The Vancouver Canucks make their TNT debut on January 5 hosting the New York Islanders.January 12 marks the first TNT doubleheader with Canadian teams: the classic Boston-Montréal rivalry in La Belle Provinceand Auston Matthews comes back to Arizona in the nightcap. The Maple Leafs travel to Madison Square Garden on January 19.
NHL Network kicks off the new year with the Edmonton Oilers in a showcase gamein the NHL's newest arena. The Toronto Maple Leafs are featured on Hockey Night in Canada in Denver (8) and St. Louis (15). The split doubleheadersingle game (16) feels remarkable, though if Washington is the home team and the U.S. channel carries that feed, you have to watch with the sound down.has Vancouver in the U.S. capital. draws that unlikely scenario. The nightcap is a rare all-Canadian matchup with a situation the network never would have covered before January 2021. The Oilers make a trip east to battle the Winnipeg Jets.
The U.S. channel also features the Montréal Canadiens on Hockey Night in Canada in Denver (22). Winnipeg gets a Sunday afternoon game (23) at with the awful Pittsburgh (though not as awful as Washington) feed.
The lone ESPN+/Hulu game has the Montréal Canadiens in the United States on Martin Luther King Day in the state that was the last state to make this day a holiday.
January 15-17 has every Canadian team but Ottawa and Calgary between the U.S. outlets.
January 29 is Hockey Day in Canada from Owen Sound, Ontario. Note that Rogers Sportsnet will be the only option for Toronto-Detroit as CBC and Citytv both carry the Oilers and Habs. This is on purpose to get Canadians to sign up for Rogers Sportsnet. This is especially bad for Red Wings fans in Windsor who almost never get to see them on television.
Rogers Sportsnet was supposed to do this on December 18 with Toronto-Vancouver. This could change.
The NHL Center Ice has a free preview January 1-7. The timing couldn't be worse for watching the Canadian NHL teams since a lot of their games are postponed due to Canadian arena capacity reductions.
TNT
January 5
NY Islanders @ Vancouver, 10p
January 12
Boston @ Montréal, 7pMontréal @ Boston, 7p/Toronto @ Arizona, 10p
January 19
Toronto @ NY Rangers, 7:30p
NHL Network
January 1
Edmonton @ NY Islanders, 2p (NHL Network Showcase)
January 8
Toronto @ Colorado, 7p (HNIC)
January 15
Toronto @ St. Louis, 7p (HNIC)
January 16
Vancouver @ Washington, 2p (NHL Network Showcase)
Edmonton @ Winnipeg, 7p
January 22
Montréal @ Colorado, 7p (HNIC)
January 23
Winnipeg @ Pittsburgh, 1p (NHL Network Showcase)
ESPN+/Hulu
January 17
Montréal @ Arizona, 4p
Hockey Night in Canada
January 1
Ottawa @ Toronto, 7p/Vancouver @ Seattle, 10p
January 8
Toronto @ Colorado, 7p/Buffalo @ Montréal, 7p/Seattle @ Winnipeg, 7p/Ottawa @ Vancouver, 10p/NY Islanders @ Edmonton, 10p
January 15
Toronto @ St. Louis, 7p/Ottawa @ Winnipeg, 7p/Las Vegas @ Calgary, 10p/Ottawa @ Edmonton, 10p
January 22
Winnipeg @ Boston, 3p/NY Islanders @ TorontoToronto @ NY Islanders, 7p/Montréal @ Colorado, 7p/Ottawa @ Washington, 7p/Calgary @ Edmonton, 10p
January 29 (Hockey Day in Canada)
Anaheim @ Ottawa, 12:30p/Winnipeg @ St. Louis, 3p/Toronto @ Detroit, 7p/Edmonton @ Montréal, 7p/Vancouver @ Calgary, 10p
Hometown Hockey
January 3 Edmonton @ NY Rangers, 7p/Carolina @ Toronto, 7:30p/Minnesota @ Ottawa, 7:30p (studio only)
January 10 Columbus @ Montréal, 7p(studio only)
January 17 New Jersey @ Toronto, 7p(studio only)
January 24 Montréal @ Minnesota, 8p/St. Louis @ Calgary, 9p (studio only)
January 31 New Jersey @ Toronto, 7:30p/Vancouver @ Chicago, 7:30p/Edmonton @ Ottawa, 7:30p (studio only)
Rogers Sportsnet national telecasts
January 1 Edmonton @ NY Islanders, 2p
January 2 Calgary @ Chicago, 7p
January 5 Edmonton @ Toronto, 7p/NY Islanders @ Vancouver, 10p
January 12 Boston @ Montréal, 7pMontréal @ Boston, 7p/Minnesota @ Edmonton, 9:30p
January 16 Vancouver @ Washington, 2p
January 18 Florida @ Calgary, 9p
January 19 Toronto @ NY Rangers, 7:30p
January 20 Florida @ Edmonton, 9p
January 26 Anaheim @ Toronto, 7p/Calgary @ Columbus, 7p
January 27 Calgary @ St. Louis, 8p
Postponing NHL games due to COVID-19 issues is sad but understandable. Postponing NHL games due to capacity reductions in Canada is tampering with the integrity of the game. Gary Bettman promised (not literally) he would punish Canada and he did with this list.
