Hockey Day in Canada 2008

One might call this post a sequel to this post. I would.

In past seasons, Hockey Day in Canada has featured three games with some sort of combination of the six Canadian teams facing off against each other. The first game would start around noon PT, with the next two games in the regular Hockey Night in Canada timeslots, 4pm PT and 7pm PT.

However, as a result of this season's shitty schedule, Hockey Day in Canada has been tainted. This season features four games, with just two games featuring an all-Canadian matchup. The non-all-Canadian matchups are the Leafs hosting the Red Wings (noon PT) and the Canucks hosting the Avalanche (7pm PT).

Yes, there are American teams involved in Hockey Day in Canada. That's bad enough, here's what's worse. The two games that are actually all-Canadian matchups are being played at the same time (4pm PT) - which means that on Hockey Day in Canada, with four games broadcast, Joe Canadian can only watch one single game that pits Canadian team versus Canadian team. Wooooooooo.

That's not all. The simultaneously played games have the Senators hosting the Canadiens, and the Flames hosting the Oilers. Those living in Ontario and east of Ontario will see Habs vs Sens, while the rest of Canada (yes, Manitoba and west of Manitoba) will see Oilers vs Flames.

So, eastern Canada will enjoy a matchup between the first-place team in the eastern conference (Sens - 68 points as of now) and the fourth-place team in the eastern conference (Habs - 65 points), who are also neck-and-neck for first place in the northeast division.

Meanwhile, western Canada will, ummm... enjoy(?) a matchup between the sixth-place team in the western conference (Flames - 60 points) and the fourteenth-place/second-last team in the western conference (Oilers - 51 points).

Finally, and more personally, I am in a hockey pool and in the two simultaneously played games a total of two players are also on my roster. One is on the Habs and one is on the Sens. I live west of Manitoba. Wonderful.