one hundred and sixty-four seconds

The Vancouver Canucks played their last game of the season last night, losing game six in the Western Conference semifinals. They lost that last game in spectacular fashion, allowing seven goals against, while scoring five. Anytime the Canucks score five goals in a game, in front of one of the best goaltenders in the game, they should freakin' win. What's more, the seven goals scored by the Chicago Blackhawks were all scored while Roberto Luongo was still in net. No empty-netters. I'm not placing all the blame on him - there's plenty to go around - but seven goals against in the biggest game of the year, including four in the third period? Yikes. The Canucks twice had a one-goal lead in that third period. A goal by Daniel Sedin to make it 5-4 with 7:45 remaining had me daydreaming of Thursday's game seven. That daydream lasted a mere forty-five seconds (of playing time).

This morning Biscotti told me that the Canucks franchise is being moved to Las Vegas. I said, "Good, they won't break my heart anymore".

After the Canucks went up 2-1 in the best-of-seven, the Blackhawks won three straight games and advance to play either the Detroit Red Wings or the Anaheim Ducks in the Western Conference final. After the game last night, I heard a local sportscaster (can't remember who, probably on Global's 11pm news) say that in the four Chicago wins, the Canucks had third-period leads in three of them. I was close to posting that without checking on my own, and am glad I did do my own research. The Canucks had third-period leads in two of the four Chicago wins - which is still pretty bad. Shutdown defense? Killer instinct? Gone after the first round sweep.

It's disappointing. If they hadn't been in this series at all, then it'd be easier. A sweep? Oh well, they were overmatched. But no, they just couldn't put games away. Up 2-1 in the series, Vancouver had a 1-0 lead deep into game four's third period. They were 164 seconds from a commanding 3-1 series lead when Chicago scored to tie the game.

That's enough about that. I must now turn my attention to other matters, such as voting today and moving soon.

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.

Hasek + Gaborik = Fliptastic

The screen quality at the beginning of the video is a tad poor, but it improves significantly and the replays are fantastic - especially the last one, which begins at the 54-second mark.

TSN Doubleheaders

Further down in this post is a full transcript of communication between TSN and me, but first the backstory. Last week TSN - Toronto Sports Network - attempted to broadcast an NHL doubleheader. At 4:30pm PST they began airing the Montreal Canadiens versus the Toronto Maple Leafs. At 7pm PST they were supposed to begin airing the Vancouver Canucks versus the Anaheim Ducks, which featured Todd Bertuzzi playing his first game in Vancouver as a non-Canuck. However, the Habs/Leafs game went into overtime, and then into a shootout; and before the shootout could begin, there was repeat zamboni-ing due to careless zamboni-ing. At 7:21pm PST, with TSN still not showing the 'Nucks/Ducks, I felt compelled to send them a comment via their website. And so it begins...

My comment to TSN via their website's contact us:

Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 10:21 PM

the canucks/ducks game on november 27th has started and i'm watching a zamboni driving nonstop around the ice in toronto... COME ON!!! SHOW THE CANUCKS!!! BERTUZZI!!!

TSN's email to me:

Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:44:57 -0500

Hi Rob,

Thank you for emailing TSN regarding Tuesday night's NHL game featuring the Vancouver Canucks vs. the Anaheim Ducks. I understand your frustration and would like to take this opportunity to explain why TSN joined-in-progress the Canucks game.

It is TSN policy to always broadcast a live event until its completion, and Tuesday's NHL game featuring the Toronto Maple Leafs vs. the Montreal Canadiens was no exception. The Leafs/Canadiens game went to a shootout and ran longer than anticipated. Subsequently, TSN was forced to stay with this game until its conclusion. Following the shootout, TSN did not televise any post-game interviews or analysis from the Leafs/Canadiens game and immediately switched to live coverage of the Canucks/Ducks game.

Understanding that coverage of the Leafs/Canadiens game would overlap the start of the Canucks/Ducks game, TSN commentators mentioned numerous times that TSN would go to the Vancouver game immediately following the completion of the game in Toronto. TSN also showed live coverage of the Vancouver puck-drop at the start of the game in a split-screen. At 10:21 p.m. ET, TSN joined the Canucks/Ducks game in the first period with the score still 0-0.

I hope that this letter conveys how seriously we take our programming responsibilities. Thank you for taking the time to write to us.

Regards,
Chobi
Audience Relations

My email to TSN in response to their email to me:

Sent: November 29, 2007 5:06:47 PM

Chobi,

Thanks for writing back. I understand why the start of the Canucks/Ducks game wasn't aired, but seeing as how the games involved were regular season and not playoffs - where games can have indefinite lengths - it was preventable. Here's a solution: Don't buy the broadcasting rights to two regular season games that start two and a half hours apart. Games that end in regulation time take the full two and a half hours to play, so there wouldn't be time for much postgame analysis or interviews anyway. Plus, there is a fairly good chance that any given regular season game will go into overtime then into a shootout (as we saw on Tuesday). Regardless of what happens, we can be very sure that any given regular season game will end in under three hours. So for doubleheaders, how about choosing to only broadcast games that start three hours apart, eg. 4pm and 7pm PT. Between games there would then be time for postgame analysis and/or interviews, whether the first game ends in regulation or requires extra time.

Rob