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On May 15, 16 in Playoff History
By TonyH | May 16, 2008
It happened on May 15, May 16, in NHL Playoff History
May 15, 1990
Edmonton’s Petr Klima scored 15:13 into the third overtime period to lead the Oilers to a 3-2 triumph over the Boston Bruins in Game One of the 1990 Final at Boston Garden. The 55:13 overtime was the longest in Final history, 1:23 longer than the 53:50 of overtime played in Game Three of the 1931 Final between Chicago and Montreal.
May 15, 1995
The Vancouver Canucks tallied two shorthanded goals in 17 seconds during the second period of their 6-5 win over the St. Louis Blues in Game Five of their Conference Quarter-final series to set an NHL playoff record for the fastest two shorthanded goals by one team. Christian Ruuttu scored for Vancouver at 4:31 of the second period, followed by Geoff Courtnall at 4:48. The Canucks passed the old mark of 24 seconds set by the 1978 Montreal Canadiens versus Detroit on April 23, 1978.
May 16, 1971
Center Jean Beliveau tallied two assists, the final two points of his NHL career, as the Montreal Canadiens downed the Chicago Black Hawks 4-3 in Game Six of the 1971 Final. Beliveau, the all-time scoring leader in Final history with a 30-31-61 total, helped his club win the Stanley Cup two days later in Game Seven.
May 16, 1976
In Game Four of the 1976 Final, Philadelphia Flyers right winger Reggie Leach scored his 19th goal of the playoffs, extending his NHL record in that category. Although the Flyers lost the game 5-3 and the series 4-0 to the Montreal Canadiens, Leach won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player to his team in the playoffs.
May 16, 1982
Right winger Mike Bossy scored twice, including the series-winning goal, to lead the New York Islanders to their third straight Stanley Cup championship. The 3-1 victory gave New York a four-game sweep against the Vancouver Canucks.
May 16, 1996
The Detroit Red Wings defeated the St. Louis Blues 1-0 in a classic seventh and deciding game of their Western Conference Semifinal series at Joe Louis Arena. Steve Yzerman notched the series-winning goal at 1:15 of the second overtime period as Detroit rallied from three straight losses after opening the series with a pair of wins.
Source: NHL Media Release
Topics: 08 Playoffs, NHL News | No Comments »
No sweep for Red Wings
By TonyH | May 15, 2008
Dallas sneaks one past Detroit with 3-1 win
Detroit leads series 3-1
Stars beat Wings to stay alive
It’s still hockey season in Dallas, at least for another couple of days. Mike Modano and Marty Turco made sure of that.
Modano scored the tie-breaking goal early in the third period and Turco made 33 saves as the Stars stayed alive in the Western Conference Finals with a 3-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings in Game 4 on Wednesday night.
“We were looking for a better team effort, and that’s what we got right from Marty out,” Stars coach Dave Tippett said of his team’s best performance in the series. “I thought all our best players stood up tonight.”
Henrik Zetterberg’s goal 49 seconds into the third period had tied the game at 1-1 before Modano one-timed a feed from Sergei Zubov past Chris Osgood at 5:35 to put Dallas ahead to stay. Brenden Morrow added an insurance goal as the Stars ended the Wings’ nine-game playoff winning streak — they hadn’t lost since dropping Game 4 of their opening-round series against Nashville.
Loui Eriksson opened the scoring late in the second period to help Dallas avoid what would have been only the third four-game sweep in the franchise’s 40-year history. The goal came about 12 minutes after the Wings had what would have been the game’s first goal disallowed when Detroit’s Tomas Holmstrom was ruled to have been in the crease.
”It was a pretty intense, desperate game from everyone on our side,” said Turco, who played his best game of the series. ‘‘We needed that to be successful. We’ll have to continue like that just to have a chance.”
The Wings still lead the series 3-1 and get another chance to advance to their first Stanley Cup Final since winning it all in 2002 when they host Game 5 on Saturday afternoon. The Stars are trying to become only the third team in NHL history to overcome a 3-0 deficit and win a series — only the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs and 1975 New York Islanders have done it.
It won’t be easy, but the Stars saw their 3-0 lead over San Jose in the previous round turn into a 3-2 nailbiter before they won Game 6 in four overtimes to close out the series — so they know there’s still hope.