They postponed U.S. teams coming to Canada. They postponed all-Canadian matchups. This isn't to say we agree with the capacity reductions. They are ridiculous. The swift punishment is an unnecessary retaliation. More of this came yesterday afternoon. Will get worse.
We have more on the capacity issues down below in this story.
The final insult is that the January 12 game between Boston and Montréal has been moved to Boston. The game is supposed to be a national game in both countries. Will those games be in time to make a difference to the Canadiens playoff chances when they finally get played. After all, 2 Boston games in Montréal have now been postponed.
Bettman couldn't retire soon enough. We cover this league under severe protest. So tired.
We couldn't wait until today for COVID-19 updates. The Omicron variant took its toll in real life as well as the NHL on both sides of the border.
In the middle of all of these postponements, reduced capacity, and cutting back on Hometown Hockey visits, Paul Maurice resigned as the coach of the Winnipeg Jets.
The NHL postponed (19) any cross border games, essentially giving the Canadian teams a week long holiday break. There were no all-Canadian matchups for that week. Having U.S. teams play each other was a bit bizarre. The issue wasn't getting into the United States but getting to Canada. Eventually, the league extended the break for all the teams from that Wednesday (22) through Boxing Day and then beyond through Monday (27).
The 2022 World Juniors got cancelled a few games into 2021 in Edmonton and Red Deer in Alberta. Sorry to hear that news. Gord Miller and Ray Ferraro got some unexpected time off.
Please check this story for updates through the rest of the month.
Even before the 2021 Grey Cup, 2 Canadian NHL teams significantly shifted their leadership group. First, the Montréal Canadiens and now the Vancouver Canucks.
Travis Green became the first non-Chicago related NHL coach to lose his job this season. Vancouver made the change to Bruce Boudreau on December 5 after the Canucks started out 8-15-2, last in the "Smythe" Division. Boudreau has coached nearly 1,000 games with Washington, Anaheim, and Minnesota.
Green replaced Willie Desjardins starting in 2017. In slightly more than 4 seasons, Green went 133-147-34 as head coach. The lone playoff appearance (10-7) had wins over Minnesota and St. Louis before losing in the second round in the summer of 2020.
Jim Benning had been the Canucks GM since the spring of 2014. The signing of Loui Eriksson to a 6-year, $36 million deal is his worst signing in terms of money and time. Benning did get some good talent back from Arizona in this past offseason, especially Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Conor Garland.
Canucks legend Stan Smyl has been named interim general manager, having been the director of player development and senior advisor to Benning.
Will any of these movements result in a Stanley Cup?
"31. Four out of seven Canadian teams (Edmonton, Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver) have had jerseys thrown on the ice this season." Elliotte Friedman wrote this as part of his 32 Thoughts blog on Rogers Sportsnet on December 15. We love the enthusiasm of the Canadian NHL fanbases but the pressure isn't helping your team achieve your goal of winning the Stanley Cup.
February will look a lot different with the NHL players not going to Beijing to the 2022 Winter Olympics. This would feel a lot different if the NHL had sent players to Sochi in 2014 and hadn't had this hostility toward sending players to the Olympics. The magic of 2010 and 2014 was a lot more memorable than what they did with corporate-owned teams in those years.
Sending the players to the Olympics (not in a pandemic) grows the game back in North America. People paid a lot more attention to the Olympics in 2018 than what was happening in the NHL.
Yes, the league can use February to make up games due to the Omicron variant. The reaction would be different if the NHL hadn't screwed up 2018.
The capacity for NHL Canadian teams is a very different story than in the United States, where no U.S. based team has any restrictions on capacity.
Quebec went to zero, which caused the NHL to redraw the Montréal Canadiens schedule to delay home games. The Winnipeg Jets also went to zero at least through January 11, though Manitoba would have allowed 250 fans per game. Both the Habs and Jets are on long road trips. The teams were the primary target of the NHL stance on capacity restrictions.
The Canadiens and the Jets lost their home games (for the moment) after they were supposed to go home.
British Columbia and Alberta are at 50% capacity. Ontario lowered its capacity from 50% to 1,000 fans. This is ridiculous.
