Montreal/Boston Game 7 Tomorrow At 7 on VERSUS, Tampa/Pittsburgh Joined In Progress, Moves to TSN

According to VERSUS, they will air Game 7 of the Bruins vs. Canadiens series tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. ET, with the pre-game beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET. VERSUS will air in progress coverage of Game 7, Lightning vs. Penguins at 8:00 p.m. ET once the Bruins/Canadiens game is over.

Meanwhile, in Canada, Lightning/Penguins Game 7 will be moved to TSN for the first time in the series, while Bruins/Canadiens will air on CBC as is usual.

Your Announcers and Open Thread For Night 14 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs

Boston vs. Montreal, Game 6, 7:00 p.m. ET

National TV (Canada): CBC
Play by Play: Bob Cole
Color: Gary Galley
Inside the Glass: Glenn Healy
Reporter: Elliotte Friedman

National TV (US): NHL Network

Buffalo vs. Philadelphia, Game 7, 7:30 p.m. ET

National TV (US): VERSUS
Play by Play: Mike Emrick
Inside the Glass: Darren Pang

National TV (Canada): TSN
Play by Play: Chris Cuthbert
Inside the Glass: Pierre McGuire

Chicago vs. Vancouver, Game 7, 10:00 p.m. ET

National TV (Canada): CBC
Play by Play: Jim Hughson
Color: Craig Simpson
Reporter: Scott Oake

National TV (US): VERSUS
Play by Play: John Forslund
Color: Daryl Reaugh
Inside the Glass: Brian Engblom

BREAKING: NHL Net To Air Game 6 of Bruins/Canadiens Live Tonight

Just put out there by Michael DiLorenzo of the NHL on Twitter. If there’s a press release, we’ll post it. They will apparently be using CBC’s feed.

Great move by the leauge.

UPDATE: From the NHL:

NEW YORK (April 26, 2011) – NHL Network U.S. will telecast the highly-anticipated Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series between the Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens at 7:00 p.m. ET tonight from the Bell Centre.*

The Canadiens are attempting to rally from a 3-2 series deficit for the third time in their past four playoff series while the Bruins look for an unprecedented third consecutive victory at Montreal in one playoff series to close it out. A Boston win would mark the club’s first best-of-seven series win after losing the first two games.

Between periods, the NHL Network crew will provide analysis from the NHL On The Fly desk while also checking in on the other two games tonight — deciding seventh games in the Philadelphia-Buffalo and Vancouver-Chicago series.

For both U.S. and Canadian audiences, live programming on the NHL Network each weekday begins with the new NHL® Live™, now at 4 p.m. ET, followed by NHL On The Fly Pre-Game at 6 p.m. ET and NHL On the Fly immediately following. With more content that fans crave, this schedule of daily live programming will feature the use of current and former NHL players as guest analysts and provide on-site coverage from arena via webcams, team cameras and content from local television rightsholders.

*Local blackout restrictions apply. Locally in Boston, viewers will be able to see the game on NESN. The game is available in Canada on CBC and RDS. All broadcasts are available in HD.

NBC Cast To Grow A Bit For the Finals

In the past, it has seemed like NBC was going with the minimum amount of talent for it’s big hockey events. Going with substitute hosts to at least not have the Stanley Cup Final telecast be hosted by Pierre McGuire. Various names like Bill Patrick, Bob Neumeier, Dan Patrick and others have stepped into that spot. Heck, Patrick wouldn’t even cover all the games last year, joining up late in the series.

This year, things will be a bit different. Liam McHugh, as he has done for much of the regular season and playoffs, will host NBC’s coverage of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final. He will be joined in the studio by regular analyst Mike Milbury. With Pierre McGuire doing inside the glass, Keith Jones will be added to NBC’s studio show to give NBC a three-man team, and what will likely be the two VERSUS studio analysts for the entire series. This is at least for Games 1 & 2 of the series, scheduled to go off June 4th and 5th in primetime for now. There could be changes. For example, NBC used Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller for Game 1, and brought Jeremy Roenick along for Games 5 & 6.