“We need a thread of life. Now we got a thread of life,” Tippett said. “The two days off will really help us. We’ve got some momentum, so we’ve got to use that to our advantage now. You go in there and steal a game out of there. Now you got it to 3-2. Now the ball’s rolling the right way.
… We’ll see what happens.”
With the sellout crowd at American Airlines Center roaring from the opening draw, Turco had to be sharp just 1:45 into the game when Holmstrom knifed through the defense and was alone. Turco was able to get his stick on the Swedish winger’s shot from close-in.
Osgood was tested just over a minute later when Antti Miettinen took Ribeiro’s drop pass in the left circle. He took the 15-foot wrister in his chest, then got a break a couple of minutes later when Nicklas Grossman’s rip from the right circle clanged off the post, seconds before Niklas Kronwall was called for tripping Toby Petersen at 5:16. But the Stars managed just one shot during the power play, a straightaway drive from 60 feet that was deflected by Modano but stopped by Osgood.
The Stars kept pushing the tempo and earned a second power play at 9:43 when Nicklas Lidstrom was called for taking down Joel Lundqvist, who was crashing the net looking for a pass. But again, the Stars managed little time in the offensive zone and had just one harmless shot at Osgood.
Detroit took its third straight penalty when Darren McCarty was called for holding the stick of Miettinen at 13:12. This time, the Wings held Dallas without a shot, largely by keeping the Stars to the outside and getting their sticks in the way of stray pucks.
Neither team had a good chance the rest of the way, with the period ending scoreless and the Stars outshooting the Wings 9-5. Detroit gave Osgood plenty of help by blocking eight Dallas shots.
The Wings got their first power play at 6:43 when Stephane Robidas was called for holding Darren Helm, and thought they had broken the scoreless tie at 7:34 when Pavel Datsyuk rifled a shot from the right circle past Turco. But the goal was waved off by referee Kelly Sutherland, who ruled that Holmstrom was in the crease.
“Kelly is a good referee,” Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “He just blew the call. That’s life.”
Said Turco: “I couldn’t move freely to make that save on the shot. I really don’t think it’s a bad call. I don’t think it’s black and white like it used to be. It’s the referee’s discretion.”
In Game 1, Holmstrom was clearly in the crease when a shot hit him, went into the net and was credited as a goal. This time, it looked like his feet were out of the crease as he leaned back toward Turco.
“He said his butt was in the blue. Well, it clearly wasn’t in the blue,” Babcock said. “What happens is, these referees, just like us, they prepare their team, they prepare the referees. So they tell them about guys so that they’re watching for stuff. Well, watch for it — but it’s got to happen. You can’t dream it up.”
By the midway mark of the period, the Wings had outshot the Stars 10-1.
Turco made his best save of the game with 8:13 left in the period when he stopped Valtteri Filppula’s blast from the left circle, then was able to keep the rebound out of the net during a scramble. At 12:20, the Wings got their second power play when Morrow was called for cross-checking Mikael Samuelsson.
Detroit generated nothing on the power play, but got a third chance when Steve Ott took a needless penalty by elbowing Brian Rafalski. The Wings had a pair of shots, but again came up empty on the scoreboard.
Eriksson gave Osgood his first good test of the period with just over two minutes to play, speeding down the right wing and cutting to the net before getting off a backhand that was turned aside.
But Eriksson didn’t miss his next chance, giving the Stars their first lead of the series by scoring with 22.7 seconds left in the period. Osgood stopped Robidas’ shot from near the boards in the right circle; however, Eriksson was at the top of the crease and the puck bounced off the goaltender, hit his leg and trickled into the net and he tried to poke it with his stick.
”It hit my body and then hit the stick,” Eriksson said. ”I was just standing there. I didn’t hit it with my hand. I knew it was good. When I started I was standing outside. … I was just trying to stay in front. It hit me and went in.”
Despite being outshot 14-6 in the period, the Stars were up 1-0 after 40 minutes — the first time Detroit trailed after two periods since Game 4 of the opening round against Nashville, the Wings’ last loss.
