Takes and trash talk from both ALL sides of the NHL's most obscure PATHETIC* rivalry

* Thanks, Kevin Lowe!

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Ducks Gameday—I used to not care about Sidney Crosby

Now I hate the guy.

Tuesday night's Ducks game at St. Louis will begin at 5:30 p.m. (PST). However, because of the exclusive rights window owned by Versus on Tuesday evening, the game will be joined in progress on KDOC at 6 p.m.

No other regional broadcasts can be in progress opposite the Versus telecast of Pittsburgh vs. New York Rangers.
Listen, normally I don't give a fuck how much Crosby or Ovechkin the league wants to sell me. I don't care how much Versus tells me how much I gotta love Brodeur, Miller, and Lundqvist.

But I'm not going to bite. I'm a western conference fan, dammit—tell me exactly why it matters to me what goes on in the east? There's 15 teams out east-side that are being measured on their own separate standings-board that we rarely interact with; they are for the most part inconsequential to me (until, say, the Cup Finals or something).

Of course I'll watch eastern games when there's no games in the west, but mostly with disinterest; I'm rarely pulling for any particular outcome. Blame the schedule, or blame me the stupid shortsighted fan, but don't forcefeed me, dammit. If I want to watch Crosby and Jagr, I'll find the damn channel. Preventing me from watching the game I want to watch is flat-out stupid.

Sure there's probably contract language that's gotta be worked out, but for sure somebody dropped the ball here. Hell, the Ducks even threw their first watch party of the year for a game they couldn't air the first twelve minutes of. And for that, I say, "Sorry, Sid, but get the fuck out of my face."

p.s. Doubly irritating is the fact that I spent the entire 30-minute "Sid-out" watching the Leafs play the Thrashers. For sure they would not pull this shit off in Canada, but yeah, go ahead and piss off the Cali fans.

21 comments:

RudyKelly said...

That is bullshit, they should have an exception for local feeds. And why the hell are the Ducks on KDOC anyway, they're preventing me from watching The Nanny!

Oh well, at least Kariya got 4 points tonight! Wait, he's not on the Ducks anymore...

Miss. Scarlett said...

Hmm, sounds like you could use some time with our Wall of Frustration.

Marie said...

Wow, Earl, sounds like you've been holding in a lot of anger...now that you have to use nice words and sound professional on Fanhouse are we going to see a lot more of "Angry, cursing Earl" on BOC? Quite frankly, I like it!

Patty (in Dallas) said...

Hey, Versus did that to us on opening night. We missed the first 7 or 8 minutes because of the Ducks-Wings shootout. Not sure why they couldn't at least go to the Stars game in Dallas, but I guess they thought we'd be more riveted by your game. So it's not really Crosby, it's just Versus. They have that same exclusive deal for several games a year. I agree with all that other stuff you said about them, though.

Earl Sleek said...

now that you have to use nice words and sound professional on Fanhouse are we going to see a lot more of "Angry, cursing Earl" on BOC? Quite frankly, I like it!

This may have more to do with losing than with AOL. Sometimes I just get petty as hell when the team sucks.

The rate the team is falling apart (count Rob Niedermayer, Ryan Getzlaf, and Brad May among the possible new injuries), it may become a common feature.

So it's not really Crosby, it's just Versus.

Yeah, I know. But I'm childish.

Earl Sleek said...

because we actually played well...or at least showed flashes...

You have a lot more of an optimistic take than I have of last night. Certainly the depleted roster was huge, but other than the one-goal margin, it was not an encouraging outing by my eyes.

16 shots on goal, never more than 6 in a period, and I wish I could say that was our season-low.

Sure there were a couple of times I was surprised by how close the team came to tying it up late, but I really didn't see much to inspire. At this point, the Ducks are more than a Selanne and a Niedermayer away from competing, unless they get accompanied by most of the injureds as well.

Anonymous said...

trying to be optomistic...i think my enthusiasm was for the one good shift kunitiz-mac-marchant had

u know were fucked when parros is in the game and were losing 2-3...and the checking line is the second power play unit...

im just surprised RC would let them coast this way..or maybe pronger is coasting dunno

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry, Patty, did you just say that you had this same problem, only it was a Western Conference team keeping you from seeing the start of your game? Hm... This WC bias argument never holds water for long, does it, Earl? :)

Earl Sleek said...

im just surprised RC would let them coast this way..or maybe pronger is coasting dunno

I don't really think anyone's coasting, or even that RC isn't coaching this team properly. It's just laughable at the issues he's working around.

Yeah, a Pahlsson-Moen-Marchant PP isn't doing anything but cracking smiles from the opposition, but really, other than maybe Miller, is there another player we should/could be playing? And to try to stage a 3rd period comeback with essentially two lines--it's insane.

It's not that optimism isn't warranted--I still have no idea how well a relatively healthy squad would do, or how things might improve with the likes of a Selanne or Niedermayer, but I don't know about any short-term hope.

