Editor's note: Today is the last day of the regular season for 4 American teams. The Canadian teams finished their regular season last night. We are including April tidbits from what we normally have in a "month in preview." Playoffs start Monday and we will have an extensive preview.
West Lorne, Ontario is the Kraft Hockeyville 2023 winner. The southwestern Ontario city, smallest of the 4 finalists, edged out Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Ste. Anne, Manitoba, and Saint-Anselme, Quebec.
West Lorne, about a 40 minute drive southwest of London, will get $250,000 in arena upgrades and a NHL preseason game. The finalists will get $25,000 in arena upgrades.
The 2023 winner will join 2022 winner Sydney, NS in having that preseason game in the autumn. Hopefully, Rogers Sportsnet will broadcast their games, unlike the 2020 and 2021 winners (Twillingate, NL and Elsipogtog First Nation, NB).
NHL Canadian teams 2023 schedule down the stretch
The Winnipeg Jets warmly embraced Pride Night last Wednesday before the nationally televised game with Calgary. The Toronto Maple Leafs had their Pride Night on Tuesday. The team hasn't participated with themed warmup jerseys since 2017. The Maple Leafs said rainbow stick tape was available to players during the pre-game skate as well as other planned events.
We noted a couple of weeks ago about the ongoing saga this season with opt-outs of Pride Night around the NHL.
We don't normally recommend the Front Burner podcast from CBC News but this episode with Mark Lazerus from The Athletic is worth the listen.
Our philosophy is that the best players should play and feel comfortable in playing. That makes for a better game and a better world.
NHL the month in preview April 2023
Chicago played a factor in the NHL Campbell (Western) wild card race. Winnipeg went 4-0 against Chicago, only giving up 4 goals in the 4 games. Calgary went 0-3 against Chicago. The Flames had trouble in 1-goal games against everyone and couldn't beat a team that many other teams found quite beatable. Darryl Sutter has quite a history with the Chicago franchise. This could not have sat well with the Calgary coach.
Nashville went 2-1 with Chicago this season.
Winnipeg won the Wild Card #2 position to join Toronto and Edmonton as Canadian teams in the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs.
NHL the month in preview March 2023
"It's a lot better than in Vancouver." — Bo Horvat. The question involved "playoff pushes" and "excitement of this building" and "fans involvement over the past couple of games." Maybe Horvat applied some of all of them to the New York Islanders.
The only real surprise was that Horvat signed a huge contract so quickly. Johnny Gaudreau wanting to leave Calgary for the U.S. east coast would have been noble, except he landed in Columbus like the plane crashed there and he couldn't leave town.
Horvat offered an apology that met the minimum.
A reminder that often NHL players will choose anywhere in the United States over Canada.
.@NHLNetwork would love to carry @PredsNHL at @NHLJets on #HNIC on Saturday night. They can't because U.S. can't have 2 national games at the same time. Thank goodness for #ESPN+. #StanleyCup @NHL
— Chad Rubel (@canadian_xing) April 7, 2023
The NHL Center Ice free preview at the end of the season did not appear for the second year in a row. The free previews have been random. Going back and forth on ESPN+ games is rather difficult unless you have 2 notebook computers side by side.
The Jets game was tight. The 2-0 lead held up but not by much.
The ABC game on Saturday night had a lot less relevance than the Nashville-Winnipeg game. Let the games exist side by side on television.
Our guide to the NHL Canadian teams coverage
ESPN had fun late in the season with an all-players call of a Carolina-Nashville game. Kevin Weekes did play by play with PK Subban and Ryan Callahan, normally in the studio, providing analysis. This is why experimenting is so important. Weekes did studio work and analyst work for CBC on Hockey Night in Canada. He is new to play by play; a pleasant surprise at times. Subban hadn't really done too much game analysis in the booth and got his feet wet.
Everett Fitzhugh is the first Black play by play in person to have a regular NHL gig as the radio voice of the Seattle Kraken. Fitzhugh and J.T. Brown became the first Black duo to call a NHL game when Fitzhugh jumped up to do Kraken TV for a night.
Inclusivity is about "how do we give chances to people." Good on ESPN to make this work.
One of the best to ever do it @SNJohnGarrett . Canucks games won't be the same without you. pic.twitter.com/y7pMxyJExB
— Wyatt Arndt (@TheStanchion) April 9, 2023
John Garrett retirement opens the door of opportunity for Vancouver Canucks TV colour analysis
John Garrett isn't going away from providing NHL analysis for Rogers Sportsnet. The idea of Garrett focusing on national telecasts will be intriguing. More of Garrett and less of Louie DeBrusk would be helpful, though we don't think that is the case. Weeks there are 2 late games. Weeks where DeBrusk is covering Edmonton. Weeks where there is an important game in Winnipeg and Garrett is the best option.
We don't imagine Garrett will travel any further east than Winnipeg. Maybe he will get some nice California trips to add in some warm weather.
We will miss Garrett on the Vancouver games. Nice that Sportsnet put John Shorthouse and Garrett on the final Saturday in Vancouver for the season.
The After Hours episode focuses on Garrett's WHA and NHL playing career as well as his love for ketchup and fast food. The list of play by play people Garrett has worked with is worth watching.
Tracking the NHL 2022 media changes
April 4 Edmonton @ Los Angeles, 10:30p Steve Levy/Ray Ferraro/Emily Kaplan ESPN
April 5 Edmonton @ Anaheim, 10p Alex Faust/Darren Pang/Aly Lozoff TNT
April 10 Toronto @ Florida, 7p Bob Wischusen/Brian Boucher/Leah Hextall ESPN+/Hulu
April 11 Toronto @ Tampa Bay, 7p Bob Wischusen/Brian Boucher/Leah Hextall ESPN
April 11 Edmonton @ Colorado, 9:30p Sean McDonough/Ray Ferraro/Emily Kaplan ESPN
April 12 San Jose @ Calgary, 10p Alex Faust/Darren Pang/Jennifer Botterill TNT
Alex Faust calls Los Angeles Kings games so he was an easy grab for the Oilers game (5) on TNT. Aly Lozoff is Anaheim's regular ice level reporter. Faust would have called the Kings-Oilers on Bally Sports West but ESPN showed that game in the United States.
Faust also called the game in Calgary (12) sandwiched between games in the Los Angeles area. He is on the list of TNT freelancers though the Kings are in the playoffs.
ESPN followed the Toronto Maple Leafs through Florida but won't come to Toronto. Just like last year around this time, Bob Wischusen and Brian Boucher were on the call. Wischusen is fine but Boucher has a very low ceiling. He will never get to be decent.
For this, ESPN bumps off Rogers Sportsnet (10) and TSN4 (11) from potentially watching via ESPN+.
Good to see Ferraro on a game involving a Canadian team.
TNT hasn't been afraid to show Calgary, even last season. This season hasn't gone as well for the Flames.
Congrats to HNIC producer Mark Askin who produces his final Saturday HNIC game tonight after a terrific 36 year career pic.twitter.com/IvUgnsM9kr
— Chris Cuthbert (@CCpxpSN) April 8, 2023
CanadianCrossing.com NHL coverage
This is where we would have the CBC promos for the end of the season. The NHL Network last showed a CBC feed on March 11.
photo credit: NHL
video credit: Rogers Sportsnet
Twitter captures: @canadian_xing; @TheStanchion; @CCpxpSN
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