NHL done deal  

ESPN may very well do something, but it did (far) better ratings last season with college basketball and womens NCAA hoops than with the NHL. While there is intense NHL interest in some markets, there is very, very little national interest. Hence the many FSN deals and the reluctance of ESPN to do national games.

Nonetheless, hockey is a far more compelling sport in HD, and hopefully more content will be available for those who find the sport interesting.

But to even think broadcast plans are in place as the settlement agreement is (if reports are true) barely dry is a little optimistic.

What I don't understand is why play 82 games then have 20 teams in the playoffs what a joke this why this league will never be big time until they get somebody like a Pete Rozell in there to change things. I used to be a huge hockey fan now I would rather watch college.

I agree that I love the games on HDNet. However, in the best interest of the league, it'd probably be better to have the games on ESPN (but required to be HD), so the poor folks out there without HD can at least watch the games in SD if they want. But that would require them to frame for 4x3. Unless they letterboxed the games on the SD channel.....

Ok, I'm not trying to be funny, but didn't NBC have a 2 year profit sharing agreement with the NHL for 2004-2005? I never heard what became of that.

NHL, Players Reach Agreement

By Jon Lafayette TVWeek.com

The National Hockey League and the union representing its players have reached a labor agreement, which if ratified would mean that it will play a season in 2005-06 after skipping 2004-05.

NBC has a two-year agreement to broadcast the NHL that was supposed to begin last season. Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal sports, said, "I'm delighted to hear the great news that peace has come about in our time. I'm delighted to be their partner as it moves into a new era."

Mr. Ebersol said he expects the league to enact rule changes that will make games faster moving and higher scoring, including restrictions on the size of the equipment worn by goal tenders.

ESPN, which carried NHL games on cable, decided last month not to pick up its $60 million option to televise the games. Reportedly the league declined to cut its fee. With the labor agreement announced Wednesday, an ESPN executive said the network is not bidding on the NHL.

No chance of NHL on ESPN if you'vr followed the news

Ive heard rumors of USA and even Spike TV for carriage (SD). That's sad, they're on a similar level with the MLS

I though i'd read that INHD might get the NHL this season also.

Sent this email to Mark Cuban -

Now that the CBA has been signed and all were waiting for is the player ratification vote is HDnet planning on carrying any NHL games in HD this season ?
I think that second period "sounds of the game " was the best feature your broadcasts offered and would hope in this interactive world that it could become a permanent premium service.
I remeber when we first experienced stereo TV sound with SAP where you could select which audio track to listen too . Just think how popular this would be for HDTV customers who want to turn the talking heads off and just listen to the sweet sounds of the game...

Food for thought ..

Regards,

This was the reply from Mark -

" Yes, we will be covering the NHL this year "

m.

That is great news NHL in HDTV freaking fantastic ...

If anyone from Comcast is reading this PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE sign a deal with mark cuban and HDNET so we can see the NHL in HD.[hopefully another network like INHD'll do the games in HD also]

As a long time hockey fan, I'm not real enthusiastic. My favorite team will probably be dismantled, and while they'll still probably be competitve most of my favorite players (who are older) will probably retire.

The nail in the head though, will be no HD games. When I bought my HD TV last year I looked forward to at least eventually seeing hockey games in HD. Hopefully INHD will get to show a bunch of games (I can't get HDNet).

I would definately watch any HD hockey game available, but if they're only in SD I'll probably go back to watching crappy shows about beaches (at least they look good on my tv). Hopefully hockey will be back in HD in a few years when I start to care again.

Of course on the bright side, at least we won't be stuck with those awful ESPN/ABC announcers. The so called "2nd team" guys were decent but the main team of Gary Thorne and Bill Clement were just awful. I would rather listen to dead air than Bill Clement. In fact, I have listened to dead air rather than Bill Clement before. Bill Clement alone probably dropped hockey a point or two in the ratings...

That maybe true, but, Bill Clement was a vast improvement over Gary Green, about a decade ago.

Now that CBC is broadcasting in HD, I'm looking forward to seeing Hockey Night in Canada in HD. I haven't seen any announcements from the CBC in this regard, however.

For those of you on this side of the border (or watch Canadian TV down 'dere in the US), you are probably already aware that CBC's coverage of hockey is without equal.

Geeze, I've missed Harry Neale.