I mean, I guess things will get better at the point when the Ducks dress 12 healthy forwards, but personnel-wise, there's just so many dropoffs from last year it's like putting a dozen holes in your boat and watching it inevitably sink.

Hm... This WC bias argument never holds water for long, does it, Earl? :)

Maybe you should read slower, Pookie. My west coast bias is a precursor to me not caring about Sid, but the larger issue is blacking out games that I want to see in favor of games that I do not.

But I'm sure your insistence that there is no east coast bias will work wonders on us western idiots with such vivid imaginations.

Steph said...

I'm curious (but too lazy to look it up) how many EC match-ups vs WC match-ups that VS shows over the course of the season. The highly biased WC fan in me would like to say that it FEELS like they do nothing but show EC game after EC game, but I also remember sitting through a lot of Stars games (Really? That many people across the country want to watch that many Stars games?) and complaining when quite a few Wings games were shown on it last year, so it's probably relatively even and I'm just whining for nothing.

Earl Sleek said...

I'm curious (but too lazy to look it up) how many EC match-ups vs WC match-ups that VS shows over the course of the season.

A quick count-up of the teams listed on this year's Versus NHL schedule shows that the channel is planning on showing 56 games this year (with the teams known).

That will consist of 71 eastern teams and 41 western teams.

And we know two of those western appearances (Ducks/Kings Sept. 30) were probably forced on the network because there was no eastern alternative.

Earl Sleek said...

Here's the count, if anyone's really interested.

9 times - PIT
8 times - COL, NYR, PHI
7 times - BUF, DET
6 times - BOS
5 times - CAR, MTL, NYI
4 times - ANA, ATL, DAL, WSH
3 times - MIN, NJD, STL, TOR
2 times - CHI, SJS, TBL, VAN
1 time - CGY, CBJ, EDM, FLA, LAK, NSH, OTT, PHX

Steph said...

I just went and calculated it for myself too - the only stat I came up with that you didn't already mention was that of those games, 34 are matchups between EC teams, 19 between WC teams, and 3 feature one of each. Maybe us WC fans aren't so crazy after all.

Anonymous said...

Reading slowly, your third paragraph begins by commenting on not wanting to watch EC games. It concludes with your complaint about getting blacked out. Forgive me for jumping to the conclusion that you were complained about the EC blacking out your games.

Schnookie said...

I think the reason why VS shows so many Eastern time zone games is the fact that over 50% of the population of the United States lives in the Eastern time zone. If they're looking for ratings, it seems chasing the majority of the people living in the country is a good place to start. Does it suck for people not in the East? For sure. Does it also make sense? Definitely.

As for the exclusivity blackouts on VS, that's just stupid. (Also stupid? Blaming Sid Crosby for it, unless, of course, you can prove he's the guy who drew up the contracts with VS.)

Earl Sleek said...

Pookie, I'm not a blogger worth re-reading, frankly.

Anyways, maybe it got lost a bit in the liquor but my point was not to complain about any eastern bias, really. I generally don't mind it; as Schnookie notes it generally makes defensable sense. I wasn't making a point about eastern bias so much as rationalizing why it's not that crucial from my point of view.

The point is having a set of cameras and announcers at the Blues game watching the clock to find out when they're allowed to start broadcasting--that sucks. It just marginalizes me, the western fan.

And sure, I don't know who really to blame--all that's clear is that somewhere between the league, Versus, and KDOC nobody decided to make a common-sense move and allow me to choose to watch the hockey I wanted to. So being a crabby person lately, I'll just lash out at whoever's convenient--and in this case, Sid's the guy.

Hey, if you want to be the saving face of hockey, you got to take the lumps as well as the glory.

Patty (in Dallas) said...

The point is having a set of cameras and announcers at the Blues game watching the clock to find out when they're allowed to start broadcasting--that sucks.

This is the crazy part. Razor mentioned that they had to just sit there and not say anything during the Stars game until Versus left the one game for that one. I wondered what would happen if there was a huge highlight-reel play during that time. It would forever be a play with no call.

Patty (in Dallas) said...

I'm sorry, Patty, did you just say that you had this same problem, only it was a Western Conference team keeping you from seeing the start of your game?

And, to be fair, it wasn't exactly the same thing. There was no local broadcast of that game. Versus had both games. They weren't preventing somebody else from starting their broadcast, they're just too stupid to realize you shouldn't schedule double-headers so tight.

Schnookie said...

It just marginalizes me, the western fan.

I believe VS's exclusivity blackouts apply to everyone -- I mean, didn't the Hurricanes not even get to televise their season opener at all because of it? This is not just an East v. West thing.

Earl Sleek said...

Uh, I think you should check out a Canes blog for that angle. Sorry for mentioning anything that applies to me the blog-writer.

I'll try to be more generic and nonpersonal in the future.

Schnookie said...

I'm not asking you to be generic and nonpersonal, Earl. I'm just pointing out that what you're seeing as an exclusively Western Conference problem is actually something that both conference's fans have to deal with. We might not care about each other's teams, but we're all in the same boat having to deal with VS. :D