William Houston believes NBC's coverage was better than CBC's

From William Houston of the Globe & Mail:

A sequence early in last night's coverage of the Stanley Cup final's sixth game illustrated an important difference between the telecasts of the CBC and NBC.

The CBC's Don Cherry wondered, correctly, how much "gas in the tank" Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Marc-André Fleury had left after a hectic fifth game.

A few seconds later, NBC's Pierre McGuire asked a question on the same subject to Penguins forward Ryan Malone, who said the team had plenty left and was ready to go.

Cherry wondered; McGuire produced an answer.

Both networks did a fine job of covering the Cup final, but NBC worked harder at it, got closer to the action and, correctly, focused on the star players.

McGuire's work between the benches gave NBC a huge advantage over the CBC. He was able to interview coaches and players between stoppages in play and reported on news from the benches.

In the third overtime period of the fifth game, he reported that Petr Sykora was predicting that he would score the winning goal. A few seconds later, he did.

Read the entire article right here.

Well, what can I say? Houston is way, way off. In fact, I couldn't disagree more with the points he raises above. First off, Cherry wondered whether Fleury had enough gas in the tank and, after watching his performance on Wednesday night, I'd say Cherry was bang on. But instead, Houston applauds NBC for asking Ryan Malone if the team had any gas left. Is that a joke? Which player in his right mind is going to say his team is tired and out of gas???

Secondly, since when have interviews with coaches and players between periods and during the games been anything more than useless??? Every answer is cliche and adds nothing to the game. Instead of these useless interviews, I much prefer watching the game, replays and hearing reports on injuries from the likes of Oake and Friedman.

Finally, who the hell cares that Petr Sykora told McGuire he was going to score? Would that have changed the game for the viewer???? I mean, was Crosby going out there with the mindset that he wasn't going to score???? Sykora's comment was completely useless to the viewing public.

The CBC shuns Crosby

William Houston:

"The show's grudge against Crosby has gone well beyond ridiculous. Yes, host Ron MacLean interviewed him last Saturday, but the show's most influential commentator, Don Cherry, doesn't like him. And MacLean certainly defers to his elder."

Here is the full article courtesy of the Globe & Mail.

I have to be honest, I have not recognized any bias against Sidney Crosby by the CBC. Now, this may very well be the case, and Houston sure makes a compelling argument, but I just focus on the game itself and if some of the commentators believe Gary Roberts is playing an important role in the game, I am of the assumption that Sidney Crosby's importance is implied. Apparently Houston thinks otherwise.

The HD Corner - Sens/Pens Thoughts

Just as I was sitting down to watch game #1 between Ottawa and Pittsburgh, CBC’s HD feed caught my eye – all for the wrong reasons. Lo and behold, although the game was shown in widescreen and with 5.1 Dolby surround sound, it was in fact being shown in standard definition. Was this some kind of sick joke? Would CBC really not show its opening playoff game in true high-def? Apparently so. According to the Globe and Mail, CBC only has a limited amount of HD trucks at its disposal, and therefore opted to show the Calgary-San Jose game in true HD. The CBC only has two HD trucks; one will be used for the Calgary series, and one split in between the Ottawa and Montreal series. Once the series shifts to Ottawa, the HD truck will follow, meaning the Habs’ road games will be seen as if you were watching the game on a TV with rabbit ears and tinfoil, in your grandma’s kitchen. Instead of showing Venture or the Royal Canadian Air Farce in HD, maybe the CBC will come to realize that no one else cares about their other programming. I take that back – I actually quite enjoy a good episode of The Nature of Things from time to time.

Great work yesterday by Hughson and Garry Galley during the Sens game. Besides Hughson mixing up Meszaros with Commodore a couple of times (Meszaros wears 14 and Commodore wears 44), it was an impressive effort. More impressive than the Sens’ effort that’s forsure. I started to hyperventilate when Hughson called Commodore’s name during a Sens’ 5 on 3. If the CBC shows all the scratched and injured Sens sulking in the press box one more time I might snap. Why can’t they just show us a fat Mario Lemieux eating poutine in his private box like the good old days. I’d even take an interview with Ryan Malone’s father, talking about his son growing up in Pittsburgh and playing the role of hometown hero, than seeing another shot of Luke Richardson drinking a Bud Lite.

On a completely unrelated note, TSN revamped its entire website to correspond with the start of the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs. No word yet if Bob McKenzie put some liposuction or at least a couple botox injections on the TSN corporate account, to coincide with TSN.ca’s new look.

EURO CURVE

Euro Curve takes a look at the latest international hockey news.

- According to several sources, including The Globe and Mail and mlive.blogspot.com, Peter Forsberg has been forced to pull out of the Karjala Cup Tournament in Finland. Forsberg's ankle appears to be bothering him yet again and a timetable for his return remains unclear.

For Illegal Curve, I'm Ezra Ginsburg.