Editor's note: Today is the last day of the regular season for the western Canadian teams. The eastern Canadian teams finished their regular season. We are including April tidbits from what we normally have in a "month in preview." Playoffs start Saturday and we will have an extensive preview.
And the winner of Kraft Hockeyville 2024 is....
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 31, 2024
Elliot Lake, Ontario!! 🎉@hockeyville | #KraftHockeyville pic.twitter.com/4u3fCCaPU7
Kraft Hockeyville was out east for 3 straight seasons from 2020-2022 in Twillingate, NL; Elsipogtog First Nation, NB; and Sydney, NS. Last year, the winner was in Ontario in West Lorne. Now for the second year in a row, Ontario has another winner in Elliot Lake.
While West Lorne was in the southwestern part of the province. Elliot Lake is between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury in northern Ontario.
The northern Ontario community beat out Cochrane, AB; Enderby, BC; and Wolseley, SK. Elliot Lake gets $250,000 in arena upgrades and a NHL preseason game. The finalists get $25,000 in arena upgrades. All 4 communities also receive $10,000 worth of youth hockey equipment.
Rogers Sportsnet usually carries that NHL preseason game, though not the 2020 and 2021 winners. Figure that Toronto and/or Ottawa will be involved.
NHL the month in preview April 2024
NHL the month in preview March 2024
The Montréal Canadiens in the last 9 years missed the Stanley Cup playoffs in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, and now 2024. The Habs wouldn't normally have qualified in 2020. The only playoff win outside of 2021 was a 3-1 round over Pittsburgh in the "qualifying round" in 2020.
The Ottawa Senators could point to getting into overtime in Game 7 against Pittsburgh in the conference finals in 2017. Otherwise, the trend has been dismal. The Sens missed the playoffs in 2016 and 2018-2024.
The Canadiens did beat Ottawa 4-2 in the first round in 2015 before losing in the second round to Tampa Bay.
Half the teams don't make the NHL playoffs each season. The fact that Montréal and Ottawa are soooo far out of the playoffs push is a growing concern in eastern Canada. They aren't even a part of the Stanley Cup playoffs conversation.
Ottawa is 9-0 in the last 9 games against Montréal. The Habs last win against the Senators came on March 19, 2022.
The Senators will look in the off-season for a new coach to replace the interim Jacques Martin when Ottawa fired D.J. Smith.
The Calgary Flames haven't fared well going back to the 2004-2005 lockout. The Flames had 4 straight one-and-done playoffs followed by missing the playoffs for 5 years in a row.
Calgary missed the playoffs in 2016, 2018, 2021, 2023, and now 2024. The team lost in the first round in 2017 and 2019. The Flames beat Vancouver in 2015 before leaving after the second round; the qualifying round against Winnipeg in 2020 before losing in the first round; and defeating Dallas in 2022 before losing to Edmonton.
Community Disappointed With Loss of Newfoundland Growlers https://t.co/mTfz333HxS pic.twitter.com/S45Axlu5GG
— VOCM News (@VOCMNEWS) April 3, 2024
The Newfoundland Growlers of the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) have been removed from the league for violations "under the ECHL Bylaws."
Deacon Sports and Entertainment, owners of the Growlers and the Trois Rivières Lions, had run into being behind on payments to arenas: what was then the Mile One Centre in St. John's and currently owes the city of Trois Rivières close to $1 million over their use of the Colisée Vidéotron.
The league kept the Trois Rivières Lions but not the Newfoundland Growlers. The Trois Rivières Lions will be sold to a new owner.
The ECHL has removed 3 teams from Canada: Victoria Salmon Kings (2004-2011), Brampton Beast (2014-2020), and now the Newfoundland Growlers (2018-2024). The team was the only professional team on The Rock, meaning Newfoundland. A huge loss for the community.
All 6 remaining Growlers games are cancelled, 3 of them against the Lions.
The Growlers were an ECHL affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs while the Lions are affiliates of the Montréal Canadiens.
Newfoundland has lost 3 other teams in the past: The American Hockey League (AHL) Maple Leafs left St. John's for Toronto in 2005, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) Fog Devils moved to the Montréal area in 2008, and the AHL's Ice Caps left for Laval, Quebec in 2017.
There were logistics issues with having a team in Newfoundland. Still, St. John's can easily support minor league hockey and deserves a team of some kind.
The @NHL #GaryBettman pattern of markets that can't support hockey has been a colossal failure. #SaltLakeCity is slightly better but 5-10 markets would be better, most of them #Canadian. https://t.co/jJ8vzI9JCu https://t.co/iAegJdUVO8
— Chad Rubel (@canadian_xing) April 10, 2024
Fair would be that the NHL would give a team to a deserving market. If they were children, Quebec City would be the best mother. The NHL under Gary Bettman hasn't been fair for 3 decades now.
Salt Lake City has cut in line in a lot of people's minds in terms of possibly landing the Arizona Coyotes. The Utah capital is slightly better than Phoenix. The Arizona TV numbers have been terrible, much less people coming out to support the team.
Denver deserved a team though not the Nordiques. Winnipeg deserved to keep its Jets back in the 1990s.
