NEW YORK (January 28, 2012) – The National Hockey League (NHL®) has

announced a new, multi-year partnership with the Las Vegas Convention and

Visitors Authority (LVCVA) that will see the NHL Awards® return to Las

Vegas for the next three years. As part of the extended partnership, which

first began in 2009, the NHL will stage numerous new events throughout the

destination in conjunction with the League’s annual post-season awards

show. The world-famous Wynn Las Vegas luxury hotel and casino resort will

host the 2012 NHL® Awards, which will be held on Wednesday, June 20, at the

Encore Theater.

As the NHL’s biggest stars, Hollywood celebrities, and hockey fans

from around the world descend on Las Vegas this June to celebrate hockey

and the season’s top performances, it will mark the fourth straight year

that the NHL has feted the best hockey players in the world in Las Vegas

and its first-ever event at Wynn Las Vegas, currently home to the

award-winning show “Le Rêve – The Dream” and country music superstar Garth

Brooks’ sold-out concert series.

The 2012 NHL Awards will honor the best regular-season players in a

wide range of categories, including most valuable player (Hart Trophy),

outstanding goaltender (Vezina Trophy), outstanding defenseman (Norris

Trophy) and outstanding rookie (Calder Trophy); the Ted Lindsay Award,

which is presented annually to the “most outstanding player” in the NHL as

voted by fellow members of the National Hockey League Players’ Association

(NHLPA), will also be awarded.

In the coming months, the League, the LVCVA and Wynn Las Vegas will

announce details on an expanded and exciting new awards program for 2012,

along with a number of local events designed for fans and visitors alike.

Televised live in the United States and Canada, the 2012 NHL Awards

will showcase hockey and Hollywood’s biggest stars with the excitement and

energy that only Las Vegas can provide.

“Las Vegas knows energy, entertainment and star power — elements

that our players display every night,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said.

“The city, the Wynn and the Encore Theater will provide a spectacular

setting for our end-of-season festivities over the next three years.”

“Las Vegas is excited to welcome the NHL Awards back to the

destination,” said Rossi Ralenkotter, president/CEO of the LVCVA. “We have

enjoyed a great partnership, and we look forward to providing another great

experience for the League, the players and of course the fans.”

“We are pleased to be the host resort for the 2012 NHL Awards at Wynn

Las Vegas and look forward to partnering with the league and the LVCVA to

bring one of hockey’s most exciting nights to Las Vegas,” said Marilyn

Spiegel, president of Wynn Las Vegas and Encore. “We look forward to

welcoming the NHL’s biggest names to Wynn Las Vegas and celebrating the

best in professional hockey.”

Nominees for each Award, along with a full line up of celebrity

guests, presenters and entertainment, as well as information on tickets and

official 2012 NHL Awards travel packages, will be announced in the coming

months. For more information, visit www.nhl.com/awards.

NEW YORK (January 28, 2012) – The National Hockey League (NHL®) today announced the selection of the Columbus Blue Jackets and the city of Columbus as hosts of the 2013 National Hockey League All-Star Celebration. The League’s mid-season showcase will take place Saturday, January 26 and Sunday, January 27 and will include the Molson Canadian NHL SuperSkills® and the NHL All-Star Game.

The 2013 NHL All-Star Game marks the first time the NHL All-Star activities will take place in Columbus, becoming the third consecutive first-time All-Star host city. Raleigh in 2011 and Ottawa in 2012 also were first-time hosts. The Blue Jackets and Columbus have experience in holding a signature NHL event, as they hosted the 2007 NHL Entry Draft.

“We’re looking forward to bringing our All-Star celebration to Columbus,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “The Blue Jackets did a great job of hosting the NHL Draft in 2007, and I have no doubt they will raise the bar even higher when they welcome our All-Star celebration next January.”

“The Blue Jackets are honored to host the 2013 All-Star celebration in Columbus as we believe our city offers a truly unique setting for this special event,” said Blue Jackets Majority Owner John P. McConnell. “As much as it is a showcase for the NHL’s best players, it is also a celebration of hockey fans and having it in Columbus is a testament to the fantastic support of our fans and the strength of Central Ohio as a hockey market.”

