Okay Folks, It’s Seriously Time to Start Making Ovechkin “The Face”

 

Ovie Boy Tell 'Em

Editor’s Note: We’re Done For the Day After this, Unless Some Breaking News Should Pop Up.  ASG Broadcast Review, Bettman “State of the League” Review and Much Much More is coming up tomorrow on Puck the Media.  Thanks, as always for reading.

For the past couple of years, the NHL has published a book of photographs telling the story of the year in hockey.  The proceeds go to charity, and you can buy the most recent one here.  We’d bet our bottom dollar that the photo you see above is on the cover of next year’s book in some form.  Gosh, what an evening.

Now, this wasn’t about “Ooooh, Ovechkin put on a crazy hat and glasses!  And Malkin gave it to him!”  No, no, it isn’t just that.  It’s more a shock to the system.  We’ve gotten it, for a while, Ovechkin is much more fun than your average hockey player.  But it’s the way he keeps attempting to out-do himself that makes you think that it isn’t really a stunt, it’s just a 20-something guy having fun being the best athlete in the world.

We hope this All-Star Game is the time we’ll all realize that the reign of Sidney Crosby as the most-promoted player in the NHL ends.  The myth of Sidney Crosby being the most recognizable face and name of the sport are a joke. You couldn’t get the casual fan to pick out Crosby’s face in a lineup of one.  I’d put a huge wager that more people could identify Ovechkin if they gave him half the promo-time they give Sidney.  So, it’s time for everyone to get over Sidney and let Alex be the ambassador for awhile.

VERSUS’ Skills Competition Coverage: Bad Cuts, Blackberries and Too Much Iseman

There is your show folks, consider it stolen.  Wasn’t that just a night of pure fun?  Aside from the deadness of the YoungStars Game, that was the most entertaining and memorable Skills Competition in quite sometime, and easily the best of the three since the lockout.  The question is, how did VERSUS do as far as bringing the show to you?  Let’s break it down:

Sabres to Televise Four Jeanneret-Less Games After All

We reported on Thursday that Rick Jeanneret was going to be taking four games off from his work as the Sabres play-by-play man, and those games just happened to be the four Buffalo wasn’t airing at all this season.  There was much fan backlash and letter-writing done to the most popular man in Buffalo, Sabres Managing Partner Larry Quinn.

Well, fret not Buffalo puckheads, since according to the Buffalo News, those games will televised on MSG in Western NY after all, with the road team’s feed being simulcast on the network:

The decision to get the games on TV was, in part, a reaction to the backlash from fans. Sabres fans who have grown accustomed to watching every game were angry about them taking the road trip off of their TV schedule. The agreement was completed before the NHL board of governors meetings in Montreal as part of All-Star weekend.

“When you start looking at the All-Star break and the whole next week, without the Sabres out there for that long, was probably a mistake,” Quinn said. “I’m glad that fans were mad that we weren’t going to be on, and I’m glad that we’re able to accommodate the fact that they have that much passion for it.”

The Sabres initially had an agreement with MSG for 74 games, and four others were set to be televised on Versus. The team was looking to save money on production costs for the other four games that are played later in the evening and typically have a smaller audience.

Another reason the Sabres first decided to have four radio-only games was to give play-by-play man Rick Jeanneret a break from travel during the season, an incentive for him to keep working rather than retire. However, it would have kept the Sabres off the air for two full weeks, including the All-Star break.

Well, the Sabres have the highest local ratings of any team in the NHL, so what does the team really have to lose by putting these games on air?  Good work, Sabre fans getting these games on the tube.

Puck the Media’s NHL Superskills Liveblog

Join us Tonight at 7 as we make fun of/liveblog the All-Star Superskills Competition. Bring your hilarity with you!

Click Here

Great Moments in All-Star History: Young Stars and Adrian Aucoin’s Hidden Goal

The Young-Stars game is an All-Star invention of this decade, and in 2004 all the good rookie NHL talent was on hand for the game in St. Paul.  But what I really wanted to show you from this game was this goal that Adrian Aucoin gets credit for.  Well, not really, but it counts.

