Saturday, December 13, 2008

Memo to HNIC

Dear Hockey Night in Canada,

When we said we wanted our Saturday nights to have a "playoff atmosphere", this isn't what we meant and you know it.

Get bent,
Leaf Nation




12 comments:

  1. you talking about the no Leafs game on CBC? What the hell? I refused to watch hockey tonight, maybe if they get low ratings they won't pull this stupid stunt again.

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  2. There was hockey on CBC tonight?

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  3. 3 or 4 more times this season it's supposed to happen I heard.

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  4. Hah, wow, I didn't expect people to get too upset about this. What's wrong with it being on a different night?

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  5. Hah, wow, I didn't expect people to get too upset about this. What's wrong with it being on a different night?

    Because I'm a Leaf fan, and I'm used to a certain Saturday night routine.

    It goes something like this:
    7:00 - Sit in favorite chair
    7:05 - Crack open first beer
    7:10 - Opening faceoff
    7:25 - Think about Jason Blake contract, swear
    7:45 - Coach's Corner!
    8:15 - Crack open fourth beer
    8:30 - WHY IS EVERYBODY ALWAYS OPEN IN FRONT OF OUR NET???
    9:10 - Switch to booze. No ice.
    9:40 - Throw remote through TV
    9:50 - Ponder remaining decades as Leaf fan
    9:55 - Insist to wife that those aren't tears, simply having contact lens problem

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  6. I read this 10 minutes ago and am still laughing at 7:25 and 9:40

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  7. Mirtle: Nothing wrong with it being on another night. The leafs game on Friday wasn't an HNIC broadcast however.

    But that wasn't a bad thing cause we got to listen to a real hockey announcer (Bowen) as opposed to a baseball guy vainly trying to follow the play (Hughson).

    Agree with the general sentiment of this post though. HNIC: I won't be tuning in on Saturday to watch the hated Sens or Habs; the overrated Flames and the perennial disappointments that are the Oilers and Canucks just because you are not broadcasting the Leafs.

    Mirtle ordinarily this wouldn't have bugged me but when the news of this came out before the season started there was plenty of ink spilled in Toronto about how this was some kind of move by the CBC to send a message to the LEafs that their product quality had slipped so CBC wouldn't be showing their games.

    I don't know if it was true but the schadenfreude emanating from scribes like Howie Berger et. al was palpable and sickening.

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  8. It has nothing to do with CBC. TSN and Sportsnet requested more mid-week leafs games so the NHL decided to rob us of some Saturday night games.

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  9. Beau: probably true but when it happened that wasn't how it was reported in some circles.

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  10. It has nothing to do with CBC. TSN and Sportsnet requested more mid-week leafs games so the NHL decided to rob us of some Saturday night games.

    Yes and no. My understanding is that the new CBC deal, with fewer Leaf games, was signed months before the TSN deal. That deal reduced the number of Leaf games on HNIC from something like 28 to 23. We don't know whether CBC actually wanted to reduce Leaf coverage, or if it was a negotiating move to keep the price reasonable.

    In either case, it's certainly true that TSN and Sportsnet jumped all over the opportunity to show more Leafs games mid-week. Reports of the Leafs demise as a television property have been greatly exagerated.

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  11. That brought me back to the lockout year where it was tortureous for most of the winter without hockey on, particularly on Saturday night.

    I'd add to DGB's routine:

    8:40 - Hope Milbury goes nuts and pounds Strachan in face

    9:45 - Curse Muskoka 5 for what could have been this year and the future

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