There are U.S. markets that also get ignored. We think Milwaukee would be a great NHL market. We also think Quebec City, Hamilton, and Saskatoon would be great NHL markets.
The idea that the Phoenix area could get a second team shows how low the NHL has sunk.
Rogers Sportsnet ran this SCTV commercial parody as part of its tribute to the late Joe Flaherty, who recently passed away at the age of 82. They are parodying Guy Lafleur (left) and Darryl Sittler (right, with the late John Candy).
Flaherty was great in funny roles such as Floyd Robertson (a parody of actual CBC and CTV news anchor Lloyd Robertson). Flaherty was also very good at playing the straight man, such as Flaherty and Candy in Goin' Berserk.
This is a good time to remind ourselves that Martin Scorsese hasn't finished the SCTV reunion footage that will someday air on Netflix. The special was filmed in 2018.
Our guide to the NHL Canadian teams coverage
Billy Idol released Rebel Yell 40 years ago and is doing a Canadian tour starting in late July. Rogers Sportsnet occasionally features a non-Canadian music presence for the show's open. Kind of lame but that isn't the funny part.
Turns out Idol was in Los Angeles for the late game with Vancouver in town, wearing a LA Kings sweater and beating a drum. Dan Murphy got the honour of interviewing Idol to further promote Idol's upcoming Canadian tour. We found out this was Idol's first NHL game in person.
I get that Rogers Sportsnet "needs" money with the boondoggle of a 12-year contract signed to carry NHL games (expires in 2026). There is speculation of Sportsnet selling off rights to the Monday night games, including playoff games, to Amazon.
The original Sunday night package revolved around Hometown Hockey. That shifted to Monday nights and then Rogers dumped Hometown Hockey. Even as we will cut back on our NHL coverage starting this fall, we would still cover what will happen, including streaming, in the next NHL TV deal in Canada.
John Garrett retirement opens the door of opportunity for Vancouver Canucks TV colour analysis
John Garrett had a rather light load in his reduced role with Rogers Sportsnet. More trips to Winnipeg than I would have guessed. Garrett sounded like he was having fun on a reduced schedule. Not always talking ketchup with John Shorthouse, but still providing analysis.
Dave Tomlinson did a good job in Year One from what we heard. Having the presence of Ray Ferraro doesn't make establishing a foothold too easy to do. Give the chemistry time to work out.
Tracking the NHL 2023 media changes
April 1 Edmonton @ St. Louis, 9p Bob Wischusen/Ryan Callahan ESPN+/Hulu
April 3 Edmonton @ Dallas, 9:30p Kenny Albert/Eddie Olzcyk/Brian Boucher TNT
April 10 Las Vegas @ Edmonton, 8:30p Kenny Albert/Eddie Olzcyk/Jackie Redmond TNT
April 16 Toronto @ Florida, 7:30p Bob Wischusen/Ray Ferraro/Emily Kaplan ESPN
April 16 Calgary @ Vancouver, 10p Roxy Bernstein/Cassie Campbell-Pascall ESPN+/Hulu
April 17 Toronto @ Tampa Bay, 7p Alex Faust/Darren Pang/Jennifer Botterill TNT
April 18 Edmonton @ Colorado, 9:30p Steve Levy/Ray Ferraro/Emily Kaplan ESPN
TNT had IMHO the best announcer lineup of any Canadian team NHL game this season in the final telecast. Alex Faust likes Canada, Darren Pang has so much insight, and Jennifer Botterill is Canadian and follows those teams.
We like the chemistry and consistency of Kenny Albert and Eddie Olzcyk, especially without Brian Boucher. So the April 10 game in Edmonton was a nice surprise with the 2 of them plus the cool Jackie Redmond.
Albert and Olczyk remind us of the Maharelle Sisters (from Saturday Night Live): the normal sisters Janet, Holly, and Nora. Then Boucher comes along to speak and reminds us of Dooneese (Kristen Wiig), the awkward sister.
Calgary finally got its first appearance on an U.S. outlet since the 2023 Heritage Classic in the penultimate game of the season. Glad ESPN put Cassie Campbell-Pascall on that game.
Our friends in Windsor, Canada got a chance to see their Detroit Red Wings final 3 games of the season. As we have noted in the past, Windsor doesn't get the local cable channel and its residents get shut out of a lot of local sports, especially hockey. Bally Sports Detroit simulcast the final 3 Red Wings games on WYMD-TV Channel 20 in Detroit. This was the same feed that those on the north side of the Detroit River could get through cable.
One of those 3 games was Hockey Night in Canada with Detroit in Toronto. Viewers have 2 on-air choices between Channel 20 and the CBC station in Windsor, CBET-TV Channel 9.
A couple of notable NHL local TV retirements on the U.S. side: Jeff Rimer (Canadian) in Columbus and this week, we learned about Jack Edwards in Boston. Speculation in Boston could be Alex Faust, former Bruins radio guy Dave Goucher (Las Vegas), and via YYZ Sports Media, John Forslund (Seattle), who used to work in Hartford.
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 9.
photo credit: NHL
Twitter captures: @Sportsnet; @VOCMNEWS; @canadian_xing
video credits: TSN; 4thlineVoice; CanucksBo
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