The Stars’ lead lasted just 49 seconds into the third period, when Petersen’s bad pass in the Detroit zone sprung the Wings on a 3-on-2 rush. Pavel Datsyuk picked off the pass, carried into the Dallas zone and fed Zetterberg, who whipped a wrist shot from the left faceoff dot past Turco’s glove for his 10th playoff goal.
Turco preserved the tie less than two minutes later when he got a toe on Helm’s backhander from the slot. With the Wings controlling play, Eriksson gave Detroit its fourth consecutive power play when he took down McCarty and was called for interference at 3:14. But just as the penalty was expiring, Dallas’ Brad Richards broke up a play at his own blue line and was hauled down by Rafalski to prevent a breakaway — earning a tripping penalty.
The Stars finally cashed in on a power play by working the puck around to isolate Dan Cleary, who had broken his stick. Sergei Zubov, camped in the corner to Osgood’s right, found Modano in the slot for a one-timer that caught the top corner at 5:35.
It was Modano’s fifth goal — all on the power play — and first of the series. The point was his 145th in Stanley Cup play, breaking a tie with Detroit defenseman Chris Chelios for the most by a U.S.-born player. Modano broke the regular-season points record for American players early in the season.
“We were able to get it set up finally,” Modano said of the goal. “Zubov down low on that side is someone that can really thread the needle, find the open guy. Once it came down to him, I was able to get off a little bit, get the shot off before (Kris) Draper came behind me.”
With the Wings pressing for the equalizer, Turco stopped Datsyuk’s deflection with 6:31 left before the Detroit forward crashed into him. The puck barely stayed out of the net before the whistle blew.
Morrow finally gave the Stars some insurance at 14:34 when he took Mike Ribeiro’s pass and fired a shot from between the hash marks past Osgood’s glove for his ninth of the playoffs and first in the series.
Dallas survived a late scare when Morrow was called for delay of game with 2:17 left and Modano was penalized for hooking with 36 seconds to go, giving the Wings a two-man edge. The Stars survived a wild scramble over the last half-minute to escape with a win — and some life.
“It’s amazing things you can do, you know, when you bond together,” Turco said. “When you’re down 0-3 in the Conference Finals, there’s no greater time to bond and play together.
“Our situation really doesn’t change much going into Detroit. We’re gonna need to continue to have that feeling. To say it’s easy to quit, you know, I’m sure it is. But I don’t think anybody does anything easy in our locker room.
Babcock said his team had its chances and couldn’t finish.
“We had every opportunity in the world to score, and we didn’t,” he said. “The goalie was good. They were desperate. You know, I don’t think we were surprised by their effort in any way. It’s what we expected.
“We weren’t able to finish it. We had some opportunities on the power play and were unable to get it done.”
Source: John Kreiser | NHL.com Columnist
Topics: 08 Playoffs, Red Wings | No Comments »
Nonis meets with Leafs
By TonyH | May 14, 2008
Nonis meets with Peddie
Maple Leafs’ GM search rolls on
By TERRY KOSHAN — Sun Media
Now that the Maple Leafs know that Wayne Gretzky is not interested in the job as general manager, perhaps everyone can get on with their lives.
TSN reported yesterday that Gretzky is not interested in leaving the Phoenix Coyotes, where he is coach and part owner, to come to Toronto. Not that there has been much of an indication the Leafs were of the mind to bring Gretzky in for an interview.
The idea that Nonis would be a bridge to the hiring of Brian Burke next summer won’t go away.
There remains the thought in some quarters that the Burke-to-Toronto move is not as dead as it is being made out to be, and some refuse to say it won’t happen this summer.
Two other men who have been linked to the Leafs vacancy — NHL senior executive and director of hockey operations Colin Campbell and Neil Smith, who was interviewed in Toronto when John Ferguson got the job nearly five years ago — were contacted yesterday by Sun Media, but neither was in a talkative mood.
“I haven’t heard from them at all,” Smith said.
Read more at Slam-Canoe
Topics: Coaches/GM's/Owners, Maple Leafs | No Comments »
Bell serving time, not behind bars
By TonyH | May 14, 2008
REPORT: LEAFS’ BELL WILL NOT STAY OVERNIGHT IN JAIL
Mark Bell will not be staying overnight in jail when he serves his time in a work program this summer, according to an online report.
