Spelling Bee's, WNBA, Arena Football, and Poker tournament reruns constantly litter the ESPN family of channels but NHL hockey is nowhere to be found.
Throughout the season locating NHL on your TV dial was as painstaking difficult as sitting through an episode of "The L Word," waiting for a steamy lezbo scene. Hockey coverage on the sports blogs is non existent too.
Luckily NBC had last night's thrilling Red Wings/Penguins Game 5 Stanley Cup battle.
The Wings were less than a minute away from the hoisting the cup with a series clinching victory and the Penguins had pulled their goalie, which more than likely means the team ends up allowing a cheap empty netter. This was not the case as this crazy play happened to tie the game.
The game moved into a 3rd OT when Penguins Petr Sykora fired this game winner. Before hand Sykora proclaimed in an interview that he would score the deciding goal.
The Wings totally outplayed the Pens and the appear to be the better team so far in the series. The Pens goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was outstanding with 55 saves and one hockey fan considers it one of the best Stanley Cup Finals games ever.
The Penguins do not die and keep marching on back to Pittsburgh for game 6 with the Wings still up 3-2 in the series.
Photo is from Getty Images
Update: My man Uncle Rico gave hockey a shout out a few weeks ago.
Mac Gs World
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Penguins Dont Die, Keep Marching
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
America Needs More Don Cherry
Just like the majority of the sports world, I stopped paying attention to hockey after their last work stoppage. The NHL's games are now on the Versus network, further cementing the league into media obscurity. This channel was so far off my Direct TV flipping remote rotation (Ch.608) that by the time I realized hockey was on, the game was over. Instead of playoff hockey, ESPN's prime time coverage included 2005 Poker US Open tournaments, spelling Bees, billiards and figure skating. It was a total kick in the nuts to the NHL! I watched my first 2 complete hockey games of the season, games 3 and 4 of Stanley Cup finals. It had it all: back and forth scoring, exciting offensive styles, and physical play. And yes, even some Fighting.
But by far the biggest highlight was Don Cherry's sound off during the 2nd intermission of Game 4. PURE Comedy! I knew he was funny and was a Canadian legend but I had no idea he was THIS hilarious. I think he forgets that he is on TV and could be more entertaining than my man Chuck Barkley.
My favorites included:
- His memo to NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol for more fighting
- Holding up a Buffalo paper that pictured famous fights
- His Tree Hugger's blast
- Calling Hull out for his own controversial goal
- His P.I.M.P. outfit.
