Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Round Two set for debut on Wednesday night

Vancouver won't get much of a rest, they leave the glow of GM Place on Tuesday to travel to Anaheim and begin their Western Conference playoff round with the Ducks on Wednesday night. A matchup that CBC will broadcast across the nation starting at 7 pm PST, 10 pm EST and 11:30 for the hockey mad residents of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Canucks game is the night cap of the round two debut, earlier that night TSN will resume its playoff coverage with the Battle of New York State as the Rangers travel upstate to play the Sabres.

Thursday finds the Devils and Senators on the CBC as they launch their playoff series at 7 pm (4 pm PST), half an hour later the Sharks and Red Wings take to the ice at the Joe Louis arena broadcast coast to coast on TSN.

The second round has proven to be a more successful outing for the CBC in the NHL boardroom, NBC seems to have selected the Sabres/Rangers and Sharks/Red Wings as their high profile match ups.

Leaving the Sens and Canucks games to the CBC and prime time exposure in Canada including the holy grail broadcast night of Saturday's Hockey Night in Canada broadcast, which will feature the Sens and Devils at 8 pm EST, 5 PM pacific.

William Houston, dug up the details of the backroom talks and how the second round will appear on your television sets.

CBC has its wish granted
WILLIAM HOUSTON
Globe and Mail Update

April 24, 2007

Hockey Night In Canada has been given back its traditional Saturday night time slot for the second round of the National Hockey League playoffs.

The CBC complained at the start of the post-season when it was denied a Saturday prime time game on the first weekend.

The network will air the second game of the New Jersey Devils-Ottawa Senators series Saturday at 8 p.m. EDT.

The fifth game, if needed, is scheduled for the following Saturday, May 5, in prime time. The CBC draws a larger audience on Saturday nights than it does in the afternoon.

The other good news for the CBC was the Vancouver Canucks advancing to the second round.

The Canucks, playing Anaheim Ducks, will give the CBC a second series involving a Canadian team.

In the first round, the NHL schedule-maker gave NBC the Saturday afternoon spot for the second game of the Pittsburgh Penguins-Senators series because the U.S. network wanted to showcase Penguins star Sidney Crosby.

The CBC viewed that decision as unfair given that it pays the league a $65-million rights fee annually while NBC pays nothing in a profit sharing arrangement with the NHL.

In the second round, NBC will air on Saturday and Sunday afternoon games involving Buffalo Sabres-New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings-San Jose Sharks.

TSN's second-round coverage will focus on the Sabres-Rangers and the Red Wings-Sharks series. The Sabres and Rangers play their first game Wednesday at 7 p.m. The Red Wings-Sharks series starts Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

The first telecast of the Canucks-Ducks series is Wednesday at 10 p.m. on the CBC. Game 1 of the Ottawa-New Jersey series, on the CBC, is Thursday at 7 p.m.

The CBC will shoot all the games in the Ottawa-New Jersey series in high definition television. Games 3 and 4 and 6, if necessary, of the Vancouver-Anaheim series will be in HDTV.

Jim Hughson and Harry Neale will stay in the West to call the Vancouver-Anaheim series. Bob Cole and Greg Millen will provide play by play for the Ottawa-New Jersey series.

TSN will provide HDTV for all second round telecasts. Gord Miller and Pierre McGuire will call the Rangers-Sabres series. Chris Cuthbert and Glenn Healy will be in the booth for Red Wings-Sharks.


WEDNESDAY APRIL 25-NEW YORK @ BUFFALO 7PM ET/4PM PT (TSN)
WEDNESDAY APRIL 25-VANCOUVER @ ANAHEIM 10 PM ET/7 PM PT (CBC)

THURSDAY APRIL 26- OTTAWA @ NEW JERSEY 7PM ET/4 PM PT (CBC)
THURSDAY APRIL 26- SAN JOSE @ DETROIT 7:30 PM ET/4:30 PM PT (TSN)

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