Ross

What about Don Cherry's outfits? I was watching one of his dvds while on the treadmill today. 3 more months.

If Bettman continues his far-sighted insistence on blacking out local HD games, it'll be high time to hire some snipers....I'll lay money it happens again like it did in the last season...

NHL in HD = good
20 teams in the playoffs = realllly bad

"Geeze, I've missed Harry Neale."
I don't we call him and his side kick the alzheimer twins as they make so many announcing mistakes you can have a drinking contest ...

It's time those geezers (with the biased Makebeliefs calls ) to retire ... :)

While I found plenty of things to do this past winter/spring without hockey, I'll be happy to see it return. I tried talking myself into not coming back after their lockout, but who was I kidding? I'll get all Flyers home games in HD, all the games on HDNet, and *hopefully* a few decent games out of NBC.

I'm optimistic about all the rule changes but the 4 extra playoff teams sounds like a horrible idea. Honestly, who wants to see the #20 seed in the Cup Finals other than that team's fans? The only thing I liked about the rapid expansion of the 90s was the fact that the regular season meant something since only ~1/2 the teams ended up in the playoffs.

Sixteen teams qualify for the NHL playoffs, the same as in the NBA. There are four rounds of playoffs, with eight teams from each conference (so there are no byes) = 16 of 30 teams. Here's a link with the teams that made the 2004 playoffs: http://nhl.com/onthefly/standings/conf_stand.html

At one point several years ago there were 16 of 21 teams that qualified, so at least the percentage isn't as ridiculous as it used to be.

Sixteen teams qualify for the NHL playoffs, the same as in the NBA. There are four rounds of playoffs, with eight teams from each conference (so there are no byes) = 16 of 30 teams. Here's a link with the teams that made the 2004 playoffs: http://nhl.com/onthefly/standings/conf_stand.html

At one point several years ago nearly three-quarters of the teams made the playoffs, so at least the percentage isn't nearly as ridiculous as it used to be.

As a life long "Makebeliefs" fan, it is precisely those biases that make Cole & Neale so popular in these parts ;)

Changing the topic slightly, I wonder how many cities in the US used the end of the lock-out as the lead hard-news story on the 6:00 news (as opposed to the sports news) and front page news in the papers like they did in Toronto...? I'm guessing one (Buffalo?). Did the end of the lockout make the non-sports news in places like Detroit?

Ross

Harry Neale ???? freakin Leaf homer.
ITS BOB COLE I miss...

"RYYYDDDERRR Scores !!! Oh Baby !!!
The young man from Bonavista, Newfoundland has really put on a show tonight !!! "

The word is that there will be 10 teams from each conference making the playoffs this year, with 7vs10 and 8vs9 playing best of 3s for the final 2 spots in the next round.

Non necessarily a bad thing. Makes the top 6 spots very coveted, and keeps a lot more teams in it until the end of the year.

I know ESPN doesn't want to show any NHL regular season games next seaon, but they still have exclusive rights for the playoffs right?

no ESPN walked away from their deal with the NHL. The only US rights holder of games is NBC, and that's only for the season Saturday games after the olympics, as well as playoff games. Their is no cable deal in place, though there were rumblings that through the deal with NBC, other regular season games would be shown on USA network and UniversalHD, both owned by NBC

What's NHL? National Hookey League?

Two things I've noticed:

1.) Complaints about how "owner friendly" this deal was. (Keep that in mind, folks, because I think we're going to be seeing this haunt us again in the near future.)

2.) Players giving off such quotes as: "I don't even care anymore! I just want to be on the ice and play!"

A pity they didn't have that attitude months ago. What a bunch of rubbish. I fear we haven't seen the last of this sort of thing and it puts a very bitter taste in my mouth towards the entire NHL.

I can't believe they didn't figure a lesson out from MLB, when they made their fatal mistake to strike several years ago. MLB has never fully recovered from that and they had way more of a fan userbase and history than the NHL could ever dream about.

I think the NHL, as a whole, has screwed themselves.

If people are complaining that the deal isn't fair to the players, the NHL is in real trouble.

Of course it had to be "owner friendly"! You can't pay hockey players the big money that football and baseball players make if the revenue isn't there. No league can survive if player salaries are 80% of revenue...


I used to be a rabid Giants fan. When the baseball players went on strike in the mid-90's, they lost me. Haven't been back since.


I think you're right.

—Dan