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

* Thanks, Kevin Lowe!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

California? Nope, Sorry, Never Heard of It

Versus released their schedule for the upcoming season and once again California gets screwed. The Kings don't have a game, Anaheim is on once, and San Jose plays 3 times. The entire state of California is on Versus as much as the New York Islanders. I guess this is good for me because it means I get Bob and Jimmy more often, but still.

8 comments:

Earl Sleek said...

I sure hope that Versus offers Ducks fans an "order Versus for one day" package for February 24th and a "go ahead and cancel my Versus channel completely" package for Kings fans.

That second special they could probably get a lot of buyers for, actually, if more people knew they were getting Versus.

Earl Sleek said...

Oh, and here's Versus' divisional breakdown:

Atlantic: 35 appearances
Northeast: 23 appearances
Central: 17 appearances
Northwest: 15 appearances
Southeast: 15 appearances
Pacific: 9 appearances

It used to be that I'd blame east-coast bias on sleepy reporters, but it's possible this year that many voters might stay awake but won't see Pacific teams anyway.

Earl Sleek said...

I know three comments in a row is bad form, but it's worth pointing out this note from Puck Daddy:

"It's been brought to our attention by Eye on the Media's Steve Lepore that at least one of the games listed for the Minnesota Wild on Jan. 20 is, in fact, a screw-up by Versus on their own schedule. It's either the Wild and Kings, or it's the Capitals and Senators, or it's a completely different game. Also, on Jan. 27, the Sabres can't play the Capitals, because they're in Edmonton while the Caps are playing Boston. So our numbers may be jacked, and the entire opening of this post may be goofed up."

Take heart, Kings fans! You might make Versus after all (just not any Versus announcement, that's all).

Let's hear it for Versus, the worst sports-schedule tabulator in the history of television.

RudyKelly said...

That breakdown is fantastic. Really, why would you want to show the best division in hockey?

What I don't understand is why they wouldn't have double headers. It's not like the logging championships they're going to show after the Washington-Carolina game is going to get better ratings than Anaheim-LA.

Earl Sleek said...

Well, Versus did an update, and somehow managed to lose a game from their schedule (geniuses), but here's the new division count:

Atlantic: 33 appearances
Northeast: 24 appearances
Central: 17 appearances
Southeast: 15 appearances
Northwest: 14 appearances
Pacific: 9 appearances

Yup. And still a big goose egg for the Kings.

What I don't understand is why they wouldn't have double headers. It's not like the logging championships they're going to show after the Washington-Carolina game is going to get better ratings than Anaheim-LA.

Seriously. If only the NHL had the pull of the Logging League of Backwoods America.

Earl Sleek said...

Here's another Versus stat: of the ten teams who will be featured once or less on Versus this season, eight are in the western conference.

Another way of saying it: more than half the western conference is on Versus once or less this year.

---

NHL: "We changed the schedule because it's so important that every team play every team every year."

Versus: "Yeah, that way we don't have to burden ourselves by showing them all."

Anonymous said...

I prefer my local bay area Sharks hockey to Verses. Verses is overrated and their coverage is lackluster.

Unknown said...

Yeah, thank god for local coverage... Versus is friggin ridiculous.

I was actually happy last year that it was the final year of the NHL's contract with Versus... then they had to go and renew it. Ugh.