Announcers and Open Thread For Tonight’s Sabres-Maple Leafs Game

Every Monday & Tuesday night, VERSUS gives you a chance to snark away at the jokesters at VERSUS with this open post/thread.  Feel free to post opinions on the game, humorous anecdotes, and anything just plain stupid the announcers might happen to say.  Enjoy.

Buffalo vs. Toronto, 7PM
Play by Play: John Ahlers
Color: Billy Jaffe
Reporter: Chris Simpson 

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CBC to Air Hockey Day in Canada in Three Other Languages, None of Which We Flunked in High School

 

CBC continues to help grow the game of hockey across the country, with the ninth annualTIM HORTONS HOCKEY DAY IN CANADA on Saturday, Feb. 21 at 12 noon ET. Ron MacLean will front the broadcast from the Memorial Civic Centre in Campbellton, New Brunswick – the host location for the unofficial Canadian hockey holiday. The 2009 edition of TIM HORTONS HOCKEY DAY IN CANADA will also continue its multicultural tradition, providing select NHL games in Cantonese, Italian and Punjabi languages.

TIM HORTONS HOCKEY DAY IN CANADA begins the 13.5-hour long broadcast on Feb. 21^st with Celebrating the Game, as MacLean leads viewers through features and stories that paint the picture of Canada’s great frozen game, with a special focus on “Rivalries”, the theme of this year’s broadcast.  CBC will also visit satellite locations in Plaster Rock, N.B, Windsor, Ont., Carlyle, Sask., Cold Lake, Alta. and Toronto, Ont.

Philadelphia Columnist Wants Hockey Off National TV, Likely Hated by His Parents as a Child

Hey, guess what?  Mainstream columnists bashing hockey’s relevance in the marketplace are back!  Yay!

Today, our contestant is this idiot with the nerve to call himself Gonzo, from the Philadelphia Inquirer:

 

Well, hey, good luck with that, Bill. Because my first reaction to the news that NBC might bail on the NHL was “hooray.” It made me dream of a world where no one suffers through national hockey games because they will have disappeared from our televisions.

To be clear, I have no beef with the Flyers. Catching the local guys on Comcast SportsNet is fine by me. But I’d rather watch an Arena League Football game – if the AFL were still operating, that is – than settle down for three periods of out-of-town hockey. And I don’t think I’m alone.

Would you be that broken up about not getting the next Calgary-Columbus clash? Would you head out to the bar or buy the NHL package to catch Colorado vs. Washington?

Not long ago, there was a rumor about the NHL putting another team in Toronto. While the hard-core puck heads up in Ottawa no doubt debated the plan, it seemed like hardly anyone south of the border noticed. The NHL could move every team in the league (save the Flyers) to Toronto and it’s doubtful anyone around here would blink. I’m betting the same goes for other American cities, too.

 

Pure idiocy.  Does this guy know that the Flyers were the top dog in Philly (save for the Eagles) until the Phils return to relevance?  This isn’t Boston, where hockey’s a solid fourth but has the sport ingrained in it’s culture, or New York, where the game doesn’t go beyond the diehards.  This is Philadelphia, where people took shifts defending the Rocky statue from Penguins fans during the Eastern Conference Finals.  This is an insult to Philly’s large amout of hockey fans, larger than it’s contingent of 76ers fans in your glorious NBA.

He does make one good point, however:

Your Mid-Day YouTube Compulsory: Gretztky’s Final Game on FOX (and CBC)

Some Random Observations From a Night of Center Ice and VERSUS

We randomly flip to the designated Center Ice channels on our Verizon cable system, just to see if maybe we got lucky and this week’s a free preview week.  Turns out: This week is it!  Yay!  So we decided to give you 5 random things we’ve learned from watching Center Ice from 7PM till 1AM:

Following Up: Pierre McGuire’s Canadian Olympic Team

 

TSN/NBC Analyst Pierre McGuire

Quite a bit of Olympic-related stuff the past couple days.  This comes to us from TSN.ca:

Goaltenders
Brodeur
Luongo
Price

Defence Pairings
Bouwmeester – Niedermayer
Phaneuf – Weber
Burns – Green
Boyle

Forward Lines
Crosby – Lecavalier – Iginla
Heatley – Getzlaf – Nash
Carter – Thornton – Gagne
Morrow – Richards – Doan
Savard

What do you think of Pierre’s Olympic Team?  What are your picks for the US team?  Let us know.