I don't think ESPN's broadcast was any better when you compare it to OLN's in the playoffs. Plus, OLN had playoff hockey practically every night of the week and when they weren't showing a game they were showing hockey related programming. Now THAT was what I liked to see.
Like you said the bad mouthing won't stop until the NHL has several seasons of success, that won't change whether it's on Versus, ESPN, or Animal Planet. ESPN has the NFL on Mondays, the NBA a couple of times a week, baseball, and college football/basketball. How much hockey do you think you'll get to see on ESPN? Will they bring back NHL 2nite? Probably not, they removed that from their offer last year. If Versus can add a similar program to their lineup and have it every night, they will get much more support from the NHL fans.
Totally agree with that. When they cut off the last pick of the draft for PBR I believe it was I was pretty angry and I think it was a bush league move. I still don't think ESPN would treat hockey good look what they did to NHL2night they cancelled I believe 2 years before the lockout and I don't know too much about sportscenter so I can't comment about that. I know the other shows disliked hockey and badmouthed it regularly.
I spoke to Mr. Buccigross last night, and he claims they have the space to air the hockey in the Spring, and that it's good primetime TV.
At 6:30 PM, Bill Clement (Who is absolutely solid now, if not yet on the level of an Ernie Johnson or a James Brown)
If there's someone who I feel bad for at ESPN it's Buccigross. With that being said, when he says there's "space" in the Spring, what does he mean? Does he mean a game every night like OLN had? Does he mean a pre/post game show that Vs. will have? What about a nightly wrapup show like OLN had when they aired On the Fly?I spoke to Mr. Buccigross last night, and he claims they have the space to air the hockey in the Spring, and that it's good primetime TV.
He also said is book with (interestingly enough) VERSUS NHL analyst Keith Jones is coming out in March.
ESPN did the same thing back when they broadcast the draft. You get your 3 hrs and nobody's going to run over for the 30th pick of the NHL draft, I'm sorry.
Not surprised at all that ESPN would want the NHL's rights back. You never appreciate something until it's gone and I think ABC/ESPN just wants to continue it's attempts at world sports domination.
VS has been expanding it's hockey programming, ESPN continually shrunk its. I admit VS needs a daily highlight show (or at least 2-3x a week) but I honestly don't ESPN ever did anything better than VS in terms of broadcasting a hockey game.
I'm happy with the NHL on VS and I don't really understand why people aren't. In fact, I would suggest that I've never seen a group of fans who are as consistantly unhappy about the broadcast of their sport than hockey fans.
I spoke to Mr. Buccigross last night, and he claims they have the space to air the hockey in the Spring, and that it's good primetime TV.
He also said is book with (interestingly enough) VERSUS NHL analyst Keith Jones is coming out in March.
Why don't people like versus? Because people like me Can't even get it! The NHL needs to be on ESPN, and that's the bottom line.
I second that! I enjoyed the stuff they showed last year, especially The Tournament, and once I taped a few of the Legends of Hockey shows for my dad he made sure to watch the rest of them and he got my older bro watching them too. ESPN rarely did non-game hockey programming like that, so we should be happy VS is treating hockey like an important sport and not the red-headed stepchild.Thanks for the heads-up on the non-game programming.
ESPN did the same thing back when they broadcast the draft. You get your 3 hrs and nobody's going to run over for the 30th pick of the NHL draft, I'm sorry.
and a key with ESPN is one of their programming execs(the brilliant mind that's given us crap such as cold pizza and espn hollywood) is gone and he did not like the NHL.ESPN is waiting for the NHL to come to the table. I believe it's a bit of Bettman and company being too stubborn to admit that they need ESPN broadcast games. Like it or not, ESPN drives every sport with their coverage or lack of. But on the other side of the coin, the world wide leader in sports would like to have hockey to be just that, the world wide leader in sports. After all, ESPN started because of hockey. In 1979 it's purpose was originally to broadcast Hartford Whaler games. It was cheaper to buy 24 hour satellite time rather than primetime satellite time. Hence the 24 hour sports network.
22 of the games involve eastern conference teams..only 6 games are west vs west, there is clearly a bias..Well remember the Game of the Week slot is 7 est. I doubt many western teams want to play 4 in the afternoon on a weeknight.
As long as they got rid of that horrible "fake" goal horn they sound when the visitor team scores ill watch.
ESPN definitely did the same thing. I remember a few years back there was breaking news during the draft (a fairly young MLB player had been found dead in his room, I forget his name) and they cut in with that quite a bit and cut the broadcast off ASAP. They may have continued for the full 3 hours but not one second after.Yeah but it's the last pick in the first round and if you advertise showing the first round pick 30 counts as the first round. I have a terrible memory when it comes to hockey so ESPN could have done that I'm not entirely sure.