Further details on the 2013 NHL All-Star celebration, including ticket information, special events and television broadcasting will be released at a later date.

The event, the second-annual draft of the All-Star teams, drew 408,000 viewers on NBC Sports Network. This was down 35% from last year’s numbers (624,000 on 1/28/11). Last year’s event took place on a Friday, as opposed to a Thursday this year.

Overall, 2 million people tuned into the draft across North America, with 1.6 million of those coming from Canada on TSN and RDS.

(Source: TVSportsRatings) 

Toronto, ON (January 27, 2012) – While NHL All-Star team captains Daniel Alfredsson and Zdeno Chara deliberated over their draft picks last night, hockey fans made TSN and RDS their first picks overall, as overnight data from BBM Canada confirms the MOLSON CANADIAN NHL ALL-STAR PLAYER FANTASY DRAFT hosted by James Duthie delivered an average audience of 1.6 million viewers (TSN: 1.34 million; RDS: 254,000)*.

The 90-minute broadcast on TSN was the #2 program on Canadian television last night for A25-54, A18-49, and A18-34, following THE BIG BANG THEORY on CTV.

TSN’s broadcast of the DRAFT was also watched live on NBC Sports Network in the U.S.

Overall, 3.7 million unique viewers tuned in to watch some or all of the MOLSON CANADIAN NHL ALL-STAR PLAYER FANTASY DRAFT on TSN and RDS. Audience levels peaked at 2.2 million average viewers as Dallas Stars forward Jamie Benn was picked second-last in the 19-round DRAFT, making San Jose Sharks’ forward Logan Couture the last man standing on the stage.

The MOLSON CANADIAN NHL ALL-STAR PLAYER FANTASY DRAFT was also a hit on social media, as fans across Canada and around the world joined the conversation on Twitter using the hashtags #TSN and #AllStarDraft. At various points throughout the live broadcast both #TSN and #AllStarDraft were trending not only in Canada on Twitter, but worldwide as well. TSN’s James Duthie and Alyonka Larionov, along with the names of numerous NHL All-Star players, were also trending throughout the broadcast.

Fans also chimed in on TSN.ca, where the website’s live blog during the DRAFT had 18,200 participants last night. Along with chatter about the live broadcast, the blog pulled in tweets from TSN’s hockey experts and Insiders.

TSN’s broadcast of the MOLSON CANADIAN NHL ALL-STAR PLAYER FANTASY DRAFT was live from the Théâtre du Casino du Lac-Leamy in Gatineau, QC. Host Duthie was joined at the DRAFT by the NHL ON TSN panel featuring Darren Dutchyshen, Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie, and analysts Marc Crawford and Aaron Ward. TSN’s Larionov was backstage in the players’ green room to give fans exclusive access inside the event, posting behind-the-scenes photos and player comments to Twitter and TSN’s Fan Page on Facebook. The DRAFT is available now on demand at TSN.ca.

TSN’s coverage of NHL All-Star Weekend continues today with the 2012 NHL ALL-STAR MEDIA DAY PRESENTED BY ALLSTATE INSURANCE from 4-6 p.m. ET, and throughout the weekend with daily reports on SPORTSCENTRE and TSN.ca.

I have a few things that I want to discuss, but don’t have enough material to let stand alone, with regards to everything that went on Thursday. So, it seems best to just do it with bullet points, as they’ll never let you down.