That’s the last of our All-Star moments for today.  We may do some more tomorrow, but for now, it’s on to the skills competition.  Join us at 7PM for the exclusive Livebloggery!

Great Moments in All-Star History: That Sappy Feature From the Game in 2000

ABC won an Emmy for this feature from the 2000 All-Star Game.  Of course, this was before Mario would return, Lindros would concuss himself into a vegetable, Bure and Kariya wouldn’t stay superstars much longer.  The only one who really survive as an amazing talent after this game was Jagr.  Shame, because I’d love to see this done again with guys like Crosby, Ovechkin, Kane and Toews.

Great Moments in All-Star History: Doesn’t Wayne Look Adorable in 1990?

Check out this cool little Bob Cole-narrated feature on the 1990 Game, which included the first ever Skills Competition.

Speaking Of VERSUS: VERSUS Actually Has a Day of Programming Worth Watching on Sunday

As VERSUS is the cable network devoted to the National Hockey League, we feel it is in every hockey fan’s best interest to know some of the non-NHL stuff that’s been going on at the network.  Every so often, we’ll update you on it with a segment called “Speaking of VERSUS”.

As we pointed out in the last few posts, VERSUS is making a day out of the All-Star Game, spotlighting all of it’s biggest events around the NHL’s Don’t Get Suspended Showdown.  Here’s VERSUS’ Sunday Schedule

4:30 Lance Armstrong: The Return
5:00 Tour Down Under – Lance Armstrong competing in his first cycling tournament since his return.
6:00 NHL All-Star Game
9:00 Sports Soup
9:30 WEC – The first big fight of the year, as Urijah Faber re-matches with Jens Pulver. 

Hopefully, VERSUS can get all the people who wanna watch these shows stick around for the entire night.  I’m not too optimistic, but we’ll see, since the last Faber-Pulver fight drew 1.4 Million viewers.

Great Moments in All-Star History: CBC Brings it to the ’94 Game in New York

The NHL should bring the All-Star game back to the New York area.  Not just so we can go to one, but so the NHL can bring all of it’s stars into the area, do some positive press, go on some talk shows.  Hockey Night presents the last game to be played in New York, in 1994.

Do You Care if The NHL All-Star Game is on Broadcast TV?

Before we begin this, let’s start off with a year-by-year All-Star ratings look:

1991, Chicago (NBC, Afternoon): 2.7
1992, Philadelphia (NBC, Afternoon): 2.3
1993, Montreal (NBC, Afternoon): 2.4
1994, New York (NBC, Afternoon): 2.5
1996, Boston (FOX, Primetime): 4.1
1997, San Jose (FOX, Primetime): 2.8
1998, Vancouver (FOX, Afternoon): 2.7
1999, Tampa Bay (FOX, Afternoon): 2.2
2000, Toronto (ABC, Afternoon): 2.7
2001, Denver (ABC, Afternoon): 1.7
2002, Los Angeles (ABC, Afternoon): 1.8
2003, Sunrise (ABC, Afternoon): 1.7
2004, Minnesota (ABC, Afternoon): 1.8
2007, Dallas (VERSUS, Primetime): 0.5
2008, Atlanta (VERSUS, Primetime): 0.7

This would be a weird chart graph if I ever attempted to make it.  It’d go from the highest rated hockey game of the 90′s (The 1996 All-Star Game) to the lowest rated All-Star game, perhaps ever (2007).  The point is that it seems around 2001, people really stopped caring about the All-Star Game.  Many of the All-Star Games in the 90′s drew Winter Classic-level ratings.  It was clear then that the game was the one chance to see all of the NHL’s stars look awesome.

So, what the hell happened?

We can easily blame the the 2001 and 2002 games on people tiring of the World/North America format.  But why didn’t going back to East/West make things fresh again?  Why did people stop caring long before the game was dumped from broadcast TV to VERSUS?  Does it really matter?

Well, I won’t turn this into an ” is the All-Star Game a waste of time” diatribe.  But I do care about the TV aspects.  In an age where the NBA All-Star Game is thriving on cable, and the Pro Bowl and MLB All-Star Game are sagging on broadcast, should the NHL lobby to get it’s All-Star Game back on the networks, or try to build into a destination for VERSUS?