POLL: What Do You Think of VERSUS’ New Score Overlay

Please put specific gripes/praises in the comment section.

Your TV Guide and Open Thread For Night 15 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs

And we’re back, with more local and national info to go around for the hungry masses.  No jump for nights with only one game from here on in.  Enjoy.

9:00 PM ET, Chicago vs. Vancouver, Game 1

National TV (CANADA): CBC (HD)
Play by Play: Jim Hughson
Color: Craig Simpson
Reporter: Scott Oake

National TV (US): VERSUS (HD) (Exclusive Telecast, will air in Chicagoland Area)
Play by Play: Dave Strader
Color: Eddie Olczyk
Reporter: Bob Harwood

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Wait a Sec, One More PR: NBC Hypes Weekend Semi-Final Coverage

NEW YORK – April 30, 2009 – A marquee matchup between Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin, plus the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings headline NBC Sports’ coverage of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs this weekend. Saturday, Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals will host Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and the Pittsburgh Penguins at 1 p.m. ET in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series. On Sunday at 2 p.m. ET, the Red Wings will host the Anaheim Ducks in Game 2 of their series. 

Mike “Doc” Emrick (play-by-play), Eddie Olczyk (analyst) and Pierre McGuire (inside-the-glass analyst) call the action (Darren Pang will fill in for McGuire Sunday in Detroit). McGuire and Pang will pull double duty, hosting NBC’s studio show alongside analyst Mike Milbury on site in Washington and Detroit. 

MCGUIRE ON PITTSBURGH-WASHINGTON: “This series is star-power personified, just great for the game of hockey. The big question is, will the Capitals have enough balance to deal with the Penguins? The X-factor is Jordan Staal for Pittsburgh and how well [Simeon] Varlamov plays. He played well but really wasn’t tested in the Rangers series but you can be sure he will here. The Penguins are vicious on the forecheck and I wonder how Washington will cope with that.” 

MCGUIRE ON ANAHEIM-DETROIT: “I see a lot of problems for Anaheim in this series dealing with the waves that Detroit throws at you. They’re going to have to get scoring beyond their first line and from the defense in order to compete.”

Our Round 2 Picks and Goodbyes For the Weekend

Well, that’s it, you bastards.  Thanks for what’s gonna’ go down as another really successful week in the seven month history of this site.  Jeez, seven months, really?

Amazing.  Make sure you give Tapeleg Friday and Wrap Weekend the same patronage.  They deserve it.

Just a note, from Wednesday through Tuesday, we’ll be in exam mode, so posting Wednesday/Thursday next week and Monday/Tuesday week after, things will be light aside from announcing schedule.

Oh yeah, here’s our schedule for Hoodwink/Bamboozle.  If you miraculously happen to read the blog and are going, check us out, we’ll be friendly:

Friday:

• We the Kings
• Bayside
• Boys Like Girls
• Sum 41
• New Found Glory
• Anti-Flag
• Badfish

Saturday:

• And Then There Were Machines
• Cartel
• Forever the Sickest Kids
• Patent Pending
• Bloodhound Gang
• Gavin Rossdale
• Boys Like Girls
• Cage the Elephant
• Cobra Starship
• The Get Up Kids
• All Time Low
• Journey
• Third Eye Blind

Sunday:

• The Ataris
• Tinted Windows
• Billy Talent
• The Sounds
• The Maine
• Bo Burnham
• A Rocket to the Moon
• Hollywood Undead
• Zach Galifianakis
• Valencia
• Taking Back Sunday
• No Doubt

Your final Bamboozle band video from Third Eye Blind:

And finally, our Round 2 picks after the jump:

VERSUS to Continue Airing Sunday Pre-Game Hockey Central

We can’t be negative about VERSUS all the time (especially when their PR department is so friendly and willing to work with me) but let us praise them for the idea to start doing more pre-game editions of “Hockey Central”.  To me, it would make sense to do it a few more times.  Why not air “Hockey Central” before all Game 7 coverage?  All Conference Final games?  The possibilities are limitless.

Pre-game “Hockey Central” airtimes:

April 30th, 8:30 PM ET
May 3rd, 7:00 PM ET
May 10th, 7:00 PM ET 

NBC Sports & NHL Celebrate Shared-Emmy Win

NEW YORK – April 30, 2009 – NBC Sports, in partnership with the National Hockey League, won a Sports Emmy in the category of “Outstanding Sports Promotional Announcement: Episodic” for its promotion of the 2009 NHL Winter Classic. Monday night, NBC Sports was recognized with 11 Emmy Awards in all, the most of any network, at the 30th Annual Sports Emmy Awards, presented by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. 

