Ask me anything about Hockey Night in Canada.......

walleye*guy wrote:How close? - touched it, fondled it, read every name on it......
never held it - that's an honour that's earned. Nobody holds it unless you work for the NHL (the handler guy), are invited to by someone who's earned the right - or have won the cup.

Best fans in the league varies - used to be Vancouver, then Oilers, then Flames...... you know it's all in who's got a great team put together. For excitable - I'd go with Chicago, I've seen police get into fights with fans - crazy people there..... For sheer volume - has to be the Oilers this year. It's really hard to describe, the waves of sound physically pound you - to hear the intercom/program sound I've adapted a set of Shure e2c's to plug into the camera system and then I wear the dual muff headsets over those. Now I can hear.

BTW I figured that out thanks to RFDers!!!!!

The best fans come from Western Canada? C'mon, there are no best fans.

gordholio wrote:The best fans come from Western Canada? C'mon, there are no best fans.

By best fans I meant they usually are the ones that have a great team going that can really excite them - i.e. The Moncton Wildcats or Red Deer Rebels have really great fans. They are knowledgable and active as well as civilized. If the fans know that a team needs a lift - they can supply it. Example: Game 7 Anaheim/Calgary this year.....Anaheim is up by 2 goals, Calgary fans sit on their hands - the place is a morgue.
Example: Game 4 Anaheim/Edmonton this year..Anaheim is up by 2 goals, the Edmonton fans "sense" something will happen and start spontanious cheering - result under a minute later Edmonton goal - more energy into the cheering - another goal....
I've seen this played out in various arenas at various times, from (literally) St. John's to Victoria. Indeed there are no "Best Fans" - it's a relationship with the team where they trade energy back and forth.
As for crazy fans, loud fans, stupid fans or dead fans - that's easy to quantify. (BTW the dead live in Washington - a great breakaway shorthanded hometeam goal results in a light smattering of appause....YIKES)

Did CBC drive their truck to Edmonton and rent one in Carolina or are they using their truck in Carolina? Are they renting the Dome Productions truck?

I'm hearing rumors that CBC may lose the NHL Hockey Broadcasting to Bell GlobeMedia . . . . any news on this on your end?

It's still up in the air.....
Bell is offering a whole package deal for about $140 mill/year for all the rights. CBC only wants the Saturday/playoff package and will pay about $65 mill for that. It doesn't look good knowing the greed factor of the NHL...

Here's a story from the Globe & Mail....

Will CBC be left out in the cold?
William Houston
Globe and Mail
Aug 11, 2006

Remember this number: $1.4-billion over 10 years. That figure could deliver the most coveted prize in Canadian sports television to CTV-TSN, according to sources.

The prize, of course, is Hockey Night in Canada, the CBC's long-time ratings leader, rights to which will expire at the end of the 2007-08 National Hockey League season.

According to insiders, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has already talked to the CBC and CTV-TSN about the bidding process.

Two well-placed sources say Bell Globemedia, which owns CTV and TSN as well as The Globe and Mail and part of the Toronto Maple Leafs, is likely to proffer a bid that the CBC may find impossible to match

[quote="walleye*guy"]It's still up in the air.....
Bell is offering a whole package deal for about $140 mill/year for all the rights. CBC only wants the Saturday/playoff package and will pay about $65 mill for that. It doesn't look good knowing the greed factor of the NHL...

Here's a story from the Globe & Mail....

Will CBC be left out in the cold?
William Houston
Globe and Mail
Aug 11, 2006

Remember this number: $1.4-billion over 10 years. That figure could deliver the most coveted prize in Canadian sports television to CTV-TSN, according to sources.

The prize, of course, is Hockey Night in Canada, the CBC's long-time ratings leader, rights to which will expire at the end of the 2007-08 National Hockey League season.

According to insiders, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has already talked to the CBC and CTV-TSN about the bidding process.

Two well-placed sources say Bell Globemedia, which owns CTV and TSN as well as The Globe and Mail and part of the Toronto Maple Leafs, is likely to proffer a bid that the CBC may find impossible to match

For the love of god, we dont need any more Rod Black, Pierre McGuire or any of other of those annoying personalities CTV-TSN have to offer.

civ@uw wrote:For the love of god, we dont need any more Rod Black, Pierre McGuire or any of other of those annoying personalities CTV-TSN have to offer.

Brian (What time is it in Toronto?) Williams will host the Saturday double header - Chris Cuthbert and the colour-man (flavour of the day) will call game 1, second stringers for game 2.
Don Cherry is expected to leap - Ron McLean will stay.
Don't ask how I found this out - - - -

So will they be showing HNIC anymore or any leafs games on CBC or did NBC buy that?

I remember a few years ago when John Davidson and Chris Cuthbert were doing some games together, someone wrote in an article that they were the best broadcasting duo, bar none. I would agree with that. What about you, walleye*guy?

