Your Announcers and Open Thread For Penguins-Wild

Pittsburgh vs. Minnesota, 8PM, VERSUS
Play by Play: John Forslund
Color: Andy Brickley
Reporter: Charissa Thompson

Broadcast News: Now With 4 Canadian Series

(NOTE: This will show up every Monday on Puck the Media. It’s something we did a couple of times last season. They were fairly popular, and people liked talking about them, so let’s try it on a more permanent basis this year.)

Matchups:

East

#8 Montreal vs. #1 New Jersey
#7 Ottawa vs. #2 Buffalo
#6 NY Rangers vs. #3 Washington
#5 Boston vs. #4 Pittsburgh

West

#8 Los Angeles vs. #1 Chicago
#7 Nashville vs. #2 San Jose
#6 Colorado vs. #3 Calgary
#5 Vancouver vs. #4 Phoenix

Canadian Networks Draft

#1 (CBC): NJ vs. MTL
#2 (CBC): VAN vs. PHX
#3 (TSN): COL vs. CGY
#4 (CBC): OTT vs. BUF
#5 (TSN): BOS vs. PIT
#6-7 (CBC/TSN Split): NSH vs. SJ/LA vs. CHI
#8 (TSN): NYR vs. WSH

CBC will obviously get in on Montreal and Vancouver over Calgary or Ottawa, with TSN likely to jump on Calgary again, unless they want to diversify from last year and show the Senators.  The real quagmire here is later in the picks when CBC would be forced to choose between series they can’t have at 10PM for doubleheader purposes all the time.  So hopefully, CBC and TSN could compromise like they did in Round 2 of last year’s playoffs and split the Nashville/San Jose series and LA/Chicago series when each is on the west coast (on CBC) and midwest (on TSN).

American Networks

NBC: There’s no reason to believe NBC will go with anything other than Penguins and Capitals, especially with the Rangers and Boston in the picture.  Sorry, Blackhawks-Kings, in any other sport, your markets would probably get a primetime network showcase.  Not in hockey, where LA and Chi-town are somehow considered smaller than Washington, Boston and Pittsburgh.  Maybe you’ll get lucky when the Caps sweep out the Rangers.

VERSUS: VERSUS will likely switch between Nashville/San Jose and Chicago/LA as the west coast series they cover with their own crew, with a CBC simulcast of Vancouver/Phoenix other nights.  Rangers/Caps and Pens/Bruins are likely to get the 7PM slot to themselves every night, with Devils/Montreal or Ottawa/Buffalo taking the weekend.

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Final Rating For Winter Classic Lowest of the Three

From Sports Media Watch:

The NHL’s Winter Classic was not as big of a home run as in previous years.

The Flyers/Bruins game from Fenway Park drew a 2.1 final rating on NBC New Year’s Day, down 16% from a 2.5 for Red Wings/Blackhawks from Wrigley Field last year, and down 5% from a 2.2 for Penguins/Sabres from Ralph Wilson Stadium in ’08.

Viewership for the game was not immediately available.

The 2.1 rating is the lowest in the three-year history of the NHL Winter Classic. That said, the 2.1 rating is still the third-highest for any regular season NHL game since ’99.

NHL Net Airs Special On the Fly on Central Scouting Tonight

On Monday, Jan. 11, the NHL Network presents a special 30-minute edition of “On The Fly: Central Scouting Mid-Season Rankings,” airing at 7:00 p.m. ET. It will also be streamed live on NHL.com.

Defenseman Cam Fowler and left wing Taylor Hall, teammates on the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires and top prospects for the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, will join “On The Fly” host Brian Duff for the unveiling of Central Scouting’s mid-season rankings. NHL Director of Scouting EJ McGuire will also give fans an inside look at some of the gems in this year’s Draft class.

Fowler (United States) and Hall (Canada) won gold and silver medals, respectively, at the recently concluded IIHF World Junior Championship tournament in Saskatchewan.

NBC and TSN’s Pierre McGuire, who provided analysis at the recent World Junior tournament, will breakdown the top players and give his thoughts on the upcoming Draft.

The Los Angeles Kings will host the 2010 NHL Entry Draft on June 25-26. Round 1, on Friday, June 25, will be broadcast live by Versus in the U.S. and TSN and RDS in Canada as well as NHL Radio, beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET.  NHL Network will exclusively carry Rounds 2-7 on Saturday, June 26, beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET.