Your TV Guide and Open Thread for Night 13 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs

This will appear every night to inform you of the TV networks and announcers that will be covering the games during the playoffs.  Enjoy all the local and national info, after the jump.

Programming Note: Another Short Week? You Betcha

We hate taking another day off lately, but we’re not going to be here Friday unless something breaks.  Nor will we be joining you Saturday/Sunday, so if you’ve gotten used to us playing with ya’ll those days lately, no posting from me then.

Who’s in for me?  Well, as you’d suspect, Wrap is on the case Saturday and Sunday.  She’s always awesome, we’re shocked she hangs with us.

But Friday we have a special treat!  The return of guest poster extraordinaire James “Tapeleg” Gralian from Jerseys and Hockey Love as well as The Rink.

Why are we not going to be here during a Round 2 playoff weekend?  Because A. We can’t take another weekend couped in the house hearing Pierre McGuire whine, and B. We’ve got tickets to the Bamboozle festival out in my old stomping grounds, the Giants Stadium parking lot.  If you’ve ever heard of Bamboozle but never gone, you’d probably see it as “Warped Tour in a Day” or “Coachella for 12 year olds”.  But all this week, we’re going to post 1 band from this year’s Bamboozle that totally doesn’t suck.

First up: Rise Against.

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BREAKING: We Officially Don’t Understand Ratings Anymore

After a weekend which saw the best opening round Stanley Cup Playoff ratings in awhile, the NHL came back down to earth this weekend.  According to Sports Business Daily (Reg. required), the network’s telecast of Game 6 – Penguins vs. Flyers drew an overnight rating of 1.2/3, down from both the 1.7 overnight for Game 3 of the series, but also merely even from the 1.2 overnight from last year’s comparable telecast (4/19/08 – Flyers vs. Capitals).

There was more bad news on Sunday.  NBC’s broadcast of Game 6 – Capitals vs. Rangers drew a 1.0/2 overnight rating, down big-time from last year’s comparable telecast (4/20/08 – Red Wings vs. Predators) but the same overnight as last week’s Game 2 telecast.  The game tied with the ratings for the taped poker event that preceded it.  Clearly the NHL’s all-East, all-the time strategy backfired on them this week.

Someone at VERSUS Has a Sick Sense of Humor. Like, Seriously.

NHL Screws the Pooch on Monday/Tuesday Night Scheduling

Look, we get it must be hard for the NHL to plan ahead when it comes to scheduling when series end.  But the NHL has got to do better than its’ slate tonight when it comes to getting people into these series:

9:30 PM ET – Chicago vs. Calgary
10:30 PM ET – San Jose vs. Anaheim

Sure, with two networks covering the sport in Canada, there’s no real problem.  But with only VERSUS involved in the US, people will only be able to see all of one game (CGY-CHI), and only get to watch the third period.  The league could’ve switched the game to 8PM ET, as many Calgary home games this season have started at this time, and would provide ample time for a doubleheader.  But instead, US viewers will get shafted.

In a way, we have the exact opposite going on Tuesday:

7:00 PM ET – NY Rangers vs. Washington
7:30 PM ET – Carolina vs. New Jersey

Now, we get that the two games are in the ET zone, but the CAR-NJ could be moved back to 8, 8:15 or 8:30 to provide ample coverage in the States.  However, Canadian viewers are being screwed by this too.  The Hurricanes-Devils game is on TSN2, so many Canuck viewers can’t watch what will likely be the more exciting of the two game sevens.

We know we shouldn’t be that hard on the league for stuff that involves other outside factors.  But we simply feel like this could’ve been avoided.