Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Two hours in and counting, a few observations

The three sports networks in Canada have blocked off the programming grid today, with all hockey all the time. TSN seems to have the most informative of the panels, a star studded affair without many gimmicks, just hard working guys pounding away on their Blackberries, panels to the left of us, panels to the right here we are stuck on the channel for news.

Sportsnet is hosting the deadline bash, which appears to be what things would look like if they used a Boston Pizza as a set. There’s gals running around with plates of food, there’s television sets everywhere and there is that pounding rock background famous at bars and grills across the continent. Babes seem to be a central feature of the Deadline bash, Sportsnet has acquired the services of the Deal or No Deal presenters who diligently trot out every once in a while to show off their Sportsnet tee shirts and give the panel a name to discuss from the rumour pile. As an added bonus, the Hanson Brothers are on the set as well, make a wrong move on the nachos and they’ll take care of you. Maybe invite them to your playoff pool as security...

The Score by comparison is like the small crowd around the office cooler, there are three guys, a bit of talk and no flash, no glitz. I click on them every once in a while because hey they showed up for work, the least I can do is look through the window once and a while. But for breaking news we'll move along thanks.

That being said, it seems that TSN is on top of the game, though the first fresh report of the day will come from RDS out of Quebec.

Fortunately for the networks Buffalo finally pulled the trigger on a deal shortly after 8 am, as RDS reported that Martin Biron would be moving his pugilistic skills to a town that truly appreciates them. Biron moves on to Philadelphia as the Sabres declare once and for all that Ryan Miller will be the one to lead them to the Cup. For insurance purposes they pick up Ty Conklin from Columbus, though this is met with less than tepid enthusiasm by panels everywhere who conjure up the ghosts of Edmonton as their evidence.

Georges Laraque gets his wish and he can move out of the desert as the designated bodyguard to Sidney Crosby. He will be joining Gary Roberts who was convinced that the Pens were the real deal last night. Suddenly the Penguins have increased their depth and we suspect that young Mr. Crosby won’t have to worry about being manhandled in Montreal any more.

The TSN cameras focus in on Ryan Smith skating circles on the ice at an Edmonton practice, what this means in uncertain, other than the fact that he still skates in an Oiler uniform and panic won't set in just yet in Northern Alberta.

St. Louis continues to clean out the locker room, Bill Guerin has moved on the way to San Jose. A solid move by the Sharks to add even more potential scoring punch to a line up that should be filling the net. Bringing in Guerin will probably take some of the pressure off of the big guns in San Jose allowing them to get back into a goal scoring flow that we’ve been used to.

Sportsnet commits the sin of Commercialism by being in a commercial break while the news breaks on the Guerin deal, but then again you have to pay for the chicken wings and nachos somehow don’t you.

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