|
Written by FRE
|
|
Wednesday, 10 March 2010 19:18 |
Buoyed by the recent off-the-charts success of 3-D movies like Avatar and Alice in Wonderland at the box office, VS announced plans today to release the 2009-10 NHL playoffs in 3-D. They have also reportedly hired renowned director James Cameron to consult on the project.
VS Network President, Jamie Davis released the following statement to the media:
“VS is very pleased to announce that we will offer the NHL playoffs not only in HD but in 3-D as well. We have been working very hard over the past few months to implement 3-D technology into our broadcasts and test runs have been very successful. Mr. James Cameron has been very helpful consulting with our technical crew in presenting his vision for this new brand of 3-D experience. We will be rolling out this technology to our consumers starting with the hockey playoffs and branching into our other sports programming in the coming year. Hockey is a very exciting sport and this will take viewership to a new level, much like the FOXTRAX puck in the past. Imagine the excitement we will create when all-star players like Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin literally look like they are skating into your living room. We believe this innovation will revolutionize the sport and justify our demands with DirectTV for increases on our base contract with them. “
Hockeyoutsiders has learned that VS plans on mailing fold out 3-D glasses to their current list of cable subscribers which number about 100,000 in April. The glasses will come with a schedule of broadcasts available in 3-D and should be finalized by the last game of the NHL season, which concludes with Edmonton vs. Anaheim on April 11.
NHL Ratings Data Pre and Post Olympics
Of course, Gary Bettman was also not available for comment, as we were informed that he was currently busy analyzing current broadcast data from the week after the Olympics looking for the post games “bounce” in viewership. Hockeyoutsiders has obtained a graph of said network data from Mr. Bettman’s office which is presented at right (the vertical line indicates the Olympic break). His office further insists that the reports of “sobbing and wailing” coming from Mr. Bettman’s office were “greatly exaggerated and the work of a few malicious internet bloggers”. They also insist that speculation that Mr. Bettman was on the phone pleading with ESPN executives to resign with the NHL are “simply untrue”.
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 10 March 2010 19:31 )
|
|
Written by HO Staff
|
|
Tuesday, 02 March 2010 19:42 |
|
The original goal of this series was to finish prior to the Olympics’ being over, but who are we kidding? Olympic hockey ruled the news and the day and with such classic commentary by Mike Milbury and the US’s Cinderella run to the medal round was too riveting to make these stories even relevant. So now as we resume back to NHL action, we continue our series where we left off with the 4th place team in the Atlantic Conference, the New York Rangers. Please note this is the pre-deadline NY Rangers before Management decides to see what they can do in the market tomorrow. Hockeyoutsiders lead editor asked; “What was that HBO show with all the freaks in it?”…”Carnivale?”, yeah, that’s your 2009-10 NY Rangers. If you missed the rest of the series, you can find it under the NHL teams, Atlantic division tabs...
Ryan Callahan, who is the Rangers most talented up and coming player, is Ben Hawkins. Both guys have loads of talent, they just haven’t fully utilized it yet.
Marian Gaborik is Brother Justin Crowe. Gaborik just has that creepy, I’m wicked good type of attitude, especially when he’s healthy.
King Henrik is the ringleader no matter how you spin it. If he was also a midget, these guys would be twins.
Back in the day both of these guys were clutch. Now, not so much. Unless they are put in certain situations, see, Hockey, Olympics.
You never know what you’re going to get with Michal Rozsival, the same could be said of Professor Lodz. Plus they both have that “z” thing going on in their names or as our brethren in Canada would say "zed".
It’s just too easy sometimes to make fun of big Olli Jokinen. Comparing him to a guy with the nickname of “Stumpy” is just about right. Olli “Stumpy” Jokinen, yup, that has a subtle ring to it. I think Olli should be referred to as Stumpy from here on out. Stumpy was amazing in that bronze medal game.
Dolan was a bit of a maverick wild card in the show. Prospal has bounced around to his fair share of teams. Always just enough talent to be dangerous, not enough consistency to remain employeed by one team too long.
Fans of the show and the NY Rangers will know EXACTLY what I’m talking about by comparing Wade Redden to Apollonia who is the invalid confined to her bed for the entire series. Both were pretty good once upon a time.
The bearded lady only has one equal. {insert sloppy seconds joke here}
Now this one we probably have to explain a little. The whole series had a mysterious figure behind the curtain pulling the strings. That figure would make decisions that ranged from downright brilliant to amazingly stupid depending of course on the situation. Sather definitely fits the bill of the puppet master. Only one more team to go, the NY Islanders. Will we finish anytime before the end of the year? There is a distinct possiblity that we will or we may just get bored and leave the poor Islanders to your collective imaginations.
|
|
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 02 March 2010 20:17 )
|
|
Written by Administrator
|
|
Thursday, 25 February 2010 17:16 |
|
A few days ago, Managing Editor FRE aka Jason had the pleasure of sitting down and talking with the boys over at Broad Street Hockey in their weekly podcast. You can listen to it here. It was a great interview and it was awesome to be able to talk Olympic hockey, Flyers, the upcoming playoff push and even a little curling. He also had the pleasure of talking about some of our more infamous stories from the HO archives. (Ed. Note: While the original text of the Kasparitis for Desjardins trade has been lost, due to legal technicalities, the Gazette recount is here: "An Internet hoax caused a bit of a stir among the Penguins yesterday afternoon, when word began to circulate that they had traded D Darius Kasparaitis to Philadelphia for D Eric Desjardins and RW Pavel Brendl. General Manager Craig Patrick was quick to shoot down the story from the Hockeyoutsider.com Web site -- "I have never, ever talked to Philadelphia about Kaspar," he said -- but not before G Johan Hedberg got a call from his brother in Sweden asking about the purported deal. Indeed, Patrick said he received a call from his executive assistant, Tracey Botsford, asking if there was a need to begin processing paperwork. There wasn't. Not unless Patrick wanted to bring legal action over the fabricated quotes that were attributed to him.")
|
|
Last Updated ( Friday, 26 February 2010 14:49 )
|
|
Written by FRE
|
|
Tuesday, 23 February 2010 16:32 |
New York, NY. (HO) In a surprise move today, Hockeyoutsiders has learned that NBC has decided to replace long time broadcaster Ed Olczyk in an effort to increase it's ratings for it's Sunday afternoon telecast of the NHL hockey game of the week. Despite NBC almost always picking the Pittsburgh game of the week, ratings have been off the mark projected for the NHL this season and because of this, NBC has decided to pull the plug on Olczyk's broadcast career.
Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics released the following statement; "We thank Mr. Olczyk for his contributions to our NBC broadcasts of NHL hockey, but we feel that it's time to go in a different direction. We believe the NHL product is still extremely viable and exciting and we believe that we have made the right choice going forward with a more than capable replacement for Ed."
The new face of NBC NHL hockey
Mr. Olczyk, even though he was tremendously tremendous, again became victim of a product that was largely underperforming despite recent surges in viewership due to the Olympics and also regional rivalries such as the Capitals and Flyers vs. Penguins.
Word out of NBC is that Celine Dion was Ebersol's first choice, but Dion's current pregnancy prevented her from being able to fulfill the required duties.
Hockeyoutsiders reached out to Mr. Olcyzk to ask for a reaction to the news and he told us "I have no comment other than I am not a happy human."
|
|
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 23 February 2010 17:00 )
|
|
