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NHL in talks with Bristol. Bettman says “What can I say, we miss our old abusive relationship.”
Because really, The Worldwide Leader In Rodeo didn’t give the NHL short enough shrift (and act enough like the League only has five teams) the first time around.
More exposure? From Bristol? If Bristol will treat the NHL better than NBC has, I’m the Pope. Don’t blame me, I was only following orders. Of course, I will give Bristol one thing: they can certainly do better than to have former Whalers coach (not to mention the chief fellator of Sidney Crosby and, of course, whoever is playing against the team he used to coach) Pierre McGuire and Mad Mike Milbury as the talking heads in the studio.
WUWT, 30 Rock? You pick possibly the two biggest assclowns in hockey as your broadcast crew over the far superior Ray Ferraro and Bill Clement? May I have some of whatever the high-ups at NBC Sports are smoking, please?
Sheesh.
I’m surprisingly pissed at the departure of Ray Ferraro. I didn’t even realize how much I liked him until now.
ESPN, eh. They bring better coverage to the league blahblahblah. They also suck hard.
As pissed as I am at ESPN virtually ignoring hockey, I think this is a good thing. I’m pulling for the NHL channel to be a go in the U.S. Versus has no doubt improved their coverage, but the deal with NBC is a joke and the limited availability of Versus is a travesty.
I remember when I could watch hockey three or four nights a week between what was on ESPN, ESPN 2, and my regional Fox Sports channel. Nowadays, I have to subscribe to center ice to get sufficient hockey coverage. When I travel, I frequently can’t get Versus in my room or in any nearby bar, so I’ve resorted to XM satellite radio to listen in on a game.
Whatever it takes to get hockey back in mainstream television is okay by me.
I personally don’t think it’s a good thing at all–ESPN treated hockey like garbage before, and the NHL crawling back to them isn’t going to change things one bit. We’ll still get pre-empted by rodeo and poker, and the mediots on SportsCenter will still make fun of us.
Screw Bristol.
Ferraro’s a good analyst, and I get him about 50 extra times per year on Sportsnet Oilers telecasts. Isn’t he joining HNIC, now?
The NHL isn’t superficial enough for ESPN. In order to make it an attractive property for the Worldwide Leader in Division II High School Cheerleading, they’d have to get rid of every anti-fighting and anti-brawling measure passed since the ’50s, add a heavy metal soundtrack, and market the violence to the exclusion of everything else — in other words, turn the NHL into a YouTube video. Oh, and turn half the players into total assholes.