Thursday, October 06, 2005

Ah, the NHL

I was so dismayed at the idea that I might not get to watch any hockey action last night, outside of the highlights on SportsCenter. ESPN dropped the NHL contract, and the NHL Center Ice package is not being carried by Insight. It had been some 500+ days since I watched the 2004 Stanley Cup finals, and I positively missed the NHL.

So, big thumbs up to my local cable operator, Insight. For reasons unknown to me, Insight carries the St. Louis feed for FSN. Why not the feeds from closer cities like Chicago, Detroit, or Columbus, OH? Who knows, but FSN St. Louis carries Blues games, and at least for last night, it was completely satisfying to watch a Blues-Red Wings game. I'll at least get the four Blues-Sharks games, and that will be excellent. It's not the same watching the Blues lose without Chris Pronger there anymore.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does Insight carry OLN? Last night they carried the Rangers-Flyers game.

Mike Kole said...

Nope. That's why I was really dismayed, until I discovered that FSN had the Blues games.

In all candor, I looked at OLN's schedule and was not impressed. It's a scant schedule, for one thing. They are catering to some pretty generic tastes: NY & Philly because they are large markets; a lousy Phoenix team because Gretzky is the coach... it's just like ESPN started out with the contract 11 years ago. Calgary and Tampa Bay are barely on the schedule, and they were the Stanley Cup finalists! What ESPN learned was that hockey fans will watch just about any game, and that it's better to go for real rivalry games like Edmonton-Calgary, Toronto-Montreal, or Detroit-Colorado if they want a ratings bump.

Anonymous said...

The problem with FSN will be that when the Pacers season starts that will be what they show.

Mike Kole said...

Really? I thought WB was carrying Pacer games again.

Typical- FSN is *not* carrying Saturday's Blues-Sharks game because it is a home game not expected to sell out. Do I really want to drive to St. Louis for the game?

Anonymous said...

The WB carrys the road games, and FSN the home games, at least that has how it has been in the past. I hadn't heard of that changing.