The joy that has been downtown Winnipeg has been the best thing about the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs so far. Streets closed down. Fans jumping and screaming when Winnipeg scores a goal at home.
Gord Miller has called the only NBCSN regular season game in Winnipeg back in the first season. So Miller spent some time pointing out that Bell MTS Place is the smallest NHL arena but also the loudest.
Darren Pang actually calls more games in Winnipeg each year. Pang used to be part of the national crew with ABC and ESPN but limits himself mostly to St. Louis Blues games. Pang is one of the best in the United States and worked well with Miller.
Unlike the Maple Leafs series last spring, NBCU had some nice shots of the fans watching outdoors in Winnipeg. Kudos to showing the anthem in Game 1. The crowd performed in True North spirit and added a cheer when they showed a picture of Len Kropioski, better known as Kroppy. The World War II vet, who passed away in 2016 at age 98, was famous for his salute during O Canada at Jets home games.
NBCU tradition is to talk to a home team player before a game but went with Eric Staal before Game 1 in Winnipeg. Then again, Staal is from nearby Thunder Bay, ON.
NBC smartly went back to Rogers Sportsnet for Game 2 on a simulcast with USA, even though we were told a couple of years ago that USA couldn't run simsubs. USA didn't run the anthems. Also, Paul Burmeister kept interrupting interesting analysis and observations as well as live hockey in Winnipeg for obsessive Pennsylvania series updates.
The Twin Cities blizzard make traveling really difficult. The Winnipeg Jets tried flying in on Saturday; the team got to Duluth before going back to Winnipeg. The Jets arrived late Sunday morning into the Twin Cities.
Step six, after a long taxi to the gate, in the car fighting through traffic to get to the arena ✅
— Gord Miller (@GMillerTSN) April 15, 2018
T minus 48 minutes pic.twitter.com/xwSlS2tpZ1
Pat Micheletti, brother of Joe Micheletti, was the only member of the broadcast crew on site with an hour before the telecast. Gord Miller spent most of Sunday in Chicago waiting to get out to the Twin Cities. Joe Micheletti arrived a couple of minutes after the start of the telecast. The brothers Micheletti grew up in Minnesota and Pat lives in the area.
Shades of Barry Pederson filling in for Garry Galley in Boston last month due to weather.
Miller started in Tampa and got to Chicago. He only landed in Minneapolis at 5:40 pm Eastern for the 7 pm telecast. You got a good sense of travel adventure from Gord Miller's Twitter feed.
Pat Micheletti did quite well in his NBCU debut. He did sound a bit inexperienced but had great insights. NBCU, get this Micheletti to replace Brian Boucher.
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We like Rick Ball but we did think it odd that Bob Cole wasn't working in the first round of the playoffs. Turns out Rogers is shutting out Bob Cole from the whole playoffs.
The pattern continues: Cole didn't call the conference final last season for the first time.
"We made a difficult decision this year not to include him in our playoff plans. This decision in no way diminishes the admiration we have for his substantial body of work," said Scott Moore, president of Sportsnet & NHL Properties, Rogers Media, said in a statement.
Rogers reduced Cole's regular-season workload, which may be more of the way NHL schedules run on Saturday nights. But all that down time would get Cole ready to go for the playoffs.
Rogers only covered 4 series this playoff season. Ball and Cole could have split their 4th spot for the first 2 rounds. NBCU could have hired Cole to work the playoffs if the network had known Cole was available.
Cole told the Toronto Sun that he isn’t sure whether he will be back in the booth next season. Even at his somewhat advanced age, Cole is still better than a lot of people calling NHL games.
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Ed Olczyk has been in the studio for the first 2 games, so Mike Milbury gets to call Boston playoff games. The less said about the #1(A) crew, the better. Doc Emrick, Milbury, and Ray Ferraro did a halfway decent job with the Maple Leafs in Chicago in January because Ferraro led Milbury down good paths. With Boston in the picture and Pierre McGuire at ice level, even Doc can't save the team. Losing 5-1 in the opener won't help a good team sound any better.
Thank goodness for the NHL Network matinee rebroadcasts. And here's hoping for a switch in broadcast teams (but not Brian Boucher).
NBCU showed both anthems in Boston and Game 1 in Winnipeg. The anthems from Game 2 and Game 3 were mysteriously missing. My source tells me the "True North" was pretty loud in St. Paul for Game 3.
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"It is not for the faint of heart: the Stanley Cup playoffs." Garry Galley said this after Mathieu Perreault was lead off the ice with an injured left shoulder.
