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.

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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.