J
Joseph_Gallant
Guest
CBC, TSN, Sportsnet, Leafs TV, RDS and CHRO Pembroke/Ottawa Are Dancing In The Streets........
.....because the National Hockey League and it's players' union have reached tentative agreement on a new labor contract that will end a ten-month lockout that wiped out the entire 2004/2005 season.
Of course, CBC has "Hockey Night In Canada" and the Stanley Cup Finals; TSN has a lot of midweek games through the early rounds of the playoffs, Sportsnet has many regional English-language telecasts of five of Canada's six NHL teams (except for Ottawa), CHRO has the local midweek telecasts of the Ottawa Senators, Leafs TV will have a handful of Toronto Maple Leafs' games, and RDS has French-language coverage of all Montreal Canadiens' games, plus the Stanley Cup Finals.
So these networks and stations have very good reason to be delighted. I suspect that the NHL is a major profit center for all of them.
One major question: If my memory serves me correct, HNIC lead play-by-play man Bob Cole has passed his 70th birthday. Will he come back for the 2005/2006 season??
With NHL players set to compete at the men's hockey tournament at the Winter Olympics in Turin next February, I'm tempted to say on the one hand that Cole might be back for both the NHL and the Olympics. On the other hand, given his age, he might wish to retire and not come back.
If Cole does retire, would Chris Cuthbert be promoted?? Would CBC look to a local radio play-by-play man in Canada (such as Toronto's Joe Bowen)?? Or would they look south of the border (such as Dale Arnold from NESN or Gary Thorne from NBC/ESPN)??
But perhaps the biggest question of all is this: Will Canadian viewers flock back to NHL telecasts after missing the entiee 2004/2005 season??
Althouhg I'm in the 'States, I have heard that if you take the passion diehard NFL fans here in the U.S.A. have for their sport, and multiply it by ten, you then approach the level of passion most Canadian sports fans have for the NHL (or at least had prior to the lockout).
.....because the National Hockey League and it's players' union have reached tentative agreement on a new labor contract that will end a ten-month lockout that wiped out the entire 2004/2005 season.
Of course, CBC has "Hockey Night In Canada" and the Stanley Cup Finals; TSN has a lot of midweek games through the early rounds of the playoffs, Sportsnet has many regional English-language telecasts of five of Canada's six NHL teams (except for Ottawa), CHRO has the local midweek telecasts of the Ottawa Senators, Leafs TV will have a handful of Toronto Maple Leafs' games, and RDS has French-language coverage of all Montreal Canadiens' games, plus the Stanley Cup Finals.
So these networks and stations have very good reason to be delighted. I suspect that the NHL is a major profit center for all of them.
One major question: If my memory serves me correct, HNIC lead play-by-play man Bob Cole has passed his 70th birthday. Will he come back for the 2005/2006 season??
With NHL players set to compete at the men's hockey tournament at the Winter Olympics in Turin next February, I'm tempted to say on the one hand that Cole might be back for both the NHL and the Olympics. On the other hand, given his age, he might wish to retire and not come back.
If Cole does retire, would Chris Cuthbert be promoted?? Would CBC look to a local radio play-by-play man in Canada (such as Toronto's Joe Bowen)?? Or would they look south of the border (such as Dale Arnold from NESN or Gary Thorne from NBC/ESPN)??
But perhaps the biggest question of all is this: Will Canadian viewers flock back to NHL telecasts after missing the entiee 2004/2005 season??
Althouhg I'm in the 'States, I have heard that if you take the passion diehard NFL fans here in the U.S.A. have for their sport, and multiply it by ten, you then approach the level of passion most Canadian sports fans have for the NHL (or at least had prior to the lockout).