tonytalkssports My Take on Sports, particularly the Yankees, Maple Leafs and Browns

Hockey Day in America: Love It!!!!!!!!!!

Being a hockey nut, Hockey Day in America was great.  NBC's coverage was awesome.  It started here with the Capitals against the Sabres.  The Caps sent the home team to its 3rd loss in a row defeating the Sabres 2-1 before a sold out crowd at Hot Sauce & Blue Cheese (HSBC) Arena.  But for Ryan Miller, this game would have been a blow out as the Sabres were overmatched and took many dumb penalties.  Had to laugh at the local pre-game interview that Ray Ferraro had with Adam Scungili (Ithink its Beningni) from WGRZ-TV.  Ferraro had to be humoring the locals by saying he would be surprised if the Sabres didn't make the playoffs.  Ray, are you kidding me??  While the Sabres could make the playoffs, are they that much better than the Carolina Hurricanes??  By the way, who on the Sabres is as good as Eric Staal???  I can't think of anyone.  The six game homestand has started out terribly as the Sabres are 0-3 and they face the Thrashers Wednesday.

NBC then went to cover the last 1:50 in the Flyers-Rangers game.  Unfortunately, the Flyers held on to defeat the Blueshirts 4-2 with the last goal in an empty net.  On to Minnesota where NBC picked up the Wild- Red Wings game which saw the Wings win 2-1 in a shoot out.  Despite the fact that I can't stand them, you have to give the Red Wings credit: they just keep on being a potential Stanley Cup winner. 

The late game between Pittsburgh and Chicago was a classic with the Hawks getting a much needed 2 points by winning 3-2 in a shoot out.  Marc Andre-Fleury was unreal in this game making many big saves, including a game saver late in overtime.  Local boy Patrick Kane had a beauty which was the game winner in the shoot out.

It would be great if every Sunday, after the Super Bowl, we had a hockey doubleheader on Sunday afternoons.  Of course not sure how NBC would feel about that but maybe ESPN would.  There is going to be a new TV contract for the NHL.  Hopefully, it will be something to be considered.