• The All-Star Fantasy Draft remains entertaining, leave it alone. I have a lot of ideas for how the Draft (which, as many have pointed out, is taking place in reality and is in no way a fantasy), including encouraging trades, dropping the pretense of making sure defensemen and goalies are taken by a certain round, a more neutral (i.e. maybe something that looks more like NHL Network than TSN or NBC, so neither network would look awkward simulcasting the other) broadcast, celebrity (in hockey terms) captains, and a number of other things that range from fairly sane (why not add one hockey legend to each team?) to egregiously stupid (why not let the next to last player picked get the car, and let the last two players standing debate on air why they should be picked? I mean, why not?). The fact is, though, that this event is very entertaining, James Duthie is the perfect host for this sort of thing, and the players with human qualities seems to have fun (i.e. everyone but Phil Kessel, whom my 13-year old brother observed, “hates talking). Don’t mess with this at all. It’s one of the best moments on the NHL game schedule.
• Haven’t we all learned that reading people’s tweets isn’t in any way interesting? I feel for Alyonka Larionov, who had her on-screen time limited to two silly, frivolous segments in which she read various players’ tweets. Having them roll on a bottom line graphic is fine, but reading them on the air just seems pointless to me, as it does whenever any other network broadcasting anything tries to do it. Twitter may be the biggest thing on earth, but it has no place in television.
• Cheers to NBC for at least throwing on a pre-draft show. The network is putting some effort into All-Star weekend for the first time, and part of that includes an episode of NHL Overtime from Ottawa tonight, and (in what was a surprise to me) a pre-show for the draft in which Liam McHugh, Jeremy Roenick and Keith Jones broke down the night to come, while Pierre McGuire conducted interviews. It was a nice, easy way to spend the half-hour before the draft.
• Commissioner Bettman’s radio show should be broadcast on NHL Network. The league’s television arm broadcast a light hour of NHL Live with EJ Hradek, Barry Melrose and Kevin Weekes before handing it over to something that I don’t believe has occurred before – a television simulcast of Commissioner Bettman’s radio show, The NHL Hour. I’ll confess to not having listened to the show in some time, and Bettman remains a bit nervous looking on television (though he’s certainly self-deprecating about it), I’ll admit I really enjoyed the show. The commissioner simply spending time answering questions from children was fun, and having Wayne Gretzky on to finish it up was a nice touch. I hope NHL Network eventually finds a way to get the show on the air on a more permanent basis, because it is a unique program.

The network, televising only it’s fourth game west of Dallas this season, and it’s seventh west of Minnesota, drew just 190,000 viewers for the match-up, marking NBC/VERSUS’ lowest numbers for an exclusive match-up during the 2011-12 season, lowering a limbo stick already set by the Avalanche earlier this year (SJ/COL 12/13/11: 193,000). The game was notably beaten by a replay of the AFC Championship Game between New England and Baltimore on NFL Network (202,000). The league and the network need to find a new tentpole team out west, because the Avs are dead weight when it comes to viewership.

Elsewhere, the numbers were better. Monday night’s Blues/Red Wings game, despite not airing in the Detroit market (where it aired on FSN), drew 429,000 viewers, which may be a season high for a non-exclusive game. The Red Wings getting blown out in Montreal two nights later (where it did air exclusively in Detroit) drew much lower digits, scoring 241,000 viewers. The important thing, however, is that it beat the NFC Championship Game repeat on NFL Network that night (193,000). At least we can hang our hats on that.

(Source: @TVSportsRatings) 

Viewer Numbers to Date for the NHL on NBC Sports Network, 2011-12 Season

Friday, January 27
3:00 p.m. NHL All-Star Media Day (NHL Network)
6:00 p.m. NHL Tonight (NHL Network)
10:00 p.m. NHL Overtime live from Ottawa (NBC Sports)

 Saturday, January 28
4:00 p.m. Super-Skills Pre-Show (NHL Network)
7:00 p.m. NHL Super-Skills Competition (NBC Sports)
9:30 p.m. NHL Tonight (NHL Network)

Sunday, January 29
1:00 p.m. All-Star Pre-Game Show (NHL Network)
4:00 p.m. NHL All-Star Game (NBC Sports)
7:00 p.m. NHL Tonight (NHL Network)

NBC News and NBC Sports have produced a series of 10 educational segments called, “Science of N.H.L. Hockey,” that will debut during NBC Sports Network’s coverage of the All-Star festivities this weekend.

The videos, which feature the N.H.L. players Matt Moulson, Pekka Rinne, Brenden Morrow, Erik Johnson and Jaroslav Halak, were made as a learning tool for teachers and students to use in the classroom. Created in conjunction with NBC Learn (the educational arm of NBC News), the N.H.L. and the National Science Foundation, the segments, which will be aligned to lesson plans and national and state education standards, are available to the public free of cost.

