Welcome hockey fans in Canada and across the United States, the beautiful ice game has returned. There’s an interesting thing for those who work in our corners of the sports world: the state of hockey on television is currently more immediately recognizable and static in America than it is for our friends up north. This is, of course, due to a massive, sprawling new television deal while NBC stays in the midst of their less massive, sprawling television detail.
Before we get started, here are four pieces you can and should probably read before we get going:
–My interview with Scott Moore, President of Sportsnet and NHL Properties for Rogers
–My piece on Bob McKenzie and Darren Dreger joining NBCSN
–Our exclusive story on NBCSN producing NHL Draft coverage for the first time
–The NHL Announcing schedule for opening week
Now, let’s take a network-by-network look at hockey on television, though it may start to become more corporation-by-corporation.
NBC Sports Group
Schedule: 103 games, now mostly limited to Tuesdays and Wednesdays until January, when both NBC and NBCSN add a weekly Sunday game. Wednesday Night Rivalry goes cross-country more often this season, with 10 doubleheaders showcasing west coast teams. The All-Star Game is back. Woo hoo.
Games of Note: San Jose vs. Los Angeles, tonight, 10 p.m. ET, Dec. 27, 10 p.m. ET, and Feb. 21, 10 p.m. ET (at Levi’s Stadium; Philadelphia vs. Pittsburgh, Oct. 22, 8 p.m. ET, Jan. 20, 7:30 p.m. ET and Apr. 1, 8 p.m. ET; Chicago vs. Washington, Jan. 1, 1 p.m. ET (on NBC, at Nationals Park); Los Angeles vs. Anaheim, Nov. 12, 10:30 p.m. ET; Washington vs. Pittsburgh, Dec. 27, 7:30 p.m. ET; Chicago vs. Los Angeles, Jan. 28, 10:30 p.m. ET; Boston vs. Montreal, Feb. 8, 7:30 p.m. ET; Pittsburgh vs. Chicago, Feb. 15, 12:30 p.m. ET (on NBC).
Who’s New: Bob McKenzie and Darren Dreger’s second jobs have already been highlighted, but there’ll be a bit of TSN-to-NBC shuttle starting this year in the wake of the network switching over to more of a regional format. Play-by-play men Gord Miller and Chris Cuthbert are expected to call games on NBCSN (with Cuthbert also stopping by for some college hockey) while Ferraro may join the network for the postseason. Kathryn Tappen becomes the backup host after coming over from NHL Network. The network replaces its outdoor primetime game in February with an indoor, Rangers-Flyers prime time game.
Who’s Still Here: Mike Emrick enters his 10th season as the NHL’s lead play-by-play man on American television. Pierre McGuire is their top inside the glass reporter for his 10th season, while lead analyst Eddie Olczyk his in his ninth. John Forslund, Dave Strader, Brian Engblom, Kenny Albert, and all of NBC’s studio team (host Liam McHugh, analysts Mike Milbury, Keith Jones, Jeremy Roenick and Anson Carter) return.
Room For Improvement: The recognition of the league’s west coast supremacy was necessary, but there’s still a few eastern teams (Philadelphia, Buffalo) that could stand to show up on the network less. Milbury’s a lot smarter, more dynamic, and thoughtful than he’s given credit for, but his trolling of Alexander Ovechkin has entered self-parody. McGuire remains polarizing for his endless levels of enthusiasm and intensity, and his recent, Joe Morgan-esque refuting of analytics will not win him any further popularity contests. Roenick still struggles within the studio show structure. I wonder if a move to the booth wouldn’t be prudent.
Overall: NBC puts on a very competent product, and it’s only going to get better with the addition of some elite hockey talent from up north. McKenzie and Dreger will add a journalistic, insider bent to their studio show that they simply haven’t had on a consistent basis before. Emrick is still, to me, America’s definitive hockey voice and one of the sport’s finest ambassadors. They stick out far less with Milbury in the middle, but McHugh and Jones are solid as they come.
Rogers
Schedule: Jeez, where do I even start? Nearly 350 national regular season games total across six networks (Sportsnet regional nets, SN One, SN360, City, CBC, FX Canada) and a ton more regional games totaling 550. Every big event game, including the Winter Classic, All-Star Game and Stadium Series. Hockey Night in Canada features up to seven games nationally broadcast on various networks each week, while the nets also have Wednesday and Thursday night packages. The kitchen sink of hockey broadcasting.