The plan calls for Bell to work at a California prison during the day from June 2nd until August 15th. Once that term is complete, a judge will decide if the work program will be extended.
Bell was arrested in September of 2006 after an traffic incident. He later pleaded no contest to charges of hit and run and drunken driving.
Source: TSN.ca
Topics: Maple Leafs, Player News | No Comments »
On May 14, in Playoff History
By TonyH | May 14, 2008
It happened on May 14, in NHL Playoff History
May 14, 1977
Montreal Canadiens center Jacques Lemaire scored his third game-winning goal of the 1977 Final and his second career overtime tally in a Stanley Cup game, leading the Montreal Canadiens to a 2-1 series-clinching win against the Boston Bruins. Only Maurice “Rocket” Richard of the Canadiens (3) and Don Raleigh of the Rangers (2) have ever posted more than one career overtime goal in Final history.
Source: NHL Media Release
Topics: NHL News | No Comments »
Kobasew inks multi-year deal
By TonyH | May 14, 2008
Bruins Sign Kobasew to Extension
Boston Bruins Official Website
Boston, MA - Boston Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli announced today that the club has signed forward Chuck Kobasew to a multi-year contract extension. Per club policy, terms of the deal will not be disclosed.
Kobasew enjoyed a career year for Boston in 2007-2008, as he played in 73 regular season games and established career bests in goals (22), assists (17) and points (39). His 22 goals placed him second on the team and his 39 points ranked fourth overall. Seeing action on both the power play and penalty kill, Kobasew led the Bruins in shorthanded tallies with three and his six power play strikes were the fourth most on the squad.
Selected by the Calgary Flames with the 14th overall pick in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft, Kobasew was traded from Calgary to Boston on February 10, 2007 along with Andrew Ference in exchange for Brad Stuart and Wayne Primeau. He played in 10 games for Boston during the 2006-2007 campaign and notched one goal and one assist.
In his five-year NHL career, Kobasew has recorded 55-57-112 totals in 293 regular season games (83 with Boston, 210 with Calgary). He also saw action in 33 postseason contests with Calgary where he registered one goal and one assist.
The 26-year-old native of Osoyoos, British Columbia played one season for Boston College and helped lead the Eagles to the 2000-2001 NCAA National Championship.
Kobasew and Chiarelli will be available on a media conference call on Wednesday, May 14 at 4:00 p.m. ET. Call-in details will be announced on Wednesday morning.
Source: Bruins Official Website
Topics: Bruins, Coaches/GM's/Owners, Player Contracts | No Comments »
Wings Dominance Continues
By TonyH | May 13, 2008
Red Wings continue dominating way against Stars. 5-2
Datsyuk nets first ever career hat-trick, Wings lead series 3-0
Datsyuk, Zetterberg succeed with a wink and a nod
Larry Wigge | NHL.com Columnist
![Pavel Datsyuk \"A\"](http://www.skate2stick.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/pavs.jpg "Pavel Datsyuk \\"A\\"")
For Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, there are nights when it’s not too hard for them to turn nothing into something pretty special.“I don’t know how to explain it. Some players just seem to be on the same wavelength a lot,” Zetterberg said of his unassisted back-breaking, third-period shorthanded goal, plus the first career hat trick of any kind — regular season or playoffs — for Datsyuk in Detroit’s 5-2 victory against the Dallas Stars in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals on Monday night. “Sometimes Pavel will give me a wink or nod his head … and I usually know what he means.”
“No magic,” Datsyuk said. “In the playoffs you have to go hard to the net — and that’s what we did.”
Not smoke and mirrors. Not abracadabra. Just a friendly wink and a nod. Sort of like Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison, Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri.
“Datsyuk and Zetterberg were absolutely phenomenal,” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said of Pavel’s hat trick and Henrik’s one goal and two assists. “It’s funny, but there are no signs that they are going to put up that kind of performance. All I know is good players have a way of playing real good when it counts.”
“Those two are a rare couple of players,” Stars coach Dave Tippett said after Detroit took a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference Finals. “They’re not only the best checking line, but also the best scoring line. And they’re just making plays. Can we defend them better? Sure, we’d love to defend them better. But they’re making plays that are counting and that was the difference in the game.”