“Hockey is my lifelong sport of passion,” said Sam Flood, executive producer of NBC Sports. “To be able to help people understand how a slap shot takes off, that really excites me as a producer and as a hockey player. The segments have frame-by-frame breakdowns so viewers can really see and understand the science behind the movements.”

During the broadcast of the All-Star Skills Competition on NBC Sports Network on Saturday night, Flood plans to show the segment on the science of the slap shot before Zdeno Chara and the rest of the players take part in the Hardest Shot competition.

The segments will be available on NBCLearn.com, NBCSports.com, Science360.com and NHL.com and will be broadcast on NHL Network and on arena scoreboards throughout the league.

New York, NY—Jan 26, 2012—NBC News’ educational arm, NBC Learn, and the NBC Sports Group are teaming up with the National Hockey League (NHL) and National Science Foundation (NSF) to release “Science of NHL Hockey”— an informative 10-part video series exploring the science behind the fastest game on ice that will be distributed across several NBCU platforms. Made especially for students and teachers to use in the classroom, these videos will be aligned to lesson plans and national state education standards, and are available to the public cost-free on NBCLearn.com, NBCSports.com and Science360.gov. NBC News’ Lester Holt narrates the series.

The “Science of NHL Hockey” videos will debut during NBC Sports Network’s all-encompassing coverage of the 2012 NHL All-Star Weekend from Ottawa January 26-29, including a select number of videos airing throughout the Honda SuperSkills Competition on Sat., January 28, from 7-9:30 p.m. ET. The NHL will feature the videos on NHL.com, NHL Network in the U.S. and Canada and in a number of arenas throughout the League. The series will also appear in retail venues across the country, including Wovenmedia outlets, and on American Airlines in-flight entertainment and NBC’s affiliate stations.

This collaboration between NBC Learn, NBC Sports and NSF uses the universal appeal of hockey to drive an understanding of complicated scientific concepts. Students and teachers see how the principles of science enable players to perform actions such as quickly stopping on ice, passing the puck to a teammate, shooting a slap shot and making a great save.

The science is broken down by capturing the athletes’ movements with a state-of-the-art, high-speed Phantom camera, which has the ability to capture movement at rates of up to 10,000 frames per second. These dynamic visuals allow for frame-by-frame illustrations of specific scientific principles such as Newton’s Three Laws of Motion, kinematics and velocity. Other video episodes analyze the hockey science behind reflexes and reaction time, statistics, vectors, linear motion, geometry and more.

NBC Sports Group oversaw the Phantom video shoot in September 2011 during the yearly media tour sponsored by the NHL and its players association. NBC Sports Group also provided research and technical support throughout the project.

Current NHL players who participated in the video series include:

Jaroslav Halak, Goaltender, St. Louis Blues

Erik Johnson, Defenseman, Colorado Avalanche

Brenden Morrow, Left Wing, Dallas Stars

Matt Moulson, Left Wing, New York Islanders

Pekka Rinne, Goaltender, Nashville Predators

In each video, an NSF-supported scientist explains a selected scientific principle, while NHL athletes describe how the principle applies to their respective positions. Series scientists supported by NSF are: Edward Burger, Williams College; Irene Fonseca, Carnegie Mellon; Jim Gates, University of Maryland; Robert Gehrz, University of Minnesota; and Patricia Shewokis, Drexel University. The videos also include actual game footage provided by the NHL, and the lesson plans that accompany the videos will be provided by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA).

“Science of NHL Hockey” follows in the footsteps of the “Science of NFL Football” and “Science of the Olympic Winter Games” collections, which are part of an ongoing “Science of Sports” collaboration with the NSF that was awarded a 2010 Sports Emmy for “Outstanding New Approaches Sports Programming.”

“Wayne Gretzky once said, ‘The only way a kid is going to practice is if it’s total fun for him… and it was for me,’” said Morris Aizenman, Senior Scientist for NSF’s Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences. “‘Science of NHL Hockey’ is an NSF and NBC Learn project that continues our effort to make science total fun for students. We hope, after watching these videos that students will also want to learn and practice science.”

