Universal Sports’ Women’s World Championships Release

LOS ANGELES – April 6, 2009 – Defending world champion Team USA takes to the ice against the world’s best as a preview to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games as Universal Sports presents 10 hours of coverage of the 2009 IIHF Women’s World Hockey Championships from Hameenlinna, Finland, including live coverage of the gold medal match on Sunday at 12 noon, ET. Coverage begins with the qualifying round Thursday at 4 p.m. ET. 

The Universal Sports broadcast team consists of Emmy-award winning announcer Ari Wolfe (play-by-play), and Olympic gold and silver medalist in women’s hockey, game analyst A.J. Mleczko Griswold. 

COVERAGE ON UNIVERSAL SPORTS: Coverage will begin with a qualifying round game on Thursday at 4 p.m. ET and will continue through to the medal matches. The gold medal game will be shown live on Universal Sports on Sunday at 12 Noon, ET. 
Universal Sports, available in 45 million homes, will present over 10 hours of coverage starting Thursday (all times ET and Same-day coverage except for Final): 
Date Events Time 

Thurs. Qualifying Round Game #15 4 – 6:30 p.m. 
Fri. Qualifying Round Game #18 4 – 6:30 p.m. 
Sun. Bronze Medal Game #19 9 – 11:30 a.m.* 
Gold Medal Game #20 – LIVE 12 – 3 p.m. 

LIVE COVERAGE ON UNIVERSALSPORTS.COM: UniversalSports.com will cover the entire women’s tournament, starting on April 4, with breaking news, results and photo galleries. The site will offer the following IIHF events live, and free-of-charge starting Thursday at 12 Noon, ET. Log onto UniversalSports.com/hockey for the complete schedule. (All times ET and LIVE): 

Advertisement

Your Announcers and Open Thread for Red Wings-Sabres

Detroit vs. Buffalo, 7PM, VERSUS
Play by Play: John Forslund
Color: Eddie Olczyk
Reporter: Bob Harwood

 

Your Mid-Day, uh, Hulu Compulsory: The Simpsons Referenced Hockey! OMFG!

Blah blah blah The Simpsons isn’t relevant anymore, not funny anymore.  The did some hockey shtick on Sunday, and you know you’ll watch it.  Here’s a link cause we can’t post Hulu videos.

BREAKING: Minnesota-Detroit Draws Lowest NBC Ratings of the Season

Well, it’s not like there was much of a competition, but NBC drew an 0.9/2 rating yesterday for their telecast of Minnesota-Detroit, according to SportsBusinessDaily (Reg. Required). It did better in the ratings than Le Mans Series racing on ABC, some NCAA Hoops specials on CBS and ABC, and LPGA golf.  It also tied with both of CBS’ tennis telecasts this weekend.  It is also slightly up from the comparable Detroit-Chicago telecast last year.

NBC’s Game of the Week season finale is next Sunday at 2PM when the Red Wings meet the Blackhawks.

Brooks: VERSUS/NBC Should Hire Hrudey

It’s fairly rare we agree with NY Post Columnist Larry Brooks, but a nugget of truth at the end of what is a fairly decent Sunday column:

Finally, there is no better hockey show than Hockey Night in Canada’s “After Hours with Ron McLean and Kelly Hrudey,” the latter of whom is the hidden gem — hidden south of the border, that is — whose presence would elevate dramatically the shockingly inferior NBC and Versus telecasts.

We agree, Kelly Hrudey is as level-headed as any other NHL analyst, but actually has an interesting opinion, and an ability to break down hockey in terms the normal viewer can understand.

We’d like to see a VERSUS studio of John Buccigross, Kelly Hrudey and Andy Brickley.  What do you all think?

Puck the Media’s Interview with Jack Edwards, Part 1: On Growing Up Loving Hockey, and ESPN Past and Present

Jack Edwards is a pretty much what-you-hear-is-what-you get type guy.  He’s funny, he’s a good guy, and he loves hockey.  He also happens to have had a career mostly (until the turn of the century) doing things that are as far from hockey as it gets.  When we asked him what the strangest thing he’d ever called was, he without hesitation responded “Chick boxing in Rockford, Illinois.  In the seminal days of ESPN”.  We forgot to ask him if it was better than that Lucic-Komisarek bout earlier in the year.

Anyway, here it is folks.  Split into two parts, today and tomorrow at 10AM.  Everything you’d wanna know about Jack Edwards.  During our 20-minute phone interview on Friday, we discussed ESPN, HDNet, the personality of Boston players and fans, and yes, that Lucic hit on Jones that tickled his funny bone.  I think you’ll find it an interesting read, and come out with a new, more positive perspective of the man.  And if you don’t?  As Jack told me, “Go be a lawyer.”

Here’s the first part of our conversation, after the jump…