Hockey Night: More NHL games coming to your TV, computer
WILLIAM HOUSTON
From Thursday's Globe and Mail


More games and more choices.

That was the message from the Canadian networks in announcing their 2007-08 NHL national schedules yesterday.

For the first time, the CBC's Hockey Night in Canada will stream all telecasts.

That means a viewer in Halifax with a high-speed Internet connection will be able to watch a Montreal Canadiens game online even though a Toronto Maple Leafs game is airing in that market.

(Viewers with digital television also have access to Hockey Night telecasts in each market.) Both the CBC and TSN have increased slightly the number of games they will carry. The CBC schedule, starting with the Anaheim Ducks-Los Angeles Kings from London on Sept. 29, jumps to 85 games from 81.

TSN's schedule, which begins Oct. 3 with Ottawa Senators visiting the Leafs, is up by one game to 70.

The most significant CBC scheduling change is the decision to assign a slate of games to Saturday afternoons.

Hockey Night will air six Saturday afternoon telecasts, four of them involving Ottawa.

Sherali Najak, Hockey Night's executive producer, said the CBC wanted to use Saturday afternoons, despite the perception it's a weak time slot, because it eliminates the need to air split regional telecasts in prime time.

"It's a full network showcase," he said. "And it kind of settles the viewer in for the evening game. It just gives us more depth in our coverage."

Hockey Day in Canada, on Feb. 9, will lose its all-Canadian matchups because of the NHL's unbalanced schedule.

Detroit Red Wings will play Toronto at 3 p.m. EST, followed by a split telecast, Montreal-Ottawa and Edmonton-Calgary Flames at 7 p.m., and Colorado Avalanche-Vancouver Canucks at 10 p.m.

The breakdown of Canadian team appearances on Hockey Night has changed slightly. An increase in regional coverage means the Senators, last season's Stanley Cup runner-up, will be seen six more times, 20 in total. Montreal's schedule jumps to 17 from 13. Vancouver Canucks will appear 14 times, which is the same number as last season. Calgary will get 14 appearances (down from 17) and Edmonton 13 (17 last season).

The Leafs will continue to be Hockey Night's featured attraction. They will appear every Saturday night, except for the afternoon slot on Hockey Day, for a total of 28 times.

TSN's telecasts involving Canadian teams will increase to 40 from 36. Canadiens will be seen 13 times; Leafs seven; Senators, Flames and Oilers six each; Canucks five. Thirteen games will feature the Pittsburgh Penguins (and star Sidney Crosby).

About half of TSN's telecasts will be shot in high-definition TV. The CBC's HDTV schedule wasn't announced.

NBC's nine-game regular season schedule will start Jan. 20 (all telecasts in HDTV). The network will employ a flexible schedule, choosing one game from up to four on Sunday afternoons by giving the league 13 days notice. TSN will air four of the NBC flex schedule games.

NHL Network will air 40 regular-season games; Versus, the U.S. cable channel, 57; HDNet will provide a flexible schedule of games Thursdays and Saturdays; French language RDS will focus on its 82-game Canadiens schedule.

So once again, Vancouver hockey fans are getting the raw end of national NHL broadcasts.

Clearly the bigwigs at CBC and TSN will never see any good reason to give the Vancouver Canucks an equal, or even close to equal, amount of national air time.  

All I can say is...go figure, it's nothing new.

As a Canucks fan...I'm pretty used to getting hosed by CBC.  

I'm really surprised that TSN is only giving the Canucks 5 games...and very dissapointed.

Lets also mention our Western friends Calgary & Edmonton also get the shaft of the stick.

Pratt & Taylor up to you to air on Sportsnet. How the west gets a bad call. I'll be watching and answer the dam phone.  

Yes - you definitely have to consider how the Flames and Oilers get the shaft not only on number of national broadcasts, but the commentators they often have assigned to their games. But that's another story.

For me, it's hard to comprehend how the Canucks can be shown so few times on CBC and TSN when Vancouver provides the second-largest English language market in Canada...

Is it all the 10 pm games for the EASTERN time zone that's the problem?

I know Canucks fans are always going to be upset that the Canucks don't get as many games but can you really blame the CBC?  The try to serve the most amount of people as possible, and it just so happens that there are more Leafs and Canadians fans than the rest of the teams combined.  Metro-Toronto has the greatest amount of people, and there are also Leafs fans all throughout Canada.  The Leafs travel well, the Canucks do not travel as well.  You don't see many Canucks fans east of the Rockies, whereas you see Leafs fans all throughout Canada.  More people want to see the Leafs play than the Canucks it's just a fact of life.  I know the Leafs are polarizing, but but they are serving the majority which is what any good network would do.