Yes, Dustin Byfuglien had some nice hits but those Minnesota players stayed on the ice. Perreault did get hit over the middle by Mikko Koivu that might have been a regular-season penalty and later body slammed down on his left shoulder by Nick Seeler.
Most NHL fans get more excited about playoff hockey where your humble narrator doesn't like playoff hockey. People really trying to hurt people. Referees won't call minor violence. Scoring gets diminished.
Toronto's Nazem Kadri got a 3-game suspension for a hit in Game 1 that wasn't great but far less violent than some of what we saw in Winnipeg in Game 1 on plays without a penalty. Boston will have plenty of cheap hits but the NHL babies the Bruins and wouldn't punish them on remotely similar hits. You can't even contemplate that what Kadri did was 3 times worse than Drew Doughty's 1-game playoff suspension. Kadri also got a 5-minute charging penalty and 10-minute game misconduct. The double hit on Mitch Marner by Zdeno Chara and Tommy Wingels got no penalty.
The New York Rangers Carl Hagelin got 3 games for a brutally cheap hit on Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson in the 2012 playoffs. Hagelin should have been out for as long as Alfredsson was out. Kadri's infraction was a minor slap by comparison.
2018 is bringing more playoff suspensions but the violence is still intensive. The best thing would be just to play hockey in the playoffs and not whatever the sport becomes in the spring.
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The NHL Network has been coming through with Canadian feeds on the matinee rebroadcasts.
We noticed that Cassie Campbell-Pascall isn't working the game as much as offering analysis during intermissions with Scott Oake from the arena. The rebroadcast showed some colour with Jets fans in Patrik Laine beards and a couple of young Jets fans.
We also saw that Rogers and CBC have incorporated shot totals in the scorebug. True to form, where U.S. outlets overemphasize shot totals, Rogers has buried the totals where you might not even known they are there. If you are watching the games on a phone, you might not be able to see them unless your eyes are younger than mine.
If we have to see shot totals, I'm sincerely glad (no sarcasm) that they are that small.
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We aren't likely to have any live CBC coverage but thanks to the NHL Network matinee rebroadcasts, we have the potential for CBC promos.
Jim Hughson spoke of following breaking news during a CBC Music app promo. Hughson might have read the copy for the sports app when the music app appeared during Game 1.
Getting the Maple Leafs back on track would also increase eyeballs on CBC promos.
Game 1: CBC Music promo (2nd); CBC TV app (3rd)
Game 2: CBC Sports app (1st); CBC TV app (3rd)
photo credit: Winnipeg Jets
Twitter capture: @GMillerTSN
Toronto Sun article about Bob Cole was a bit misleading. -- Bob called the Western Conference Final in 2016 but did not work the third round in 2015.
Posted by: Tyler | April 16, 2018 at 01:25 PM
Thanks for the correction. Text has been changed to reflect that. Why newspapers need to replace long-ago laid-off copy editors.
Posted by: Chad | April 17, 2018 at 06:43 AM
It was nice to see Former Hockey Night host Ken Daniels on the Washington Columbus series. I'd take him over Forslund or Albert.
Posted by: daniel anderson | April 23, 2018 at 06:38 AM
Agreed. I realize they have to reward loyalty but Ken Daniels would be most welcome in the second round. Darren Pang as well.
Posted by: Chad | April 23, 2018 at 11:05 AM
I'm OK with NBC updating the other game with highlights, but do it the way that FOX and CBS do the NFL- a two-box.
Posted by: daniel anderson | April 23, 2018 at 09:55 PM
NBC Universal has been using a two-box to run extra commercials in other times. If we had the audio from the Rogers Sportsnet simulcast with a two-box, I could be cool with that. It's the idea that if I want to watch the other game, I would tune to that game. Let me watch the game I am watching.
Posted by: Chad | April 25, 2018 at 11:02 AM
Maybe have NBC and Rogers team up in the first and second rounds. Same graphics, but use the Canadian guys for games in Canada and the NBC guys for game sin the States. The Rogers guys could help out for games in the States if a Canadian teams visits or if the game is not worthy of Emrick or Albert.
Posted by: daniel anderson | May 15, 2018 at 02:40 PM
The way NBCU used to do this was run CBC/Rogers simulcasts in the first round. Better coverage for less $. Rogers runs a lot of U.S. simulcasts, cheaper but not always better.
Posted by: Chad | May 19, 2018 at 01:56 PM