“Building on the innovative partnership that NBC Learn has with NSF and NBC Sports, we are thrilled to expand the ‘Science of Sports’ franchise to include hockey,” said Soraya Gage, Executive Producer of NBC Learn. “These one-of-a-kind videos have set a new precedent for teaching science in the classroom, by literally breaking down concepts and illustrating their real life application through sports.”

“The NHL is excited to partner with NBC and the National Science Foundation on this special project,” said Charles Coplin, Executive Vice President of Content for the NHL. “Students, teachers and NHL fans everywhere will experience hockey in a unique way through the spectacular footage captured during filming with the players.”

“It was exciting to be part of a unique project that utilizes hockey to help educate students on science and physics,” said Brenden Morrow of the Dallas Stars. “It was fun to participate in and was very interesting. I learned a lot myself.”

Things have calmed down for Mike Milbury since the Christmas holidays, and he’ll be busier than ever on NBC Sports Network this weekend.

Before heading up to Ottawa for the NHL All-Star Game, Milbury will work his second color assignment of the season for NBC, as he’ll call the Harvard-Yale showdown Friday night on the network. Joining him in the booth will be Washington Capitals radio play-by-play man John Walton. Milbury also worked an early season Islanders-Bruins telecast on the network when it was known as VERSUS.

Milbury will then head up to the All-Star Game as a studio analyst on the Skills Competition and the game itself Saturday and Sunday. NBC will already be up there, airing a mid-season recap episode of NHL Overtime live from Ottawa after Harvard-Yale.

The biggest stars in hockey are coming this weekend to CBC’s HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA, home to the Molson Canadian NHL All-Star Skills Competition and the Tim Hortons NHL® All-Star Game in Ottawa, Ont. Features during the game include a special edition of Coach’s Corner with the legendary Don Cherry and Ron MacLean during the first intermission, and a live performance from Grammy-nominated Canadian superstar artist Drake during the second intermission.

Coverage begins Saturday, Jan. 28, at 5 p.m. ET, with HNIC Game Day, hosted by PJ Stock and Andi Petrillo, followed at 6:30 p.m. ET by the pre-game show Scotiabank Hockey Tonight. The stars then hit the ice at 7 p.m. ET for the Molson Canadian NHL All-Star Skills Competition, with host Ron MacLean alongside Kelly Hrudey. Jim Hughson calls the action and Craig Simpson, Glenn Healy, Scott Oake and Elliotte Friedman bring reports and interviews from ice level. The NHL’s top talents showcase their skills in six events, including the NHL Fastest Skater, NHL Breakaway Challenge, NHL Accuracy Shootout, NHL Skills Challenge Relay, NHL Hardest Shot and NHL Elimination Shootout.

Then on Sunday, Jan. 29, at 4 p.m. ET, the Tim Hortons NHL All-Star Game takes centre stage on CBC’S HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA with host Ron Maclean setting the stage for the marquee matchup. Jim Hughson will once again provide play-by-play with analysis from Craig Simpson and Glenn Healy at ice level. Rink side reporters Scott Oake and Elliotte Freidman bring viewers into the game with stories and interviews from your favourite NHL Stars.

During both the Tim Hortons NHL All-Star Game and Molson Canadian NHL All-Star Skills Competition players will be wired for sound, allowing fans a first person insight into all the action as it occurs.

The weekend’s NHL festivities will also be streamed live and on-demand at CBCSports.ca, your online destination for exclusive blogs, content and live chats using the #NHLAllStar hashtag, photos, and Twitter-based polls. There will also be a dedicated page for the Skills Competition, including drills, official rules and competitors, and complete coverage of all the events surrounding the All-Star Game Weekend.

For the first time ever, fans attending the NHL All-Star weekend festivities will be able to enjoy the CBC’S HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA experience at Scotiabank NHL Fan Fair from the Ottawa Convention Centre, beginning Thursday, Jan. 26, at 3 p.m. ET. Adults and children of all ages will have the opportunity to meet the stars of CBC and CBC’S HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA, take pictures on the set, make the call on some of hockey’s most legendary plays, win prizes and much, much more. Photos and videos collected at the booth will be added to the live blog on CBCSports.ca NHL All-Star site and social networks.