Sunday, May. 03, 2009

You don't know what you're missing

Game 6 of the Capitals-Rangers first-round series last Sunday had such poor ratings on NBC that it tied with a taped poker event.

I don't understand. Hockey is a fast-paced sport with action nearly every second that it's on the screen -- unlike baseball, where you can make a sandwich and throw in a load of laundry between pitches.

NBC, VERSUS and the NHL Network have had good coverage of the playoffs this year and after a switch in network providers, I get all three stations.

With the Americans out of the playoff race, I have to get my hockey fix, and the second-round action Saturday was worth watching.

Washington rookie goalie Simeon Varlamov had an impressive diving stick save on the goal line of a shot by Sidney Crosby in the early game on NBC.

The Capitals-Penguins series has star power with Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin, and a lot of young stars -- Brooks Laich (Moose Jaw, Seattle), Mike Green (Saskatoon), Shaone Morrisonn (Kamloops) and Jeff Schultz (Calgary) -- who were suiting up in the WHL not so long ago.

At dinner time, I caught Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo diving across the mouth of the goal to redirect the puck outside of the post to rob Chicago's Ben Eager of a goal in the second period.

The Blackhawks are young, but have a ton of talent in Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Dustin Byfuglien (Brandon Wheat, Prince George) and Brent Seabrook (Lethbridge), while veteran goalie Nikolai Khabibulin balances things out.

Sure, Toews bailed on the Americans, opting for North Dakota and the NHL, but he sure is fun to watch.

My co-worker Kevin, who admits to not being a hockey fan, watched the Capitals-Penguins game (which he said was "pretty not bad on HD") and said he was impressed. But not impressed enough to watch the Canucks-Blackhawks game -- he controls the TV remote at the Herald and we had the Celtics-Bulls game on the tube at the office, which I'm sure grabbed the lion's share of sports viewers.

Kevin said it was hard to follow the puck (easier to do in HD), which can true, but once you catch on to the flow of the game, it becomes much easier to do.

The only thing I have found disturbing through all of this hockey watching is VERSUS studio man Brian Engblom, who can't seem to match his shirt and tie. One night he was wearing a dark brown suit, a dark mustard colored shirt and a purple striped tie. Other combinations have been just as criminal. Don Cherry can get away with outlandish outfits, but Engblom needs to be hip-checked a few channels over to Bravo for the cast of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy to give him a fashion tip or two.

So, give hockey a try today. The Ducks and Red Wings are on NBC at 11 a.m., while the Hurricanes and Bruins are on VERSUS at 4:30 p.m. If nothing else, you can see Boston's Zdeno Chara -- all 6-foot-9, 260 pounds of him -- blast the puck at the net at 100 mph.