Games of Note: There’s not really much to single out when you have everything. They open with a Montreal-Toronto/Vancouver-Calgary doubleheader across the regional nets tonight, and Pittsburgh-Toronto is the lead game on CBC Saturday.
Who’s New: Well… technically everybody is new to either Sportsnet or Hockey Night in Canada, so let’s put it this way: hosts will be George Stromboulopoulos (Saturday and Sunday), Ron MacLean (Sundays and Coach’s Corner), Darren Millard (Wednesdays) and Jeff Marek (Thursdays and Saturdays). Studio analysts include pretty much every person in Canada, but specifically Nick Kypreos, Elliotte Friedman, Damien Cox, Doug MacLean, Kelly Hrudey, John Shannon and Darren Pang. Broadcast teams are both familiar (Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson and Glenn Healy stick together, as do Bob Cole and Greg Millen) and new (Paul Romanuk and Mike Johnson could be the sleeper for best broadcast duo this season). Reporters include Friedman, Chris Johnston, Chris Simpson and Scott Oake. That almost everybody?
The network will also debut a new graphics package.
Who’s Still Here: Marek, Millard, Kypreos, Cox, MacLean and Shannon are all Sportsnet mainstays.
Room For Improvement: From my brethren in Canada, I know that personalities like Kypreos, Cox, MacLean and Healy are all extremely polarizing. I’m a Jim Hughson fan, though I know a lot of Leafs fans aren’t nuts about him for his inability to be Bob Cole, among other grievances. Canadians hold grudges, and many of them loved the TSN crew. Not a fault of anyone at Sportsnet but it’s worth having out there. Oh, and uh… Don Cherry.
Overall: Hughson, Romanuk, Johnson, Shannon and Marek are among my favorite voices in hockey. Johnston and Friedman have nearly as much gravitas and scoops as the likes of McKenzie and Dreger. Moore’s promise to turn the attention toward the stars and less toward labor issues and franchise relocations will get HNIC out from the seeming endless conversation about it over the past few years. MacLean is still Canadian hockey’s empathetic soul and screaming conscience, and hopefully his role isn’t too far reduced.
NHL Network
Schedule: 75 games, mostly in the Thursday-Sunday area.
Games of Note: Pittsburgh vs. Toronto, October 11, 7 p.m. ET; Boston vs. Montreal, Oct. 16, 7:30 p.m. ET; Chicago vs. Los Angeles, November 29, 10 p.m. ET; Chicago vs. Boston, December 11, 7 p.m. ET; St. Louis vs. Philadelphia, March 5, 7 p.m. ET; St. Louis vs. Minnesota, March 21, 2 p.m. ET; NY Rangers vs. Boston, Mar. 28, 1 p.m. ET
What’s New: Andi Petrillo fills the void left by Tappen; Petrillo is an extremely competent broadcaster who’s skills on Hockey Night in Canada were criminally underused. The network is adding both the Noon ET talk show and late night highlight show version of Sportsnet’s Hockey Central, which fills out their schedule just a little more than last year. Programming surround Sportsnet’s Saturday and Sunday night programs are also being added to the slate.
What’s Still Here: Steve Mears and EJ Hradek bring back NHL Live, the network’s best show. Mark Roe and Mike Kelly stay as hosts of NHL Tonight and NHL On the Fly. Analysts Craig Button, Kevin Weekes, Kelly Chase, Jamal Mayers, Jamie McLennan and Dave Reid all return. Tappen and Barry Melrose will be back to host coverage of big events like the All-Star Game and outdoor games for NHL Network.
Room for Improvement: Me, have things NHL Network could improve upon? Never. Seriously though, it’s hard not to look at NHL Net, then look at all the other league-run entities and think it looks low budget and slapdash. There’s not enough news, the highlight show can often feel stilted and awkward, and there’s just no programming in the offseason remotely worth watching. Also, Melrose never quite fits in when he’s on the network.
Overall: The Sportsnet programming is a big, big baby step, giving the network an extra day part to broadcast in and some more credible hockey talk. Petrillo will be a solid move. Button is an underrated source for prospect knowledge, while McLennan is a rising star. There are steps — small steps — but any movement is movement forward for this network.
Everything Else
NHL GameCenter Live is the league’s streaming option, and there’s been some updates made to the service in the US. Rogers runs the service in Canada and is adding a ton of different, experimental camera angles for select games.
NHL Center Ice remains the league’s television out-of-market viewing package.
Epix is producing a 24/7-style series surrounding both outdoor games this season.
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