Is Hockey Night Falling Behind NBC?

Source: By JAMES DEACON, AOL Sports

Posted: 06/04/08 10:23AM

Filed Under: Columnists

The unthinkable has happened.

Hockey Night in Canada, the absolute gold standard in hockey broadcasting for generations, is being matched - and in some aspects beaten - in its coverage of the Stanley Cup Finals.

By NBC, no less. An American network.

It's sacrilege to even suggest such a thing. Hockey fans expect HNIC to be the best because, well, it always has been.

American camera operators couldn't even follow the puck, or so we always thought.

But in the series between Detroit and Pittsburgh, NBC has put on a better show.

Mike Emrick's play-calling has been sharp and up to speed. He's knowledgeable, clearly loves the game and has a great sense of the moment.

Former NHLer and ex-Penguins coach Ed Olczyk has been good as Emrick's in-booth analyst, and the loud and enthusiastic Pierre McGuire, chipping in from ice level, adds huge value because of what he sees and hears in his post between the benches, and because of his own keen insights into the sport.

NBC has occasionally been better between periods, too, in the spots that HNIC used to own. The network has shown interesting profiles and interviews of key players, and the sparring between McGuire and Mike Milbury has produced some sparks during their intermission analyses.

Some parts of the NBC production feel forced and too glitzy for the hockey crowd, but overall, there's more excitement in the NBC telecast.

HNIC, meanwhile, is a victim of its own enormous success. Bob Cole's call of games, for instance, is definitive - to generations of fans in Canada, his voice IS the sound of hockey.

He's maybe the best ever at his trade, and he's still good - he stayed strong even into the third overtime of Game 5.

But Scotty Bowman, still strong, found reason to retire from coaching.

There's no dishonour in retirement in your 70s after a great career. On the other hand, no one likes to watch performers stay past their prime, and Cole, in his mid-70s, has lost some pace and electricity in his calls.

Cole is in the Hockey Hall of Fame, and he deserves to be treated with respect, and Scott Moore, who took on a lot when he succeeded Nancy Lee as head of CBC Sports, showed respect by not setting a date for a transition in the broadcast booth.

Moore will only say that Cole will not be calling the finals when his current six-year contract ends.

Is that the right call? Or is it too late? Chris Chelios is a fabled NHL veteran and future hall-of-famer, yet Detroit hasn't dressed him in the finals because he has lost a step and speedier Wings are available to play.

Similarly, HNIC has Jim Hughson, who's enormously talented and ready to succeed Cole. But he is on the sidelines during these finals.

There are other issues. Ron MacLean and Don Cherry have veered off on a tangent, and it has hurt the usually popular Coach's Corner.

Their focus on Penguins veteran Gary Roberts is self-defeating: even if Roberts had been a force in this series, he wouldn't have warranted the amount of airtime that's been devoted to him on this showcase segment. There are other compelling stories to tell, and certainly other deserving players to talk about.

The Roberts obsession completely undermines the virtues of the Corner. It takes time away from Cherry's trademark analysis of what's happening in the game that night. And it's boring.

Boring? That's not a word you ever see in a sentence about Cherry. He may go offside, he may offend, he may dress in the dark, but he's never been boring.

Yet his Roberts' tick is every bit as audience-numbing as MacLean's rants about two referees and new rules.

Cherry and MacLean are entitled to their opinions; just don't pummel us with them. This is TV, and Cherry's great talent all these years has been his knack for turning what once was dead air between periods into must-watch programming.

Lately, however, Coach's Corner has fallen short. And in Game 5, when Cherry started in on Roberts yet again, it was the universal all-clear for TV viewers to head to the fridge for a beer. They weren't going to miss anything.

Contact James Deacon at JamesDeaconCA@aol.com