Ok, so I didn't make it back to the blog last night. I guess that's ok.
Part of what I wanted to talk about was Wednesday night's Pens game against the Wild. On the 13th I talked about the lights going out on Broadway because of the reference to the Billy Joel song "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)" and the fact that they refer to the Rangers as playing on Broadway. However, on Wed. I saw the lights go out in the Mellon Arena. There was 31.9 seconds left in the first period and wham! No lights anywhere. Everyone was sitting completely in the dark for a second or two. Then slowly everything kicked back on. So, the announcement was made that they would tack on the 31.9 seconds to the beginning of the 2nd period. So, when they came back, they had them take the same sides of the ice they had for the 1st period skate for 31.9 seconds then switch places. It was fairly asinine in my opinion, but no more so than not broadcasting the Heritage Classic outdoor game in the United States. They're playing 2 outdoor hockey games tomorrow. One is an old-timer's game between Montreal and Edmonton alumni including Wayne Gretzky and, to the chagrin of everyone but myself and Darren Pang, Mark Messier. And then the Oilers and Montreal will play a regular season game outside. Everyone says it's generating a lot of talk and will cause quite a stir in the hockey world. How the hell would I know? I won't get to see it until next weekend on ESPN Classic where they butcher the coverage and only show you what they consider to be the "interesting" part of the games.
Now, don't get me wrong, I like the Classic channel for catching things like the Pens 8-0 victory for the Cup against Minnesota and Mario's return to the ice in 2000, but that's only because I've seen both those games, know how they end, and can live with the fact that the coverage is chopped up. For a monumental game such as this, I want to see every minute on the ice. I want to see the weather being a factor in the game for players like Saku Koivu. I want to see some blowing snow catch the goalie in the mask and give someone a wide open net. But I won't get to.
ESPN bitches about the attendance at hockey games and the general fall-off of popularity. Did anyone ever think that they might play a fairly large factor in that? They are the Sports channel for pete's sake.
Enough ranting. Time to get stuff packed up, find out where my guests are on the road and enjoy the rest of my weekend. Which hopefully I will get to do by seeing the Pens stomp New Jersey tonight and Ottawa tomorrow. (Optimistic ain't I?)