This was Detroit’s ninth straight win, its most ever in a single postseason and the longest in the NHL since Montreal won 11 in a row in 1993. More important, the Red Wings will go into Game 4 on Wednesday night with the chance to skate into the Stanley Cup Final for the fourth time in 11 seasons.
“They are both in such good position defensively that they can turn on a dime and take the puck the other way before the other team realizes it — and tonight it was even more important the way they responded to score right after we gave up a goal,” said veteran center Kris Draper. “That can really beat an opponent down.”
“I’ve been watching them play the last four seasons and they are great together or apart,” captain Nicklas Lidstrom said. “But when we put them together it seems like no one can stop them. It’s uncanny sometimes the way they keep finding one another.”
Magical ad libs and instincts aren’t the only things that makes Datsyuk and Zetterberg so special. It’s the surprise that these two players are even getting the chance to play on the best stage in the world. After all, some 170 players were chosen in the NHL Entry Draft in 1998 before Datsyuk and even more, 209 players, were picked ahead of Zetterberg just one year later.
“I had never heard of Pavel and Henrik. Well, I had read a little about Henrik in the Swedish newspapers and magazines I get from back home. But never in my wildest dreams did I think these names on a draft list would bring so much creativity and production to our lineup,” Lidstrom continued. “And it’s no fluke, either. (GM) Ken Holland and (assistant GM) Jim Nill seem to find great players every year. You don’t know how much confidence that gives the guys who have been here for a while to know that somebody pretty darn good is going to come in to compete for a roster spot almost every year.”
Like Datsyuk, Zetterberg’s size was a point of contention in an NHL where bigger was better during all of those years where teams were able to trap and obstruct the smaller players who weren’t equipped to fight through the hands, arms and stick-checks. Datsyuk is now listed at 5-foot-11, 185 pounds and Zetterberg at 6-foot, 190. Before they were drafted, Datsyuk was 5-10, 160 pounds and Zetterberg 5-11, 175 pounds.
There’s an elite level that often comes after players with the kind of skills that Datsyuk and Zetterberg have flashed in front of us … and continue to do so.
“The thing about elite players is you see what they do and the numbers they put up, but the next sign is the intensity they play with every shift,” Wayne Gretzky once told me. “The next time you see them play, just look at the intensity on their faces and in their eyes. That’s what impresses me most about Datsyuk and Zetterberg.”
Red Wings goaltender Chris Osgood laughs when he says that the beauty is in the eye of the beholder in talking about Datsyuk and Zetterberg.
“They are relentless,” Osgood said after posting his ninth straight playoff victory. “I remember facing them when I was with St. Louis and thinking; ‘Take a shift off once in a while, please.’ They were coming at us in waves all night, every time we played them.
“Of course, now that I’m back in Detroit, I’ll give them a pat on the butt and encourage them to keep putting the pressure on the opposition. It’s really something to watch. It seems like every time they are on the ice, they are dangerous.”
With Datsyuk and Zetterberg, you get the instincts, the deft puck-handling skills, the moves, the intelligence of a chess master — two of them in fact — moving the rest of the pieces around on the chess board to their advantage. Simply incredible. You can talk about Jordan and Pippen, Manning and Harrison and Gretzky and Kurri, but Pav and Hank are doing these marvelously magical things in the here and now.
For the Red Wings, the idea that they were about to lose their consistent success when the salary cap came along after the lockout in 2005, is another obstacle that great scouting has overcome.
“There are players out there, you just have to find them,” said Red Wings assistant GM Jim Nill. “We go into each draft hoping to find at least two players. And we’ve discovered through time that if you’re going to find a sleeper, it’s probably going to be in Europe. Everybody wants the 6-2, 220-pound highly skilled North American power player. But those guys go high in the draft. We’re not going to get them, because we usually don’t pick until the end of each round.”
What you have to give the Red Wings credit for is sticking to their guns and drafting for skill and talent up and down the draft, when, at that point, other teams might be looking for a specific type of player like a defensive defenseman, a tough guy, a big center for a particular role in the later rounds.
But Nill wasn’t finished with his explanation … and maybe a little secret.
