Ponds and Pucks

I was not happy on Friday when there was no hockey, with the NHL electing instead to have a game on each Saturday and Sunday.  I was annoyed.  I was wrong.

The NHL got two great games on TV in front of national audiences this weekend.  Had the Sabres lost their series on Friday then Sunday would not have had a game on for people to watch.  The Senators would have been victorious before the weekend started and it would be a quieter weekend.  On the whole, I think the league did a great job and the games were great — which I suspect only raises the prestige of the league.

I do, however, have a gripe with NBC about Saturday’s coverage.

I was in Rochester over the weekend, so I watched the game in the Buffalo area.  For me, the game stayed on NBC.  For most of the country, however, when the Ottawa/Buffalo game went into overtime, they switched over to Versus because they wanted to cover the Preakness Stakes.  I’m all for that, since I am a huge horse racing fan.  But the Preakness wasn’t to be run for another hour.  What they wanted to do was offer the human interest stories about horses, jockeys, trainers and other assorted crap.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I love horse racing and I wanted nothing more than to watch the race.  But I don’t need to hear from the jockey who lost a beloved second cousin to cancer and is dedicating the first quarter mile of the race to her.  Show me the race.  Before it starts, show me other races.  NBC chose to switch the overtime of a series-ending game to Versus instead of sticking with it.  That hurt because a lot of viewers don’t have Versus.  NBC made a big mistake here.

I am going to hold off on breaking down the Buffalo game until tomorrow, when I break down the series.  However, I will go through the Ducks/Red Wings game.  On Saturday, one of the NBC analysts asked “if Anaheim was favored to win without Chris Pronger, shouldn’t they be favored to win with him?”  This was an excellent point, but was he a deciding factor?  He had an assist in the game-tying goal but not in the game-winner.  So I’ll make this my first poll: Is Chris Pronger a key to Anaheim winning the series?  Vote below.

The Ducks managed to score in the final minute of the 3rd period to tie the game.  I was surprised by the goal, and my reasoning is simple: they were anything but crisp.  The Ducks were flailing about but managed in the end to put the puck in the net.  They got lucky.  If they want a chance to finish off this series, they need to work on pressing their advantage on man-up situations.