloops, BC.
The Vancouver game Friday in Columbus will run on SNE, SNO, and SNP.
“Have I made mistakes? Yes. Have I done some good things? Yes. But that’s the reality for a general manager. But I’m proud of what we’ve done.” -Marc Bergevin#GoHabsGo
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) January 7, 2018
Saturday marks the first of 5 Montréal Canadiens games in a row on U.S. TV. The team is coming off its 5-game break playing a bit better hockey. In a related coincidence, 3 of them involve Boston. All without Shea Weber on a team that can't produce offence.
The NHL Network in Boston will carry Winnipeg at Minnesota Saturday night. The NHL reshuffled its Sunday schedule: the NHL Network was supposed to carry Detroit and Chicago, opening those markets to the Hometown Hockey game. But that will no longer be the case due to the NFL playoffs.
NBCSN
Monday
NY Islanders @ Montréal, 7:30p
Wednesday
Montréal @ Boston, 7:30p
NHL Network
Saturday
Boston @ Montréal, 7p
Tape delayed
Friday Calgary @ Tampa Bay, 1p
Wednesday St. Louis @ Toronto, 2p
Thursday Montréal @ Boston, 2p (2-hour)
CBC
Saturday
Boston @ Montréal, 7p
Edmonton @ Las Vegas, 10p
City
Saturday
Winnipeg @ Minnesota, 7p
Rogers Sportsnet
Sunday
Vancouver @ Minnesota, 7p
Wednesday
Montréal @ Boston, 7:30p
If you watched all of the 2018 World Juniors, you might have found the Hey Baby song to be tiresome. Late in the gold medal game against Sweden, Tyler Steenbergen was thrilled to have that song play one more time.
Steenbergen, the last Team Canada forward to not score in the tournament, deflected the pass from defenceman Connor Timmins to give Canada a 2-1 lead over Sweden. An empty net goal shortly thereafter sealed the gold medal for Canada just across the border in Buffalo.
There were no huge stars on the squad but a lot of great individual contributions. Carter Hart, the goalie who had to deal with the U.S. shootout winner least year for gold, was outstanding again in goal.
Canada did suffer the shootout loss in the snow in Orchard Park in this tournament, but otherwise went perfect. The only time Canada trailed in the whole tournament was going down 1-0 early in the semifinal against the Czech Republic.
Captain Dillon Dube was stellar. Not much was expected of Drake Batherson, but he led the team with 7 seven goals. Defenceman Cale Makar came in as the 7th and last defenceman but scored 8 points and was picked by Hockey Canada as one of their top three players.
The 2019 World Juniors return to Canada in Vancouver and Victoria.
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Vancouver looked good on Hockey Night in Canada. Glad to see the NHL Network finally carry the Canucks this season. The battle was portrayed as 20 year old superstars Brock Boeser and Auston Matthews. Both phenoms scored a goal. Matthews scored in the shootout as the Maple Leafs got the extra point.
The U.S. based network was really late in joining Coach's Corner.
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As for other NHL Network feeds, the WGN/Chicago feed was used for the Edmonton game on Sunday. Not a surprise. Chris Cuthbert and Jamie McLennan on the TSN4 call for the Maple Leafs hosting Columbus. Not a surprise but very nice.
Kenny Albert and Brian Boucher worked the Oilers game from Nashville. Pierre McGuire underwent surgery for prostate cancer and expects to be back for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Get well soon, Pierre.
Boucher worked both the weekday games. Seriously NBC, give us Jeremy Roenick or Anson Carter. Stick Boucher in the studio where his words won't make too bad a negative impact.
Ray Ferraro is working Sunday afternoon in Chicago for NBC.
CanadianCrossing.com NHL coverage
CBC is still playing up the new Wednesday night winter lineup in the promos. The major issue was the more than 65-minute gap in between those promos.
The first promo ran early in the 1st period during an injury timeout. The next promo ran well into the 2nd period. The telecast got all 6 promos in but the spacing, especially early, felt very distant.
The promos and order matched the last version the U.S. got to see with the new mixed doubles curling substituting for the Olympics promo.
Early game: Burden of Truth (1st); The Detectives; Schitt's Creek (2nd); Workin' Moms; Mixed Doubles Curling Olympic Trials; Murdoch Mysteries/Frankie Drake Mysteries (3rd)
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Twitter capture: @CanadiensMTL
video credit: CBC Sports
Noticeably absent from TSN following the World Juniors is any kind of press release regarding ratings. This is especially surprising given that Canada won the Gold Medal in a North America-based tournament. This leads one to conclude the viewership was quite disappointing.
Posted by: Tyler | January 12, 2018 at 12:09 PM
The low ratings might have also stemmed from a "lack of stars" on the Canada team. As a team, the Canadians were very effective.
Posted by: Chad | January 31, 2018 at 03:25 PM