Sunday, January 17, 2010

Too Much Milbury; Not Enough LeBrun



This weekend's "Coach's Corner" on "Hockey Night in Canada" seems somewhat sedate, from Don Cherry's clothing decisions to the topics on the table. The Canadian Hockey League prospects game draws players from the three leagues (Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League) that compose the CHL. The top draft eligible players get yet another chance to play in front of scouts and against top competition.

In the game last season, John Tavares sustained an injury that kept him out of a few games and gave people sitting around any number of hot stoves a good discussion item for a few weeks.

HNiC's intermission segment with the most news value, the "Hot Stove," was both focused and informative, and that is saying something when you have Mike Milbury participating in the conversation.

Milbury's antics on HNic are rather tame and lucid when you look at his contributions on NBC's intermission segments today during the Chicago-Detroit game. European soccer crybabies, or something quite like that, was the latest gem from the man whose brilliant management contributed to no Stanley Cups and multiple headaches on Long Island. The NBC segment is called 'Mike's Hat Trick." So far, he has uttered "piggy, piggy, oink, oink" and the European soccer reference -- emphasis, I am wagering, on European.

Milbury tries to do Don Cherry and stumbles once again.

Good to see Pierre LeBrun, who is sentenced to the isolation chamber on ESPN, his regular employer. Try to find LeBrun on ESPN, the self-proclaimed leader in sports only it wants to televise, and you will age a few years. He's written work is on the NHL pages of the ESPN Web site -- his blog there is a must read -- and you might get a video offering on the Web site from time to time.

But their most authoratative voice on the NHL is silent on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews and any other ESPN television outlet out there.

I doubt any of the issues mentioned on HNiC's Hot Stove managed to earn any significant amount of time on ESPN's channels. In the United States, that makes the NHL Network, the Center Ice package and the Internet (CBC, TSN, Sportsnet, RDS) the most valuable first line for televised news about the NHL.

***A reminder that there are two early games on Monday. The Ottawa Senators will face the Boston Bruins starting at 1 p.m. Eastern. At 2 p.m. Eastern, the New Jersey Devils join the bridge and tunnel crowd to visit the New York Islanders. Both games will be televised in the local markets and nationally on the Center Ice package. For everyone, the games will be on local radio as well as Internet and Satellite radio.



THE SCOREBOARD
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Chicago 6, at Columbus 5
At Dallas 3, Detroit 2 SO
At Colorado 3, New Jersey 1
At Los Angeles 4, Boston 3 SO
At San Jose 4, Edmonton 2
Ottawa 4, at Montreal 2
At N.Y. Islanders 3, Buffalo 2 SO
At Florida 5, Tampa Bay 2
Atlanta 5, at Carolina 3
At St. Louis 4, N.Y. Rangers 1
At Phoenix 6, Minnesota 4
At Vancouver 6, Pittsburgh 2
The standings are here.
Recap by Sportsnet.
Three stars by Puck Daddy.

AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE
Portland 3, at Lowell 2 SO
At Albany 4, Bridgeport 3 OT
At Abbotsford 6, Lake Erie 3
At Grand Rapids 3, Hamilton 1
At Hartford 3, Providence 2
At Hershey 7, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 2
Springfield 5, at Binghamton 2
At Worcester 5, Manchester 2
Adirondack 3, at Norfolk 1
Rochester 4, at Syracuse 3
Milwaukee 6, at Manitoba 2
At Peoria 4, Rockford 3 SO
At Houston 5, Toronto 2
The standings are here.
The roundup is here.

EAST COAST HOCKEY LEAGUE
Florida 3, at Trenton 1
At Reading 4, Elmira 3
At South Carolina 4, Kalamazoo 1
At Gwinnett 4, Charlotte 3 SO
Toledo 5, at Cincinnati 3
Johnstown 4, at Wheeling 3 OT
At Victoria 6, Bakersfield 5 SO
At Stockton 6, Utah 4
At Alaska 3, Las Vegas 0
The standings are here.

QUEBEC MAJOR JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
At Victoriaville 6, Gatineau 4
At Moncton 5, Chicoutimi 1
Drummondville 6, Prince Edward Island 5 SO
At Saint John 8, Acadie-Bathurst 2
At Val-d'Or 4, Lewiston 3 SO
The standings are here.
The roundup is here.

ONTARIO HOCKEY LEAGUE
At Erie 4, Sarnia 3
At Peterborough 7, Kingston 4
London 4, at Belleville 2
Mississauga 4, at Oshawa 1
At Plymouth 3, Niagara 0
At Windsor 4, Sault Ste. Marie 1
Sudbury 4, at Owen Sound 3 OT
The standings are here.
The roundup is here.

WESTERN HOCKEY LEAGUE
At Moose Jaw 1, Prince Albert 0
Swift Current 4, at Regina 3 SO
Medicine Hat 3, at Saskatoon 2 OT
At Brandon 5, Edmonton 1
At Kootenay 4, Spokane 3
Calgary 3, at Lethbridge 0
Red Deer 4, at Kelowna 3
Vancouver 7, at Prince George 2
At Everett 5, Chilliwack 1
Kamloops 3, at Seattle 2
At Tri-City 6, Portland 2
The standings are here.
The roundup is here.

UNITED STATES HOCKEY LEAGUE
Team USA 6, Youngstown 1
At Sioux City 1, Indiana 0
Des Moines 3, at Fargo 2 SO
At Omaha 4, Lincoln 1
At Tri-City 3, Sioux Falls 2 OT
Green Bay 3, at Waterloo 1
At Cedar Rapids 6, Chicago 1
The standings are here.
The roundup is here.

No comments:

Post a Comment