Puck the Media’s NHL Tournament of Announcers, Round 2, Match 5, Dan Kelly Bracket: Jack Edwards vs. Bob Cole

 

 

 

 

First things’ first, Howie Rose defeats Rick Jeanneret to move on to face-off with Dave Strader in the elite eight.  Next up, we have another Cinderella bid, this one coming from Bruins announcer and #8 seed Jack Edwards.  He takes on legend and CBC mainstay Bob Cole.  Voting lasts 24 hours, get to gettin’!

Do You Wanna Play a Game?

We’ve finally figured out this fancy “online” craziness with NHL09 (more on the game later in the week) and we’re kind of lonely.  So we decided to create a club, and hope you’ll join us.

TEAM NAME: Sloppy Sevenths 

We’re not quite sure how to get people involved, but I assume if you send us a message on PS3, we’ll be able to work it out.  Or E-Mail us if you can.

With the NHL on NBC Beginning on Thursday, Let’s Re-Visit Some Predictions

In between gigs, we wrote a few NHL TV pieces at a great little site now known as The Program.  Chris Wassel, the gentleman who runs the show over there, is a great guy who was willing to let us sully his good name by posting over there.  He and his gang of dunderheads do a great job, so please check them out.

Anyway, we happened to be writing at The Program when The NHL On NBC schedule leaked to us, via the NHL’s website.  Not that NBC had the time to promote it’s NHL schedule, but who cares?  Well, I kind of do, but anyway, we wrote up the schedule, along with some predictions for what games would be flexed.  As promised, let’s revisit those, based on what’s happened in the NHL’s first three months.

More Hijinks From the NBC PR Dep’t

This has nothing to do with our post earlier and later today, but NBC released it’s press hype for Thursday’s Winter Classic.  You may recall our recent troubles with NBC’s PR department with a press conference transcriber’s misspelling of Sidney Crosby’s name.

Well, this time, it’s just a simple fact-checking or typing mistake, and it’s in the first sentence of the second paragraph of the release:

Bob Costas will host NBC’s coverage from Buffalo

The entire NBC Winter Classic press release is available for you after the jump.

Puck the Media’s Top Ten Hockey Stories of the Year, #7: Fear the Penguin

Early this month, the knuckleheads over at The Pensblog posted this awesome compilation of their team’s terrible-ness between 2001 and 2006.  It’s very impressive, just how bad the Penguins became, including this tidbit from the 03-04 season:

From December 18, 2003, to February 22, 2004, the Pens record was:
3-28-1-0

Holy wowsers.  Can a team ever go 3-28-1 again in today’s NHL?  I should certainly hope not.  2003-04 was in one the definite valleys of our NHL fandom, however, and we didn’t really notice this.  We didn’t notice much during that season.  But we have noticed the Penguins throughout this calendar.  We’re kind of forced to though, they won’t leave us alone.  Seriously, Sidney, get off my TV.

Puck the Media’s Top Ten Hockey Stories of the Year, #8: The Relocation Wheel Continues to Spin, Next Stop: Phoenix?

The Phoenix Coyotes have had a pretty decent month of December.  They’ve gone 7-4-3, which isn’t setting the world on fire by any standards, but has them very likely to finish off the calendar year in the Top 8 of the Western Conference, a leap seen as necessary for a team that didn’t nearly get the hype for it’s late season bumrush that Chicago did.  Wayne Gretzky’s done a fine job with that team.  It was pretty good month on the ice.

Off the ice?  Not so much.

NBC Won’t Make Your Team Start Before 12 Noon Local Time. If You’re at Home.

One of the details of NBC umpteenth renewal of their NHL profit-sharing agreement that made the curious bystander worry was that NBC was announcing a consistent, Sunday 12:30 PM ET timeslot for all but two of it’s broadcasts.  The 1PM ET Winter Classic and the 2PM ET final day of the season broadcast are the only exceptions.

But, according to this schedule an HF poster put up, they will allow teams in the central time zone to start their games at Noon CT at latest.  Unfortunately, they will not be as flexible for a team in the Mountain/Pacific timezone being allowed to watch later in the day.  We’ll post the schedule after the jump.  Later today, however, we’ll revisit our predictions earlier in the season for NHL/NBC flex games, and see if they’ll still hold with the way the standings have gone.