Eastern Migration

I bumped into this post over at Battle of California earlier today and it got me thinking. Despite that whole growing up with the Leafs thing, I consider myself very much a Western Conference fan first and foremost - that isn't to say I don't care at all about the East, but I certainly would have been just as miffed if this had happened to, say, a Wings game because VS wanted me to see no one but the Penguins (no offense, Elly/ies and Teka!) during the two and a half hours they were playing.

The same thing happened earlier in the year when a Wings/Ducks game going to a shootout resulted in the first seven or eight minutes of the following Dallas game not being shown, so the "VS has a stupid crappy EC bias" argument doesn't really hold up, but it still left me curious about the VS schedule in general.

Last season, which was before I moved past the stone age and found myself the joys of Centre Ice, it felt like every non-Wings (and therefore televised by VS) gameI watched was an EC match-up. I lost track of how many times I saw the Pens and the Capitals go at it again, but I chalked it up to my bias rearing its ugly head and not VS'. Still, I was prompted to go look up just what the numbers were, and there results were interesting.

Over the course of the season, VS' current schedule lists 56 NHL games of which the teams are already set (and one other TBA). Of these:

• 34 are EC match-ups
• 19 are WC match-ups
  
• 3 involve one team from each conference (Pittsburgh/Minnesota, Detroit/Montreal, and Carolina/Nashville).
  

Separated by number of times each team is featured on the network the numbers look like this (color coded by conference):

• 9 times: Pittsburgh
• 8 times: Colorado, Philadelphia
• 7 times: Buffalo, Detroit, NY Rangers
• 6 times: Boston
• 5 times: Carolina, Montreal, NY Islanders
• 4 times: Atlanta, Dallas, Washington
  
• 3 times: Anaheim, Minnesota, New Jersey, St. Louis, Toronto
  
• 2 times: Chicago, San Jose, Tampa Bay, Vancouver
• 1 time: Calgary, Columbus, Edmonton, Florida, LA, Nashville, Ottawa, Phoenix

Looks a little skewed, no? And annoyingly so, to me, obviously - is the East really that much a monopoly on the interest of hockey fans right now? Thank god for Center Ice (without which I, like most US hockey fans, would be stuck with only my local Wings broadcast and VS) or I'd be one seriously cranky hockey fan right now.

(And you know, I understand Detroit being so high up there, considering the turn out the Wings get in arenas across the country has led to things like the Coyotes jacking up prices when we're in town, but...Colorado? Really?)

We age well. Like wine. Just go with it.

Dominik Hasek has made his decision about returning next season (thanks Christy for the tip), and Chris Chelios just signed a one year contract as well.

What does this mean for the Detroit Red Wings? Well, providing Hasek's decision is to return, it means a whole lot of breathing easier and the ability to go out and really start trying to resign a lot of other players, with the confidence that our goalie situation is settled. Hooray! (On the topic of Wings UFAs, this week's HLOG topic was a discussion of your team's UFAs and their situations - rather than crossposting I'll just link you to mine.)

What does this mean for everyone else? Still assuming Hasek stays, that we the viewers will not, after all, be deprived next season of such enlightened commentary as "the forty-five year old defenseman Chris Chelios plays the puck blahblahblah" (by the time this entire sentence is said Cheli probably no longer has the puck at all and in fact could be dead of old age) or of constant comments about the respective ages of both players and of the team in general during (but not limited to!) every Wings game. It also means the NPI game liveblogs will not go without their precious stats of just how many times each gets mentioned (hey let's make it a contest next year!). It also means that you non-Wings fans' lame player-based reasons to hate our entire team stay intact. Jerks :b

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It is also my duty to report that I have been given the task by Elly to inform you all that her recent absence is due to theraputic retreat to recover from the end of the season. Truth be told, we talked a little too much about Prongers' lack of pants and her computer imploded at the thought, or something along those lines. No really. Don't make fun of Prongs around your electronic devices, I've had a phone and a laptop fritz out on me. Either way, she's predicting a week or so until her timely return. Why timely? I don't know. Go with it.

DID YOU KNOW?

Hey guys, VERSUS, who are right now as I type this butchering what should be standard commentating on the Atlanta/Boston game, just wanted us all to know (this was brought about by a discussion of Scott Mellanby's contributions to his team which of course devolved into mentioning that he's doing good "for his age") that Dominik Hasek is 42.

I wasn't sure everyone out there had gotten that message yet, as it only gets mentioned three or four times every Wings game regardless of which channel is broadcasting it, so I just thought I'd pass that along for all of you (and don't forget, Cheli's old too!).

Honestly, this even needs to get talked about at games that are just about as far from hockey as you can get from Detroit now? Is it really the sort of thing worth being so focused on? I understand the mention of age in regard to it being impressive to see the level of hockey still being played by some of these guys - and sure, Dom and Cheli are great examples of this, and it is impressive to see that they've been able to condition themselves to still be able to play strong at an NHL level for so long. But does it need to be brought up every game? Do we need to be looking at them in terms of how good they are for being as old as they are? It seems like we've stopped being impressed and have just started toting those numbers around as oddities, as if we're just waiting with bated breath to see them finally fall, as a "can you believe it?" Guess what - we can! We do! We get it! Now stop.




(Also, I am pretty sure "plomped" is not actually a word at all, let alone a verb a goalie is capable of. Oh, VERSUS.)

Oh yeah, and GO LEAFS GO!

Update: Wings trade left wing Jason Williams to Chicago for right wing Kyle Calder, who had just been acquired from Philidelphia for Lasse Kukkonen and a 3rd round pick. Huh...we were just joking about what Williams ever did aside from score goals in shootouts at the game on Friday, but that's not what I would have expected.