About Don Cherry's tired act, I got a glimpse of how good it could be without Cherry during the World Cup in 2004. Ron McLean, Brian Burke and Kelly Hrudey were doing the first-intermission chit chats and I was blown away by how interesting and informative the conversations actually were. When Cherry's time is up, I won't miss him at all.

On a personal note, walleye*guy, what will happen to you when the new era begins? Will you be going to CTV-TSN, too?

that was a very good and interesting post walleye. if it means more games on tv, let bell win.

Change can be good. I'm familiar and comfortable with the way CBC has been doing HNIC for as long as most of us have been alive, but sometimes you have to shake up the status quo. The downside is that if people don't like the way CTV-TSN run the show, we'll be stuck with it for 10 years.

flyingdutchman wrote:So will they be showing HNIC anymore or any leafs games on CBC or did NBC buy that?

Where on earth did you pull that one from?

flyingdutchman wrote:So will they be showing HNIC anymore or any leafs games on CBC or did NBC buy that?

Saturday - 1st game 99% Leafs - never could figure that one out.
2nd game from the west....

forreal wrote:I remember a few years ago when John Davidson and Chris Cuthbert were doing some games together, someone wrote in an article that they were the best broadcasting duo, bar none. I would agree with that. What about you, walleye*guy?

About Don Cherry's tired act, I got a glimpse of how good it could be without Cherry during the World Cup in 2004. Ron McLean, Brian Burke and Kelly Hrudey were doing the first-intermission chit chats and I was blown away by how interesting and informative the conversations actually were. When Cherry's time is up, I won't miss him at all.

On a personal note, walleye*guy, what will happen to you when the new era begins? Will you be going to CTV-TSN, too?

The Cuthbert/Davidson duo is legendary - if they can put it back together, then they will probably go on for a very long time. Personally, Chris & John are great talents who work very hard for their successes......but I can drink both "sur la table". (we've had some fun....)

I've got 25+ years in as a staffer, reduced pension is 5 years away - full is 9. It would have to be one H*LL of an offer for me to go. CTV and TSN have no staffers when it comes to hockey crews - it's all freelance. After I'm done at the Corp - there's always that......

impronto wrote:that was a very good and interesting post walleye. if it means more games on tv, let bell win.

Uh - no....... it will mean less games. Think that CTV will run triple headers on Saturdays? Not so very likely..... If you have no cable - good luck during playoffs. Hmmm..... second round playoffs say - Toronto, Calgary and Edmonton are all playing. It's Thursday night during ratings week. (Trust me - - we see this scenario all the time) What do you think the CTV Network will carry?

$20 says Survivor......

My bet is that fewer games will be seen, and of those even less will be of interest. Why would a Clagry fan want to watch Oilers when the Flames are playing, Ottawa while Toronto plays......
It's going to be hard to split the signal so that local gets local....

Bumping an excellent thread.

Did anybody watch HNIC's national feed of the early game last Saturday? A lot of shocking things happened that night. The first shock was that the national feed did not involve a team with a blue maple leaf on its jersey. The second shock was that one of the teams that was involved was the Habs (the other team was the Pens). Pray to whatever god that you believe in that these are not signs of the coming apocalypse. Personally, however, I'm offering a prayer of thanks to the all-mighty deity. Thank you for showing the Habs on the CBC, and against a team that's not the Leafs. Thank you, Sidney Crosby.

BTW, is this the first time that Cassie Campbell has done the colour? I was truly impressed with the job she did. She's already better than Harry Neale.

Can't wait for CBC to lose HNIC...

It's time for a change and the majority of those of us in Ottawa would agree...

It's brutal for us not to see the Sens most Saturday nights. Get Healey, Bowen and Neale off of their pirch and get guys like Bob McKenzie on.

forreal wrote: ↑Bumping an excellent thread.

Did anybody watch HNIC's national feed of the early game last Saturday? A lot of shocking things happened that night. The first shock was that the national feed did not involve a team with a blue maple leaf on its jersey. The second shock was that one of the teams that was involved was the Habs (the other team was the Pens). Pray to whatever god that you believe in that these are not signs of the coming apocalypse. Personally, however, I'm offering a prayer of thanks to the all-mighty deity. Thank you for showing the Habs on the CBC, and against a team that's not the Leafs. Thank you, Sidney Crosby.

BTW, is this the first time that Cassie Campbell has done the colour? I was truly impressed with the job she did. She's already better than Harry Neale.

Cassie Campbell sucks doing colour and no it wasn't her first time. She got lambasted after the first time she did it.

Irb wrote: ↑Cassie Campbell sucks doing colour and no it wasn't her first time. She got lambasted after the first time she did it.

She's fine - time to shake up the big boys...

It takes time to learn, and she will...