“Actually,” he added, “Pavel was even more difficult to evaluate. He went through the draft twice without being picked. But Hakan Andersson, one of our scouts, saw him a couple of times each year and kept telling us this little guy was a really good player. He said Pavel reminded him of a young Igor Larionov with his playmaking ability. Finally, we decided to overlook the size questions. We decided that you couldn’t take away what he could accomplish with the puck — his ability to find a teammates in almost any situation, the moves that make him so dangerous in the NHL now.”
Difficult to evaluate. Even more difficult for NHL teams to stop.
Source: NHL.com
Topics: 08 Playoffs, Player News, Red Wings | No Comments »
Versus has all your exclusive games
By TonyH | May 11, 2008
Catch Exclusive NHL games on Versus
EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE OF STANLEY CUP CONFERENCE FINALS EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE OF STANLEY CUP CONFERENCE FINALS BEGIN THURSDAY ON VERSUS WITH WESTERN CONFERENCE SHOWDOWN BETWEEN DETROIT AND DALLAS
Ratings and Viewership Continue to Rise Through First Two Playoff Rounds
Stamford CONN. (May 7, 2008)-VERSUS, the exclusive cable television home of the National Hockey League, will continue its wall-to-wall coverage of the 2008 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs when the Conference Finals commence on Thursday, May 8, at 7:30 p.m. ET. The Detroit Red Wings and the Dallas Stars will begin their battle for the right to represent the Western Conference in the Stanley Cup Final. The Conference Finals continue on Friday, May 9, at 7:30 p.m. ET when the Eastern Conference takes center stage as the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins face-off in Game 1 of their intrastate showdown. All Conference Finals telecasts on VERSUS are exclusive.
VERSUS will kick-off the Conference Finals with a special 30-minute “Hockey Central” on May 8 at 7 p.m. ET, prior to Game 1 of the Western Conference Final between Dallas and Detroit. Total viewership for “Hockey Central” during the first two rounds of this postseason has increased 65 percent compared to the first two playoff rounds last year. VERSUS’ Stanley Cup Playoffs coverage will culminate with exclusive coverage of the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final. All VERSUS-produced games are produced in hi-definition.
During the Conference Semifinals, in which VERSUS aired eight exclusive games and seven non-exclusive games, the network continued to see significant increases in ratings, total viewership and viewership across all key male demos, as compared to year-ago figures from the second postseason round. VERSUS’ exclusive telecast of Game 4 of the Rangers/Penguins Conference Semifinal series on May 1 garnered a 1.0 household rating and 1,184,589 total viewers, making it the most-watched NHL telecast in network history and the third most-watched telecast overall. Household ratings in the 2008 Conference Semifinals showed an increase of 50 percent, total viewership was up 51 percent and viewership among Men 18-34 (up 77%), Men 18-49 (up 79%) and Men 25-54 (up 84%) all saw dramatic gains. This growth follows a 50-percent increase in household ratings during the regular season and 33 percent in the Conference Quarterfinal round.
The complete schedule for the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs Conference Final round follows (subject to change):
HOCKEY CENTRAL:
The network’s studio show, “Hockey Central,” is hosted by Bill Patrick with Brian Engblom and Keith Jones and provides extensive insight and commentary of the games and what’s happening around the Stanley Cup Playoffs each night. VERSUS will, on occasion, bring players and coaches into the studio to serve as celebrity guest analysts. In the Quarterfinal round, Manny Legace, goaltender for the St. Louis Blues and Rick DiPietro, goaltender for the New York Islanders joined the VERSUS studio crew. Additions in the Conference Final round will be announced as information becomes available.
Among the regular segments of the studio show are the following:
VERSUS-on-Demand:
Each night VERSUS features a playoff match-up, the network delivers a condensed highlight version of the game that is distributed via the network’s VOD platform. These are available the morning after game play, so that hockey fans who may not have seen the previous night’s game won’t miss out on any of the playoffs action.
Throughout the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs, VERSUS.com continues to provide the most extensive information about the NHL, including editorial coverage from some of the most knowledgeable hockey sources. Just as the network is witnessing considerable increases in ratings and viewership during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Website is also experiencing explosive growth. Since the postseason began, VERSUS.com has seen record-breaking traffic and NHL video views have surpassed one million and counting.
