I was watching the Ottawa-Buffalo game tonight, Game 2 of the NHL Eastern Conference Finals. The game went to double overtime where Ottawa won, 4-3 in thrilling fashion. However, instead of showing replays that had clear views of the winning goal, viewers were shown netcam, low on-ice shots and blurry replays that did not show how the goal was scored. And there was no post-game analysis. Instead, Versus went right to PBR, or Professional Bull Riding. If the NHL thinks Versus gives the league full coverage, then Commissioner Gary Bettman must be smoking the crack pipe because viewers were short changed.
I don’t care if Versus spent millions of dollars in rights fees to the NHL or PBR, I expect a network that gives priority to the NHL to give full coverage instead of signing off quickly without warning to viewers.
ESPN would have given coverage on ESPNews and SportsCenter. I don’t like ESPN, but I think their sports news programs would have given the NHL better post-game coverage than what Versus gave to the NHL Saturday Night.
I know NBA Commissioner David Stern would not have approved of how Versus signed off.
I’ll be back on Monday.
