Ducks-Red Wings is NBC’s Sunday Game

According to the Red Wings website, Anaheim-Detroit will boogie down at The Joe for Game 2 of their Western Conference Semi-final series this Sunday at 2:00 PM. 

An Eastern Conference series will air Saturday at 1:00 PM.  Likely Rangers-Boston if the Rangers win, DEFINITELY Pittsburgh-Boston if the Caps win.

Also, note that CBC gets the first two picks when it comes to Round 2.  Obviously, Canucks-Hawks is #1 priority, perhaps Red Wings-Ducks (so they can do doubleheaders every night) or Bruins-Penguins (to even things up).

As far as dates go, expect a Penguins/Rangers-Bruins to start Thursday with Hawks/Canucks paired.  With Ducks-Wings starting Friday, expect it to be paired up with a Devils/Capitals or Hurricanes-Bruins series.  If the Devils get a home series, it will definitely go Friday/Sunday, as Dane Cook is playing The Rock Saturday.  TD Banknorth Garden has a Commencement Friday, so a Thursday/Saturday series would make more sense for the Bruins.  Mellon Arena is free all weekend.

Your TV Guide and Open Thread for Night 14 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs

This will appear every night to inform you of the TV networks and announcers that will be covering the games during the playoffs.  Enjoy all the local and national info, after the jump.

Will Obama Show Up at Game 7?

From John Taylor of the Washington Times:

With the Capitals wrapping up their Game 6 rout of the New York Rangers, NBC play-by-play announcer Mike Emrick had a shout-out to President Barack Obama.

He told the listening audience — and I’m paraphrasing here — that President Obama has never been to a hockey game, and that with the Caps now forcing this series to its max and bringing it back home to Verizon Center, well, he’d never miss a Game 7.

For you White House schedulers reading, that’s Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the big arena in Chinatown, about 8 blocks or so from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

We’ll be tuning in to Game 7 of the Rangers-Caps during Devils-Canes intermissions, so we’ll be excited to see if the President stops by.

Winter Classic Promo Takes Home Emmy

Like you, we’re extremely shocked that the Sports Emmy isn’t just the regular Emmy with a bat in it’s hand.  Anyway, the NHL took home one of the two Emmy’s it was involved with.  While Mike Emrick went down in the play-by-play category to Jim Nantz, the Winter Classic Wrigley Field promo won the Emmy for “Outstanding Sports Promotional Announcement – Episodic”.  Here are the credits:

OUTSTANDING SPORTS PROMOTIONAL ANNOUNCEMENT – EPISODIC* 2009 Winter Classic NBC/NHL

Executive Producer
Dick Ebersol

Coordinating Producer
Mike McCarley

Supervising Producer
Brian Jennings

Senior Producers
Casey Hall, Brian Matthews, Cliff Skeete

Director
Chris Sargent

Producers
Michael Elliot, Stacy Kay

Associate Producers
Justin Byczek, William Lee, Justin Slack, Nick Terzis

Your TV Guide and Open Thread for Night 13 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs

This will appear every night to inform you of the TV networks and announcers that will be covering the games during the playoffs.  Enjoy all the local and national info, after the jump.

Programming Note: Another Short Week? You Betcha

We hate taking another day off lately, but we’re not going to be here Friday unless something breaks.  Nor will we be joining you Saturday/Sunday, so if you’ve gotten used to us playing with ya’ll those days lately, no posting from me then.

Who’s in for me?  Well, as you’d suspect, Wrap is on the case Saturday and Sunday.  She’s always awesome, we’re shocked she hangs with us.

But Friday we have a special treat!  The return of guest poster extraordinaire James “Tapeleg” Gralian from Jerseys and Hockey Love as well as The Rink.

Why are we not going to be here during a Round 2 playoff weekend?  Because A. We can’t take another weekend couped in the house hearing Pierre McGuire whine, and B. We’ve got tickets to the Bamboozle festival out in my old stomping grounds, the Giants Stadium parking lot.  If you’ve ever heard of Bamboozle but never gone, you’d probably see it as “Warped Tour in a Day” or “Coachella for 12 year olds”.  But all this week, we’re going to post 1 band from this year’s Bamboozle that totally doesn’t suck.

First up: Rise Against.

BREAKING: We Officially Don’t Understand Ratings Anymore

After a weekend which saw the best opening round Stanley Cup Playoff ratings in awhile, the NHL came back down to earth this weekend.  According to Sports Business Daily (Reg. required), the network’s telecast of Game 6 – Penguins vs. Flyers drew an overnight rating of 1.2/3, down from both the 1.7 overnight for Game 3 of the series, but also merely even from the 1.2 overnight from last year’s comparable telecast (4/19/08 – Flyers vs. Capitals).

There was more bad news on Sunday.  NBC’s broadcast of Game 6 – Capitals vs. Rangers drew a 1.0/2 overnight rating, down big-time from last year’s comparable telecast (4/20/08 – Red Wings vs. Predators) but the same overnight as last week’s Game 2 telecast.  The game tied with the ratings for the taped poker event that preceded it.  Clearly the NHL’s all-East, all-the time strategy backfired on them this week.

Someone at VERSUS Has a Sick Sense of Humor. Like, Seriously.

NHL Screws the Pooch on Monday/Tuesday Night Scheduling

Look, we get it must be hard for the NHL to plan ahead when it comes to scheduling when series end.  But the NHL has got to do better than its’ slate tonight when it comes to getting people into these series:

9:30 PM ET – Chicago vs. Calgary
10:30 PM ET – San Jose vs. Anaheim

Sure, with two networks covering the sport in Canada, there’s no real problem.  But with only VERSUS involved in the US, people will only be able to see all of one game (CGY-CHI), and only get to watch the third period.  The league could’ve switched the game to 8PM ET, as many Calgary home games this season have started at this time, and would provide ample time for a doubleheader.  But instead, US viewers will get shafted.

In a way, we have the exact opposite going on Tuesday:

7:00 PM ET – NY Rangers vs. Washington
7:30 PM ET – Carolina vs. New Jersey

Now, we get that the two games are in the ET zone, but the CAR-NJ could be moved back to 8, 8:15 or 8:30 to provide ample coverage in the States.  However, Canadian viewers are being screwed by this too.  The Hurricanes-Devils game is on TSN2, so many Canuck viewers can’t watch what will likely be the more exciting of the two game sevens.

We know we shouldn’t be that hard on the league for stuff that involves other outside factors.  But we simply feel like this could’ve been avoided.

NOTE: Hockey Central to Air at 7PM on VERSUS

Don’t know how many of you are checking in with us at this hour, but smart move by VERSUS. Once the IndyCar race at Kansas is finished, at 7PM, VERSUS will air a pre-game episode of “Hockey Central” with Bill Patrick, Keith Jones and Brian Engblom.

This is a great move, because it keeps your audience from Indy connected to the audience for the hockey game, without some random episode of “Holy #$$*%” in between.