Good for NBC to add a little consistency, and put a few more personalities on it’s studio show. I’m not saying that you want it to become the NBA Finals or the Super Bowl, but it’s good that we’ll at least see different faces in the studio than we will in the broadcast set-up. You’d have to think that VERSUS will do a pre-game and post-game show for every game of the series, too. So all in all, this is pretty good news for puckheads.

Tampa/Pittsburgh Game 7 Time Set

NEW YORK (April 26, 2011) – A starting time has been assigned to the Wednesday, April 27th Tampa Bay at Pittsburgh game 7 on the 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Conference Quarterfinals schedule. The start time of the game previously listed as “to be determined” has been set to 8:00 p.m. local/8:00 p.m. ET.

VERSUS Goes Big With Derby Coverage

Next week, VERSUS will be flush with events. They’ll have nightly Stanley Cup Playoff action, as well as Team USA coverage from the IIHF World Championships in the Czech Republic. In addition to all that, they’ll be airing much of the ancillary programming for NBC’s coverage of the Kentucky Derby. A lot of this stuff have been shown typically on the networks of ESPN over the past many years, so it is good to see that VERSUS is adding properties from one of it’s main competitors.

It all starts next Wednesday, May 4th, when VERSUS begins airing classic Kentucky Derby over the next three days at 4 p.m. ET. It’ll be followed up by a one-hour telecast of the Kentucky Derby Draw at 5 p.m. ET, which determines which posts each horse will start out of. That was definitely an ESPN product in the past. Thursday at 5 p.m. ET, VERSUS will air a one-hour special “Access at the Kentucky Derby.” Friday at 5 p.m. ET, VERSUS will air the Kentucky Oaks.

That’ll all be prelude to Saturday, when VERSUS airs five hours of live coverage from Churchill Downs, starting at 11 a.m. ET. It should be noted that, for the first time in years, ESPN will air no live coverage, as traditionally they had aired a few hours from the Kentucky Derby themselves. The event will be exclusive to NBC and VERSUS. VERSUS and NBC will also both air NHL games that day, so it’ll be a fun day for the hockey and horses folks on Saturday, May 7th.

Ratings For Nights 9 and 10 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs

Plus, of course, an updated Top 10.

Thursday, April 21

6:30 p.m. Hockey Central – 66,000 viewers
7:00 p.m. Boston vs. Montreal, Game 4 – 599,000 viewers
10:00 p.m. Chicago vs. Vancouver, Game 5 – 590,000 viewers
12:37 a.m. San Jose vs. Los Angeles, Game 4 – 316,000 viewers
1:21 a.m. Hockey Central – 266,000 viewers

Friday, April, 22

7:00 p.m. Hockey Central – 270,000 viewers
7:30 p.m. Buffalo vs. Philadelphia, Game 5 – 931,000 viewers
10:36 p.m. Nashville vs. Anaheim, Game 5 – 428,000 viewers
1:04 a.m. Hockey Central – 185,000 viewers

Top 10

1. Buffalo vs. Philadelphia, Game 5 (4/25/11) – 931,000 viewers
2. Vancouver vs. Chicago, Game 3 (4/17/11) – 689,000 viewers
3. Montreal vs. Boston, Game 2 (4/16/11) – 661,000 viewers
4. Vancouver vs. Chicago, Game 4 (4/19/11) – 621,000 viewers
5. Washington vs. NY Rangers, Game 4 (4/20/11) – 619,000 viewers
6. NY Rangers vs. Washington, Game 2 (4/15/11) – 606,000 viewers
7. Boston vs. Montreal, Game 4 (4/21/11) – 599,000 viewers
8. Chicago vs. Vancouver, Game 5 (4/21/11) – 590,000 viewers
9. Philadelphia vs. Buffalo, Game 3 (4/18/11) – 572,000 viewers
10. Chicago vs. Vancouver, Game 2 (4/15/11) – 562,000 viewers