There have been some calls to follow the NFL logic of not testing fully vaccinated, asymptomatic players. Matt Stone and Trey Parker should get residuals for how often "Blame Canada" is used since the Canadian government would not allow that to happen.
In unrelated NHL area news, the Calgary Flames threw a toddler fit on costs over the construction of the new downtown arena for the Flames and others. Eventually, the sides will figure this out. This looks bad, especially when new constructions helps the Alberta economy.
If you are a kid playing hockey in Canada, you hope for a chance to be on the Hockey Night in Canada pregame show. The camera is on you as you say, "Columbus will be in Calgary to take on the Flames" or "Boston travels to Montréal." Maybe you were the kid that would say, "The Toronto Maple Leafs will be in Vancouver to take on the Canucks."
Those 3 kids were on the cutting room floor as those games were postponed. The kid who felt a little sad because he drew the line "while the Edmonton Oilers visit the Seattle Kraken" is thrilled because he ended up on TV while those 3 did not.
John Bartlett is adding to his CV by doing the sideline reporters check-in on Hockey Night in Canada. Rogers Sportsnet has been having Bartlett and his partner call games from a studio instead of having them on site. Besides saving flights, hotels, and meals — say Habs games on December 4 in Nashville and December 11 in St. Louis — the games don't have their own sideline reporters.
Harnarayan Singh and Greg Millen called the Ottawa-Philadelphia game across all the outlets without a sideline reporter and not being on site.
Citing this as pandemic related makes little sense when other announcing teams are crossing North America. The Montréal Canadiens are struggling on the ice. That shouldn't be an excuse to avoid sending crews to road games in the United States.
U.S. outlets are cutting back on some travel for local games. Sportsnet is doing this for national games on Hockey Night in Canada.
Sportsnet has been crying "poor" well before the pandemic.
RJ Broadhead is out at Rogers Sportsnet. We wondered about that with Rob Faulds and Sam Consentino being used on Hockey Night in Canada. Broadhead started this summer and fall as the radio voice of the CFL Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Like Rod Black, Broadhead might be a help to the CBC for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. A lot of quality sports people being kicked to the sidelines.
December 1 Pittsburgh @ Edmonton, 10p Kenny Albert/Eddie Olczyk/Keith Jones TNT
December 22 Edmonton @ Los Angeles, 10p Kenny Albert/Eddie Olczyk/Keith Jones TNT
December 28 Montréal @ Tampa Bay, 7p John Buccigross/AJ Mleczko ESPN+/Hulu
The TNT games have a long pregame show so tipoff is past 15 minutes after the hour. We'll be curious if that stays once the doubleheaders kick in this month.
When NBC had the NHL, they were eager to promote their upcoming telecasts, which is fine. They wouldn't promote NHL Network telecasts when Canadian teams were involved. TNT promotes ESPN+ and NHL Network telecasts, when they feature Canadian teams. A very nice improvement.
The Edmonton game in Los Angeles on TNT was postponed. Maybe TNT will pick up a rescheduled Edmonton game.
Seemed like the 1st intermission ESPN+ coverage was Tampa Bay centric with no replay of the lone Habs goal and they talked to the interim Tampa coach. Shades of NBC when they often would only talk to the coach of the U.S. team and not the coach of the Canadian team. Cover both or none.
The December CBC promos are a bit basic in the transition between the fall and winter schedules.
Your humble narrator was blacked out of the December 11 game. Under the new system, you can watch games on ESPN+ that are blacked out after a short penalty time. Staying away from social media is difficult but possible.
The December 18 game started out at Boston in Montréal on CBC, switched to the Toronto-Vancouver, and ended up being Ottawa-Philadelphia.
Run the Burbs, Son of a Critch, and Pretty Hard Cases debut in the first full week of January. Canada's New Year's Eve Countdown to 2022 with Rick Mercer looks to be a good replacement for the traditional Air Farce shows on December 31 past.
Players Own Voice is a podcast available on CBC Listen.
The promo for Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas ran before the start of the 2nd period. Home Alone features Canadian acting legend Catherine O'Hara.
The Son of a Critch promo in the 3rd period on December 18 was audio only without video notice. There was a makeup promo the last time we saw that happen.
December 11 early game: Players Own Voice (1st); Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas; Beijing 2022 Olympics (2nd); Run the Burbs; Great Canadian Holiday Baking Show; Son of a Critch (3rd)
December 18 early game: Home Alone; Pretty Hard Cases (1st); Bobsleigh; Canada's New Year's Eve Countdown to 2022 (2nd); Son of a Critch; Run the Burbs (3rd)
photo credits: NHL; Rogers Sportsnet (x2)
Twitter capture: @canadian_xing; @PR_NHL
