HNIC to Give Fans Unique Experience For Friday’s Habs Centennial

100 years of remarkable memories will be celebrated this Friday, Dec. 4, as the Montreal Canadiens face off against Original Six rival the Boston Bruins in a special instalment of CBC’s HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA, live from the Bell Centre. CBC’s extensive coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. ET, from Centennial Plaza, with the official unveiling of a commemorative monument honouring every player that has played for the historic franchise, along with exclusive interviews with Habs legends. Ron MacLean will host CBC’s coverage, and will be joined by legendary commentator Dick Irvin, Guy Carbonneau and P.J. Stock. Jim Hughson will handle the play-by-play alongside analyst Craig Simpson, while Elliotte Friedman will report from rinkside.

Making its debut on CBCSports.ca/hockey for the landmark game isHockey Night in Canada All-Access presented by Chevrolet. This exclusive live interactive feature provides users with a completely unique, virtual in-arena customized viewing experience.  The view of the game can be controlled by users with just a click of their mouse. Hockey Night in Canada All-Access presented by Chevrolet will be available for select CBC’s HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA broadcasts throughout the remainder of the season.

CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s national public broadcaster and one of its largest cultural institutions. The Corporation is a leader in reaching Canadians on new platforms and delivers a comprehensive range of radio, television, Internet, and satellite-based services. Deeply rooted in the regions, CBC/Radio-Canada is the only domestic broadcaster to offer diverse regional and cultural perspectives in English, French and eight Aboriginal languages.

My Name is Jonas Hoglund, I’m Carrying the Leafs

Thanks to the NHL Twitter feed and Bangin’ Panger for this.  We assume this is Rivers in a Jonathan Toews jersey, with the 9 on the end.  How will this affect Sabre fan and drummer Patrick Wilson?

What Would a NBC-ized VERSUS Look Like?

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times postulates:

Versus (and its sister network, the Golf Channel) will be turned over to NBC for an overhaul, assuming regulators approve the deal, a process that could take 12 to 18 months. Versus will probably be renamed something like NBC Sports Cable to reflect a more defined sports brand. On-air and production talent would migrate from NBC, to a certain extent, although Bob Costas would not be hosting IndyCar races.

Versus and Golf would certainly be overseen by Dick Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Universal Sports, who has never had a sports cable network to tinker with (the expanding Universal Sports channel is distributed through NBC stations and affiliates); he would no doubt quickly strip Versus of its current crop of late-night infomercials.

But beefing up Versus’ quality and appearance is a small part of getting part of ESPN’s business. Comcast would have to decide to spend what is necessary to lure viewers from ESPN and ESPN2 by acquiring bigger events, like the Olympics, Major League Baseball, the N.F.L., Nascar and the N.B.A. — properties on a tier above its current rights to IndyCar, the Professional Bull Riders, Mountain West Conference football and mixed martial arts.

We’ll maybe do our own post on this later this week.

It’s Only 30 Days Away…

FRIDAY, JANUARY 1
1 p.m. – 4 p.m.
NHL WINTER CLASSIC (live)
Commentators: Bob Costas, Mike Emrick, Eddie Olczyk, Pierre McGuire, Darren Pang
Site: Fenway Park, Boston, MA
*Available in High Definition

Also, afterwards, they’ve replaced Seal on Ice…

4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
NBC SPORTS SKATING SPECIAL: Brian Boitano Skating Spectacular (tape)
Commentators: Brian Boitano, Peggy Fleming
Site: Bridgeport, CT
*Available in High Definition