Versus Announces Preseason Schedule

Ken from the Fang’s Bites blog with a special guest appearance on the Versus NHL preseason schedule.

Altogether, Versus airs four games in the preseason starting tomorrow with the Toronto at Philadelphia game. To save costs, Versus will pick up the Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia and Comcast SportsNet Chicago broadcasts for the four games it will air this preseason. I hope that’s not a trend for the upcoming season and playoffs as Versus did that as a way to cut corners last season.

So Versus airs four games produced by the Comcast family, however, it will produce its own studio show for the intermissions. This means fans won’t get to hear the teams of Mike Emrick, Ed Olcyzk and Pierre McGuire or Dave Strader and Brian Engblom until the regular season begins.

Here’s the schedule.

VERSUS NHL preseason schedule (all times ET and subject to change):

Wednesday, September 21 — Toronto at Philadelphia 7 p.m.
Intermissions: McHugh, Milbury, McGuire

Monday, September 26 — New York Rangers at Philadelphia 7 p.m.
Intermissions: McHugh, Jones, McGuire

Wednesday, September 28 — Detroit at Chicago 8:30 p.m.
Intermissions: McHugh, Jones, McGuire

Thursday, September 29 — New Jersey at Philadelphia 7 p.m.
Intermissions: McHugh, Milbury, McGuire

There you have it.

EXCLUSIVE: Bob Harwood Joins the Hurricanes

Former VERSUS reporter Bob Harwood will head south this season.

Harwood, who worked with The NHL on VERSUS from it’s beginning as The NHL on OLN in 2005, confirmed to Puck the Media last night that he will be joining the FS Carolinas broadcast crew for the Carolina Hurricanes. He will serve as host and in-game reporter alongside John Forslund (play-by-play) and Tripp Tracy (color) for the 67 broadcasts FS Carolinas is airing throughout the 2011-12 NHL season.

Harwood was let go by VERSUS after the NBC/Comcast merger, in which NBC’s hockey broadcasting philosophy was put to work on the VERSUS broadcasts, which left all of the network’s reporters without gigs in favor of inside the glass analysts. He continued to do occasional work for the network during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and was in the locker rooms for NHL Network during the Stanley Cup Final.