We’ll Start Up Again Tomorrow

Hey everyone, hope your weekend was good.  We’ll be up and running again with stuff on Jiggs McDonald, Doc Emrick, and the possibility of Barack Obama going to the Winter Classic.  Thanks for your patience, and for reading Puck the Media.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Puck the Media! Barring any breaking news, there will probably be no more than 2-3 posts this weekend. Please take some

Great Moments From The NHL On FOX: Owen Nolan’s Eyes Are Smiling

 

As a child of the 90’s, we were not as privileged as many of you are to have a photographic memory of FOX’s NHL coverage (we know, we’re jealous).  However, the little we do recall, we recall with fond memories of glowing pucks, James Brown, and – we’re being serious here – the best coverage the NHL has EVER had on national TV.  Maybe one day we’ll get into the long story of how FOX wanted to air the entire Stanley Cup Finals, but that’s for another time.  For now, enjoy our weekly feature, “Great Moments from the NHL on FOX”

We have an odd memory.  For some reason, we remember when we were but a young boy, hearing our mother talk about how former San Jose Sharks captain Owen Nolan was born in Ireland.  As a half-Irish boy myself, and knowing then (and knowing now) that our mother is the smartest person alive, we knew this was of some significance.

 

When we got a little older, we realized that it certainly is.  There are no other Irish hockey players (that I’m aware of), and Nolan actually is from Belfast, which is really in Northern Ireland, but we count it (though I’m pretty sure we should’nt.  Sorry mom.).  Anyway, here’s one of my favorite videos of all time, Owen Nolan scoring a pair (including his “called shot” hat-trick goal on Dominik Hasek) in 1997 NHL All-Star Game for hometown San Jose.  Glow puck!

NBC Continues to Think Seal and Hockey Have Compatible Fan-bases

That strange looking gentleman sitting next to Heidi Klum is her husband, soul/R&B singer Seal.  His music is fairly popular, and has had a recent resurgence due to his marriage with Klum.  Such a resurgence that, last year, his music was put into a figure skating special, “The Music of Seal on Ice”.  You might remember it, because Doc Emrick had to plug it as airing after the Winter Classic in Buffalo.  Well, January 1st is rolling around again pretty soon, and what has NBC put on the schedule?

Give Me One Good Reason: Could Nashville-St. Louis be the worst “Game of the Week” in VERSUS History?

Give Me One Good Reason is a new weekly (notice I didn’t say semi-regular) in which we take a look at something we think is lame in the NHL and ask you to give us one reason to the contrary.

It’s a pretty barren hockey night overall.  But this is Tuesday, so VERSUS is contractually semi-obligated to show a game tonight.  They have chosen St. Louis-Nashville.  Now, to be fair, they really had no other choices.  Atlanta-Toronto and LA-Calgary are just as dead.  But to make the distinction of a game between a 3rd-place and 5th-place team, both with very little star power, as “The Game of the Week” is just ridiculous.  It’s partially the NHL’s fault for making up such a lame night, but still, VERSUS usually skips a Tuesday once a year, this couldn’t have been it?

So go ahead, Preds/Blues fans, give me one good reason to watch tonight’s game.  John Forslund, Eddie Olczyk and Bob Harwood have the call from the Sommet Center in Nashville at 7PM.  Please leave any good ones in the comments or E-Mail us at SMLepore@comcast.net.  We’ll post any good ones later in the day.

Puck the Media’s NHL Tournament of Announcers, Round 1, Match 9, Dan Kelly Bracket: Jack Edwards vs. Chris Cuthbert

 

 

 

 

 

First of all, down to business: Howie Rose eeked out an “upset” over Mark Lee to finish off the Gallivan bracket.  The second round for that one stands as follows:

#8 – Paul Steigerwald 
vs.
#2 – Dave Strader

#5 – Howie Rose
vs.
#3 – Rick Jeanneret

Those matches will take place in a couple of weeks.  Now we move on to the Dan Kelly bracket, and an interesting litmus test for the readers of this blog.  We do a regular feature on Jack Edwards, yet we love Chris Cuthbert.  A paradox, indeed.  Voting lasts 24 hours, enjoy!

 

The Word of the Day is: Lindsay Soto. AHHHHHHHHHHH!

We were looking for a way to not make this gratuitous, but well, our first post on Ms. Soto was and is the most popular thing we’ve ever written on this site.  She will be reporting on tonight’s Washington-Minnesota game, with play-by-play man Joe Beninati and color analyst Darren Eliot.  We gave you some info, and showed a picture to give our readers more colorful detail of what’s happening.  If that isn’t journalism, we don’t know what is.  Enjoy the game.

We Can’t Imagine Anything More Fun than a Caps TV Show

The Washington Capitals are riding pretty high lately.  They outdraw every other Washington sports team on TV (save the Redskins), their attendance is way up, and they seem to finally be making themselves apart of D.C. culture.  This Comcast Sportsnet show will likely help.  From Tripp Mickle of Sports Business Journal:

Buoyed by an expanded season-ticket base and rising TV ratings, the Washington Capitals are looking to expand their fan base by launching the team’s first original television show.

The 32-minute show, which will air over 20 weeks on Comcast Sports Net, will offer an off-the-ice look at players, coaches and fans affiliated with the team. The team plans to call it either “Caps All Access Monday” or “Capitals RED TV.”

The series is the result of a partnership between the club, Starbridge Media and Comcast Sports Net. Starbridge and the Capitals will cover production costs, sell advertising and share in revenue from the show. Comcast will get one minute of the show’s eight minutes of commercial time.

Despite all the boring financial stuff, it’s a good read about the Capital resurgence in D.C.  Seriously, we would watch a show just centered on Ovechkin, but go ahead and include the rest of his gang of knuckleheads participating in more things like in the picture above.

Programming Note: A Light Day

Maybe going full blast on Sunday was a little much.  We’re still kind of beat.  Expect a tournament of announcers post at 5:30 and maybe some Lindsay Soto before or after, but not much.  Please read our stuff from Sunday.  We thunk it great.

Puck the Media’s NHL Tournament of Announcers, Round 1, Match 8, Danny Gallivan Bracket: Howie Rose vs. Mark Lee

 

 

 

 

 

First of all, Friday’s result: Rick Jeanneret plows his way through to round two, beating Anaheim/Versus guy John Ahlers.  Now we have one of our favorite matchups of the first round: Islanders (and Mets, but well, that doesn’t really count if you don’t have a Mets bias, which we do) play-by-play man Howie Rose vs. CBC’s Mark Lee.  I’m curious to see how the voting goes on this one.  Polls close at 5:30 PM Monday.  Enjoy!