January 19, 2011
by Stephen M. Lepore
Night 6, Tuesday, January 18
NHL Overtime, 11:00 PM ET, VERSUS
Host: Bill Pidto, the original host of NHL2Nite, long ago back in the mid-90’s. Now he hosts Rangers telecasts on MSG and occasionally works this show. Overall, I find him to be the most competent host of the ones they use, if not the biggest personality.
Analysts: The always friendly Ken Daneyko and the always insightful Eddie Olczyk. Daneyko called Mike Fisher “Mike Underwood.” Heh.
Lead Story: The multitude of moves made by the San Jose Sharks, who were a big story last night as well. Good to see that, even though they aren’t as even-handed in picking their games, VERSUS is using their studio show to cover the league coast-to-coast. If we introduce every team to a national audience, then we can get the national NHL audience to watch them when they actually play on VERSUS. At least that’s my theory, but why would you watch a team you know nothing about?
Lead Highlights: Of course, it is Detroit and Pittsburgh, as it should have been the VERSUS game tonight. If it isn’t for NHL Network, I’ll be shocked. I’d be surprised if this didn’t come in the Top 10 of all-time in ratings for FS Pittsburgh, as Penguins fans watch in droves for the big contests. As there are 10 games tonight, Overtime is surprisingly bare bones in the initial highlight package. Anyway, second consecutive night VERSUS isn’t leading with their night’s telecast.
Non-Highlight Footage: We were shown press conference footage from the Red Wings instead of the victorious Penguins, due to Detroit’s crippling injury bug. This was followed by a discussion of penalty shots (more later) and a breakdown of Brooks Orpik’s play. Leading into the second game of the night (Washington/Philadelphia), we saw the poor numbers of the Capitals top forwards in the prior 20 games. Caps/Flyers got the video board technology treatment as well. Boston/Carolina saw Olczyk standing at the telestrator screen.
An interview with Jason Pominville from VERSUS reporter Bob Harwood was shown after the network’s coverage of that game.
Interviews: None. Would have liked to have seen a hit with Eric Staal and/or Nicklas Lidstrom from their selection as captains of the All-Star teams.
Time Spent on Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin: The Pens record without Crosby was briefly mentioned during the highlights. Daneyko referred to the Penguins as overpowering Detroit “even without the great Sidney Crosby.” As I said before, we saw Alex Ovechkin’s statistics in the past 20 games, along with fellow Capital star Nicklas Backstrom.
Spreading the Love (West Coast Coverage): As noted above, talk about the San Jose Sharks led off the show. The latest game started at 9:30 PM ET tonight, so there was only one game that might not have had a chance to get discussed in it’s entirety by the VERSUS crew. The Kings problems were discussed in detail around the show’s mid-point.
Features: Ken Daneyko, whenever he is on the show, likes to break down the fights of the night, this time it’s been branded as a “Fight Club” segment. I like this idea, as it seems to be the one segment of the show that’s playing heavy to the folks who love the rougher side of hockey.
Also, we saw a brief retrospective of Willie O’Ree’s first game on the 53rd anniversary which was a good little touch. Mark Messier’s 50th birthday was not really worthy of an additional retrospective, comparatively.
Hmph, Stupid Guardian Project.
Controversial Material: “Dumb” and “awful” were the adjectives the two analysts assigned to the Scott Nichol hit, which cost the defenseman four games in a suspension. There was a brief discussion of how there should’ve been additional penalty shot calls during the Pittsburgh/Detroit game, and showed side-by-side footage comparing what happened on both plays.
Also, Max Pacioretty’s injury during the Canadiens/Sabres game was considered very serious, I was surprised it was merely grazed over in the highlight package.
NHL On the Fly, 1:00 AM ET, NHL Network
Host: David Amber is back for the second straight night.
Analysts: Kevin Weeks, whose first line in the show was “E-I-E-I-O”
Lead Story/Highlights: Penguins/Red Wings, the absolutely correct choice. Honestly though, the more I hear the NHL Network going with narrated highlights instead of unnarrated highlights, the less I enjoy it. I don’t know why, but I simply like having two different shows having two different formats. I know they keep it for some of the highlights but it just doesn’t really work for me. Interestingly enough, Boston/Carolina and Buffalo/Montreal were 2nd and 3rd, while Flyers/Caps went 4th.
Non-Highlight Footage: They went straight into the rest of the show after the highlights, kind of strangely. They went directly to the All-Star captains stuff, and also showed the Fantasy Draft rules, as they continue to try and get everyone on board with this sort of thing. With 10 games on the slate and a big story to cover, it was a lot of just strictly highlights on this show. Also, cool that NHL Network is going to do their own Mock Draft the night before the actual draft.
Interviews: Nicklas Lidstrom and Eric Staal almost immediately appeared for hits with their comments about their new role as captains for the game. It’ll be interesting to see who they pic, and this will be a real risk for the NHL to try, but it could pay off wonderfully though. NHL Network also showed a lot of the players around the league’s opinions. VERSUS merely went with the analysts’ opinion. I think NHL Network definitely got the victory in this one. Just to top it off, they showed their full interview with Staal and Lidstrom side-by-side later in the show. VERSUS should’ve done something like this.
Also, sigh, a birthday interview with Mark Messier.
Time Spent on Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin: After the first commercial break, they showed Sidney Crosby’s comments on his potential to appear in the All-Star game. It was good to get an update on Sid the Kid’s condition, something we haven’t gotten since the week it was supposed to take him to get back has gone by.
Spreading the Love (West Coast Coverage): The first Western game wasn’t in the show until 26 minutes in, with Los Angeles/St. Louis, and the Nichol suspension wasn’t discussed until shortly before that moment. They went on through the Western Conference for the rest of the show, however, I’d rather see them mix it up just a little bit more, especially with Vancouver/Colorado being a legitimate, marquee match-up in the West this year.
Features: Darren Dreger came in to talk about the controversy with regards to Sidney Crosby potentially boycotting the All-Star Game, which was proved to be, essentially, an opinion. They also discussed Crosby’s “longshot” potential for an appearance at the All-Star Game.
Another big coupe for NHL Network was having local Philadelphia columnist (and a Comcast employee) Tim Panaccio to talk about Paul Holmgren’s contract extension and potential moves for the Flyers as the trade deadline draws near. I don’t recall VERSUS even mentioning Holmgren’s new contract.
Also, how did the NHL’s own network get out of doing this Guardian Project nonsense?
Controversial Material: The Pacioretty injury was focused on by On the Fly a little bit more than VERSUS, another advantage for them on this night. VERSUS also ignored the Crosby controversy, while NHL Network hit on it bright and fairly early in the show, and they had the NHL’s best “insider” in Dreger at the studio to talk about it.
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