It doesn’t really effect us north of the border, but our friends south of the border hockey fans are suffering with their tv coverage, or lack there of. Why the PA isn’t doing something about this is puzzling.
“Anyone else had enough of Versus’ coverage of the NHL postseason? How is it that they pull away from a 3-3 game in Carolina to open a game in Anaheim that wasn’t going to start for another 30 minutes? How about skipping the exciting finish in Raleigh for yet another viewing of an Esurance commercial we all know by heart?”
That from one of our favorite hockey writers, George Richards who has the nearly impossible job of covering the Florida Panthers. George’s On Frozen Pond is one of the best in the business.
“In case you missed it, which I’m sure many of you did, the Hurricanes took Game 4 by scoring against the Devils with .02 seconds left. What was Versus showing? Who cares. It sure wasn’t hockey. Heck, they weren’t even showing a tied game in St. Louis. The NHL kowtows to Versus so much it isn’t even funny. It sure as hell isn’t deserved.”
You know, teams like the Panthers are having a hard enough time growing the game given the economy, it would be nice if the league’s TV partner actually helped and not hindered the product! What the hell are these idiots thinking???
“Shame on the NHL for letting this happen night after night after night. Your fans deserve better (and that statement goes to the NHL; Versus has no fans. Nor good spots on the dial save for the gifts handed out from their parent cable network – which sucks Comcastically.)”
So while ‘ The Sun Is Always Shining’ Commissioner has his head in the sand, those who actually are interested in the game get screwed. Brilliant marketing idea no…piss all over the fans you already have. BRILLIANT!
It reminds me of the scene in the movie DAVE where the acting president asks his cabinet why they spend a fortune of money on an advertising campaign to make owners of cars feel better about cars they have already purchased. How do you expect to grow the game when you dump on your dedicated following???
“The NHL needs to get off this crummy network pronto. That said, Versus has Anaheim-San Jose coming up next. Unless the third period gets preempted by a fishing show. Let’s hope the bass aren’t biting tonight.”
Well, let’s never hope the bass aren’t biting…but point well taken. Enough is enough Gary. Move the games to a network that cares!
George was clearly pissed last night as he wrote a second post about Versus…
“Instead of going live to the Vancouver-St. Louis overtime game during the first intermission of tonight’s late game, your Comcraptastic crew went to the studio. Where they showed old highlights of the Vancouver-St. Louis game and had their always exciting in-studio crew tell you the game was in overtime. Then we went to an ad for ATVs, fertilizer and an in-house NHL ad. Then back to the studio for more fantastic analysis.”
Let’s look at this even closer. Here you have a writer in a market where the team hasn’t made the playoffs in a long time. The owner has tried giving away tickets, hot dogs and hell Stone crab claws too to boost attendance and he is unable to watch decent playoff action. I don’t know if he was watching for pleasure or for work, as in to cover the playoffs for his paper, but nevertheless he was trying to watch. Where there is one, there are many. It’s just plain stupid.
“Just bad. For a network with everything available to them, they seem to hit the fail button more often than not. Maybe TNT would be interested in picking up hockey coverage. Ten bucks says Charles Barkley would do a better job than this. Need a deal on gold dollar coins? If so, Versus is your place. — At least when Vancouver won in overtime to sweep the series, they did a ‘Game Break’ to let everyone know something happened of note. So congrats for that. One thing right this night (save for the Dave Strader/Billy Jaffe/Christine Simpson trifecta and the Lindsay Soto ‘coverup’ during the second period bench interview) was better than none.”