My latest Chicago Tribune column is on tonight’s Chicago-Pittsburgh game at Soldier Field. With wind chills in the single digits, I am more than happy to watch from the comforts of home. Alas, the NBC announce team won’t be as lucky.
You also can access the entire column via my Twitter feed at Sherman_Report.
Here is an excerpt.
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If there were a watch-dog group that monitors abuse against sports announcers, surely it would look into what NBC is doing to Mike Emrick, Eddie Olczyk and Pierre McGuire.
For the fourth time this year, NBC is sending its lead NHL team outdoors for the call of Saturday night’s Blackhawks-Penguins game at Soldier Field. With the game-time temperature in the teens, the trio will be subjected to another brutal blast of winter.
When asked if this constituted unfair treatment to announcers, NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood replied: “They just spent two weeks in tropical Sochi, Russia. They could use some toughening up.”
Of course, NBC and NHL are thrilled to be out in the elements again. The timing and setting of Saturday’s game is no coincidence. The league wants to capitalize on the huge ratings and even bigger buzz hockey generated in the Olympics.
An outdoor matchup featuring the defending Stanley Cup champions facing the top star in hockey, Sidney Crosby, has so much potential appeal, NBC made it the first regular-season NHL game scheduled for network prime time since 1974; the 2011 Winter Classic in Pittsburgh actually aired in prime time on NBC because of weather delays.
“Going to Soldier Field is going to be an incredible venue for this game,” Flood said. “To be outdoors with these two teams, as well as they are playing, really set up a perfect storm for us.”
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Regarding the risk of losing the novelty with the NHL staging six outdoor games this year, Flood said:
“Everyone is going to step back and look at all of this,” Flood said. “The league has to decide what it wants to do. I could see doing three or four of them. I’m not sure we need to be doing as many (as six).”