The promotional campaign for the second U.S. outdoor game in NHL history, held at historic Wrigley Field, utilized Harry Carey’s iconic version of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” juxtaposed with images of players preparing for the game. The promotion clearly resonated with TV viewers as NHL Winter Classic 2009, broadcast New Year’s Day on NBC, was the most-viewed NHL regular season game in almost 34 years. An average of more than 4.4 million Americans watched the Detroit Red Wings defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 6-4, the biggest audience since Feb. 23, 1975. 

“This truly was a collaborative effort and a perfect example of two partners working together to promote hockey,” said Mike McCarley, SVP Strategic Marketing, Communications and Promotion, NBC Sports. “The campaign achieved its objective of reaching a broad audience while also appealing to the core hockey fan.” 

“The NHL is proud to share with our partner, NBC, in this industry recognition of a great promotion for an extraordinary hockey event,” said Brian Jennings, Executive Vice President of Marketing, NHL. 

We Have a Trade to Announce…

CBC Gets: Game 1, Anaheim vs. Detroit

TSN Gets: Game 6, Washington vs. Pittsburgh

To the Press Release!: 

CBC’S HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA and TSN today announced updates to their respective broadcast schedules for Round Two of the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs. CBC will air Game One of the Detroit / Anaheim series, live from Joe Louis Arena on Friday, May 1 at 7 p.m. ET, while TSN will broadcast Game Six of the Washington / Pittsburgh series on Monday, May 11 (time TBD). This exchange of games ensures Canadians will see all games from Round Two of the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs nationally and in their entirety.

Mark Lee will handle play-by-play duties for the Anaheim at Detroit series opener on Friday, alongside analyst Garry Galley and rinkside reporter Elliotte Friedman.  Ron MacLean hosts the entire evening, and will be joined by Kelly Hrudey and P.J. Stock, while Jeff Marek and Scott Morrison will be front and centre at the Stanley Cup I-Desk. Hockey fans can visit CBCSports.ca 24 hours a day, seven days a week for wall-to-wall coverage of the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs, including live and on-demand video streaming of all games broadcast on CBC.

Jimmy Dowd Continues to Rep Jersey Well

 

Pictured (L to R): Former NHLer Jim Dowd, Christopher Walken, and broadcaster Rob Simpson

VERSUS Trumpets Best First-Round Numbers Ever

NEW YORK, N.Y. (April 30, 2009)-VERSUS, the exclusive cable television home of the National Hockey League (NHL), will continue its wall-to-wall coverage of the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs as the Conference Semifinals commence tonight.  The network begins its night of second-round action at 8:30 p.m. ET with Hockey Central followed by exclusive coverage of Game 1 in the Chicago Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks series at 9 p.m. ET.  All of VERSUS’ NHL games are produced and presented in HD where available.  

During the 2009 Conference Quarterfinals, in which VERSUS aired 26 games, the network earned its most-watched first round ever.  As compared to year-ago figures from the opening postseason round, total viewership increased 23 percent while viewership for Men 18-49 (up 20%) and Men 25-54 (up 31%) also showed substantial growth.

 “The 2009 NHL playoffs on VERSUS got off to a tremendous start,” said Marc Fein, Executive Vice President of Programming, Production and Business Operations for VERSUS.  “There were upsets, sweeps and series that went the full seven games, proving that anything can happen at any moment during the postseason.  As we enter the second round there is no doubt that hockey fans will see even more terrific match-ups featuring exciting players as their quest to raise the coveted Stanley Cup continues.”  

In the Conference Semifinal round, VERSUS will air two exclusive games per series and during the Conference Finals the network will air exclusive coverage of both series.  The total number of games will vary depending upon the length of each individual series.  VERSUS will, when feasible, simulcast games from other networks to give viewers bonus postseason action.  VERSUS’ 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs coverage will culminate with games three and four of the Stanley Cup Final.  This is a change from the past three seasons as VERSUS previously aired games one and two of the Final.  NBC will broadcast games one and two of the Final as well as games five, six and seven, if necessary. 

VERSUS’ Semifinal round schedule follows (All times ET, subject to change): 

Canadian Band Writes Anti-Coach’s Corner Song

This is Winnipeg anarchist-punks Propagandhi.  They clearly take things a little too seriously.  But they are also clearly passionate about hockey, and hate Don Cherry.  They, to me, speak for every disappointed Canadian dude who sits there and watches Cherry and are just shamed with what he says, and looks at MacLean and goes “Stop this!”