By Sean Gallagher
If you don't have the Center Ice package, we pity you. Maybe next year you should have a bake sale or something to offset the cost. Sell your blood. Or other bodily fluids. Whatever. We're just saying it's worth the sacrifice. Beyond being able to watch a random Stars-Canucks game on Tuesday night when you're inexplicably drunk and avoiding going to bed, you also get the Canadian feeds, which are fantastic.
Not only is the whole country addicted to hockey like the US is addicted to so-called Reality TV, but their Hockey Night In Canada broadcast is like the crack cocaine of the hockey addicted.
Don Cherry, who is either loved or hated, but very seldom referred to as "just OK" is given the go sign to talk about pretty much anything he wants to in his segment called "The Coach's Corner." It is, at turns, bizarre; informative; entertaining and mesmerizing. This one, I think, is all of the above. From Monday night's broadcast:
I'd kill to have some hockey programming like this in the States, but I'm sure the networks would homogenize it to the point of being bland and boring. You know, like making Brett Hull an analyst and then telling him to tone it down. Thanks so much, NBC.