The network also launched the playoffs specific microsite versus/stanleycup,which features a video library of the defining moments from last year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs as well as the best moments in Stanley Cup Playoffs history. The network’s website ramped up daily coverage to include game Podcasts and highlights from all of VERSUS’ games as well as daily insider video featuring VERSUS’ NHL talent on the network’s broadband channel “The Player.” Each night after the studio show, VERSUS’ talent film web-exclusive content that gives the inside scoop on what has happened to-date in the playoffs, as well as their predictions for the future games in the series. The website also features a fan zone area where viewers can submit their ultimate NHL moment and photos of a game they attended for a chance to win great playoff prizes.
VERSUS celebrates real competition in all its forms across all platforms (VERSUS.com, VERSUS on Demand and VERSUS HD). Now in more than 74 million homes, the network is the national cable home of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Stanley Cup Playoffs as well as best-in-class events such as The Tour de France, Davis Cup Tennis, the Professional Bull Riders (PBR), World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) and Professional Boxing. The network also offers collegiate sports featuring nationally-ranked teams from top conferences such as the Pac-10, Big 12 and Mountain West. VERSUS features the best field sports programming on television and is a destination for sports fans, athletes and sportsmen to find exclusive, competitive events that audiences can’t find elsewhere. VERSUS, a wholly owned company of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA, CMCSK), is distributed via cable systems and satellite operators throughout the United States.
Source: Versus New Release.
Topics: 08 Playoffs, NHL News, TV News / Schedule / Analyst | No Comments »
Jagr wants to stay with Rangers
By TonyH | May 11, 2008
Jagr wants to extend his stay with Rangers
GREENBURGH, N.Y. - In his most definitive comments to date, Jaromir Jagr said yesterday that he would prefer to sign with the Rangers next season rather than with another NHL club and indicated that he wants to play two more years before returning to the Czech Republic.
“First, I am going to talk to the Rangers,” the 36-year-old Jagr said. “That’s No. 1 option for me. I feel very comfortable here, with all the people around this organization who are nice to me. They gave me a chance to show everybody I still can play hockey. Everybody doubted me when I was playing in Washington, for whatever reason. The Rangers gave me a chance and believed in me.”
Jagr, who earned $8.3 million this season, said that in his first go-round in the free-agent market, “maybe I would like to find out what’s my price, just to find out.” But then he reconsidered: “Maybe I would find out something I don’t want to know.”
Opening next season in Prague, where the Rangers will face Tampa Bay, “would be nice, but I don’t think it’s the No. 1 issue,” Jagr said. Yet he wants to play for a team that skates in sold-out rinks like Madison Square Garden. “I always play for the fans,” he said. “I don’t think I would like to play when the arena’s empty, when there’s no reason to play at all.”
More from Newsday.com
Topics: Player News, Rangers | No Comments »
More money to watch Blackhawks
By TonyH | May 11, 2008
Blackhawks raise ticket prices
Some Hawks season ticket-holders to pay 85 percent more
The Blackhawks’ recent wave of feel-good news ended abruptly for paying customers Wednesday.
The Hawks announced they are raising ticket prices an average of 16 percent—and as much as 85 percent for some season ticket-holders.
The price of the cheapest season ticket will go from $10 per game to $15 for the various game packages. The highest-priced seat will go from $275 to $285 per game.
Some 100-level seats saw the biggest dollar increase. The cost of a full plan of 41 regular-season games and four exhibitions excluding playoffs for a new season ticket-holder on that level ranges from last season’s $3,825 ($85 per game) to $5,625 ($125 per) for seats roughly between the faceoff circles.
The price increase is the first for the Hawks since the 1997-98 season and places their average advance season-ticket price at $56, lower than last season’s league average of $61. Last season the Hawks had the second-lowest average ticket cost behind the Buffalo Sabres.
“That’s what made this so challenging,” Hawks ticket chief Chris Werner said Wednesday. “It was, ‘How do we do this effectively so it’s meaningful so that we’re able to recoup what we need to and not just hit everybody in the whole place?’ “
Read more at The Chicago Tribune
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