Category Archives: NBC Sports Network

NBC, NHL will be rooting hard for Rangers

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Gary Bettman and Mark Lazarus shouldn’t even try to remain impartial. The NHL Commissioner and NBC Sports chairman should be allowed to go to Madison Square Garden tonight in full New York Rangers gear. Perhaps even get a few Rangers tattoos on the way to the arena.

Both the NHL and NBC need the Rangers to prevail in Game 7 over Ottawa. Talk about a must-win situation.

Here’s why: Game 6 attracted 315,000 viewers in New York on MSG. The ratings figure to be even higher for Thursday’s game.

If the Rangers advance, all of those New York ratings move over to NBC and the NBC Sports Network. Both outlets have exclusive coverage for the remainder of the Stanley Cup.

NBC Sports Network is averaging 699,000 viewers for the first 13 days of its playoff coverage, up 18 percent. Think about how much a New York audience could inflate that number for round 2 and beyond.

If Ottawa wins. Well, not so much. I bet a lot of people think Ottawa is a city in Iowa.

I know the New Jersey Devils also have a game 7 in Florida Thursday, but they aren’t the Rangers in New York or nationally.

NBC and NBC Sports Network already took a huge hit with Chicago losing to Phoenix in the first round. Game 6 pulled in 363,000 households on Comcast SportsNet Chicago. The network would have loved an even larger slice of that for round 2.

As for Phoenix. Again, not so much.

Also, Detroit, another hockey hotbed, is out. The Red Wings lost to Nashville, not a hockey hotbed.

And also, also, Boston, the defending Stanley Cup champions with its avid following, went to sleep Wednesday night. However, the defeat wasn’t a complete washout since Washington will be a solid national draw with Alex Ovechkin. Stars move the meter.

For all the ratings momentum that has been built in the first round, it’ll evaporate quickly if the “right teams” don’t make it to the finish line. The NHL’s worst nightmare has to be a Stanley Cup between Ottawa and Phoenix. Or how about Florida-Nashville?

Sorry if I scared you, Mr. Bettman. Go Rangers, eh?

 

 

 

Mayhem ruining good story for NHL playoffs

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The storyline is being hijacked for the NHL.

Instead of talking about exciting series leading to strong increases in the ratings for NBC and the NBC Sports Network, the story is about a continuing string of brutal, vicious hits making hockey out to be the sport of thugs.

Another one occurred in the Chicago-Phoenix series last night. Watch how Phoenix’s Raffi Torres takes out Marian Hossa.

This is the NBC Sports Network call. I was watching the local telecast on Comcast Sports Net in Chicago. Pat Foley and Ed Olczyk were going crazy. Olczyk, who handles color for the Hawks along with his network duties, called for Torres, a repeat offender, to receive a 10-game suspension.

Amazingly, Torres didn’t even get a penalty for the hit which had Hossa being carried off the ice in a stretcher. Wonder what game they were watching.

All in all, it was another black mark for the NHL and commissioner Gary Bettman, who was at the game. Stu Hackel ripped into the league at SI.com.

After watching too much go too far during the last five days, I think it should be obvious to anyone who has any sense of proportion that the Stanley Cup playoffs are out of control. There have been head-rammings, sucker punches, maulings and ambushes, all of which is apart from the more commonplace vendettas, elbows, crosschecks, spearing, charging, knee-to-knee shots and line brawls that we’ve come to expect each spring.

This isn’t just hard hockey. It is, as one of the sport’s prominent personages called it during the first phone call I got on Monday morning, “a disgrace.”

I began watching the NHL 50 years ago and I can’t recall ever seeing anything like this, not even in the game’s darkest days of the mid-1970s. In more games than not, the play has degenerated into open warfare.

The NHL is ruining its chance to build some serious momentum during the playoffs. This twitter feed from a fan following the Hossa hit should get the league’s full attention.

I almost don’t even care about this game right now. That was one of the most sickening headshots I’ve ever seen in my life. NHL, NFL, MMA.

NHL scores with every game playoff coverage

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I’m a fairly avid Blackhawks fan. I watch most of their games. But otherwise, I’d consider myself to be a casual hockey fan.

So the new playoff TV format is geared to snaring fans like me, the casual hockey fan. And it has worked, big time.

Airing all the games on NBC, CNBC, and the NHL Network is exactly what hockey needed. Opening night had an NCAA Basketball tournament feel to it. I watched the end of the Pittsburgh-Philadelphia overtime game on the NBC Sports Network and then quickly turned to the exciting climax of the Detroit-Nashville game on CNBC. Then I even went back to NBCSN to watch the beginning of the Los Angeles-Vancouver game. I haven’t watched that much hockey in one night for a long time, and I continued to do it throughout the weekend.

Funny thing: At one point, my 16-year old Matt cried out, “Dad, what channel is CNBC on?” He wasn’t looking to watch James Cramer.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told SI’s Richard Deitsch:

“This has been the partnership we envisioned and we could not be more pleased  with how they have worked with us.

Yes, indeed. The ratings were strong for the opening two nights. I’ll have an update from the weekend later.