Your Announcers and Open Thread For Blues-Blackhawks

St. Louis vs. Chicago, 8:00 PM ET, VERSUS (HD)
Play by Play: Joe Beninati
Color: Eddie Olczyk
Reporter: Sarah Kustok

Kevin Smith Casts Nicholas Braun as Lead in Hit Somebody

The hockey blogosphere has discussed Hit Somebody, Kevin Smith’s story about 1970’s enforcers, for quite some time. I’ve talked about how it’s being made at the perfect time for hockey tough-guy films, and mentioned that Seann William Scott will not be the lead in it, and will be in the Jay Baruchel-produced Goon instead. So, we’ve waited a little while to see who Smith will cast as the main character in Hit Somebody. Last night, on Smith and comic Ralph Garman’s solid podcast Hollywood Babble-On revealed the answer.

22-year old actor Nicholas Braun, who’s largely worked in Disney projects like Sky High and ABC Family’s remake of 10 Things I Hate About You, will played the lead in the Smith-penned screenplay, which is based on a Warren Zevon song that Mitch Albom wrote. Smith discovered Braun working on his current project, Red State. Former The Joe Schmo Show star and Hollywood Babble-On podcaster Ralph Garman, who does a mean Capote, will also appear in Hit Somebody.

Smith is an occasional Puck the Media reader, as he linked to our post about Mike Peluso many ages ago on his prolific Twitter page. I hope he’ll read this and perhaps give us an interview when Hit Somebody is ready for the likely ravenous consumption by the hockey fans of the universe. Probably not, but I guy can dream, right? Hit us up, Kevin.

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Your Announcers and Open Thread For Stars-Hurricanes

Dallas vs. Carolina, 7:30 PM ET, VERSUS (HD)
Play by Play: John Forslund
Color: Daryl Reaugh
Reporter: Bob Harwood

Your Announcers and Open Thread For Blues-Predators

St. Louis vs. Nashville, 8:00 PM ET, VERSUS (HD)
Play by Play: John Ahlers
Color: Billy Jaffe
Reporter: Charissa Thompson

Your Announcers and Open Thread For Bruins-Lightning

Boston vs. Tampa Bay, 7:30 PM ET, VERSUS (HD)
Play by Play: Rick Peckham
Color: Andy Brickley
Reporter: Bob Harwood

Howie Rose is Just Sayin’ What We’re All Thinkin’

Your Announcers and Open Thread For an Emotional Hockey Night in Canada

Toronto vs. Montreal, 7:00 PM ET
TV (Canada): CBC (HD)
TV (US): NHL Network (HD)
Play by Play: Bob Cole
Color: Gary Galley
Inside the Glass: Glenn Healy
Reporter: Elliotte Friedman

Chicago vs. Vancouver, 10:00 PM ET, CBC (HD)
Play by Play: Jim Hughson
Color: Craig Simpson
Reporter: Scott Oake

NHL Playoff Ads Win Awards

NEW YORK, NY (November 19, 2010)- The National Hockey League (NHL) was a triple winner at last night’s inaugural PromaxBDA Sports Media Marketing Awards for its No Words and History Will Be Made TV spots.

 

The 2010 Stanley Cup Final No Words spot took home Best Television Promotion and Best Live Sporting Event Spot while History Will Be Made, the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs TV spot, received silver in the Best Television Promotion category.

 

The Sports Media Marketing Awards presented more than 25 awards honoring the most outstanding sports marketing and promotion work from cable and broadcast to video games, leagues and teams. The esteemed jury panel included Turner Broadcasting Systems President of Sales David Levy, Owner of HDNet and the Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban, Founder and Creative Chairman of Droga5 David Droga, Advertising Age columnist and on-air host of NPR Bob Garfield, President of HBO Sports Ross Greenburg, CMO of Fox Sports Media Group Eric Markgraf, Senior writer and columnist for ESPN.com Bill Simmons, and other industry influencers.

 

The National Hockey League beat out other finalists including MLB, ESPN and Fox Sports. In accepting the awards, Brian Jennings, NHL executive vice president of marketing said, “We are so proud to be honored for these prestigious awards among some of the most influential players in the industry. It’s been rewarding to see how the fans have reacted to these campaigns and how they continue to inspire our future projects.”

 

No Words debuted during the 2010 Stanley Cup Final and was created to showcase the raw emotions players feel upon winning the Stanley Cup –hockey’s ultimate prize and the most prestigious trophy in all of sports. No words can express how the winner is feeling in that moment. The League tapped into its decades of footage and created a spot that struck a chord in the heart of not only hockey fans, but sports fans everywhere. The significant distribution of “No Words” through TV and Internet delivered in just about every measurable metric: Game 6 on NBC was the highest-rated NHL game in the U.S. in 36 years. Four of the series’ six games on NBC averaged 6.1 million viewers, the best on network TV in 13 years. Game 3 on VERSUS was the highest-rated telecast ever in network history. The Stanley Cup ranked as the number one trending topic worldwide on Twitter throughout the Stanley Cup Final and was the most watched series ever.

 

During the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs the History Will Be Made campaign debuted TV spots featuring prominent playoff moments made by NHL greats, including Bobby Orr. History Will Be Made “Orr” featured Bobby Orr and his iconic, Cup-winning, overtime goal in 1970. Inspired fans created their own versions of a History Will Be Made commercial and posting on YouTube, which generated more than 2,400 spots — something no one could’ve predicted. The NHL and fan generated spots resulted in over 8 million views and an incremental media value of $4.08 million. Compelling content combined with significant distribution through traditional and new media, it became one of the most successful campaigns in NHL history driving over 302 million TV viewers for the 2009-10 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the most watched in 36 years.

 

Additional League recognitions included the Toronto Maple Leafs, who took home the gold for their 2010 season ticket package in the Best Team Promotion (Print, Poster, Outdoor and Out of Home) category.

 

The awards were presented during a ceremony at the landmark Angel Orensanz Foundation in New York City. The ceremony was hosted by actor and comedian Jay Mohr.

NHL Overtime Ratings Have Gotten Progressively Better This Week

NHL Overtime has seen more viewers tune as each episode goes on the air in it’s debut this week.

Wednesday night’s show, which aired at 11:00 PM ET, scored 59,000 viewers, above previous timeslot occupant The Daily Line’s average of 53,000. This is more impressive considering the show aired an hour after an episode of Hockey Central (67,000 viewers) and 90 minutes after a Bruins/Rangers game that did not air in local markets (138,000 viewers) went off the air. The show grew from it’s direct lead-in, an episode of Whacked Out Sports (53,000 viewers).

The show’s episode on Tuesday scored 33,000 viewers in a 12:30 AM ET timeslot, airing two and a half hours after Hockey Central left the airwaves. The network’s game that night, Flyers/Canadiens, scored 279,000 viewers. So far, the show has averaged 41,000 viewers, but the growth is positive, and hopefully some big name guests will push the needle tonight, despite a lack of NHL action on VERSUS.

Colin Campbell Joins As Much of a Must-Watch Episode of NHL Overtime As You Can Get

According to VERSUS, NHL Senior Vice President will appear via phone with Bill Patrick, Billy Jaffe and Aaron Ward on tonight’s episode of NHL Overtime. The episode also features an interview with Islanders Point Blank editor Chris Botta.

The show airs tonight at 11:00 PM ET, so set your DVRs or give it a watch.