Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

TSN And Sportsnet On Trade Deadline Day

03/03/2015 at 9:10am EST

from David Shoalts of the Globe and Mail,

TSN was the clear winner over Sportsnet in the annual battle for best telecast on the NHL’s trade-deadline day. But it was not simply a case of having the funniest and most insightful broadcasters.

TSN’s presentation on a deadly dull day as far as the trades went, with the biggest ones made in advance of Monday afternoon’s deadline, was a clear artistic success. The network did make the biggest mistake of the day in allowing a moronic, vulgar tweet about a couple of Toronto Maple Leafs players to flash across the screen but its panelists were funny, frank and irreverent with former Leafs head coach Ron Wilson leading the way. More on him later but Wilson has either just signed a long contract with TSN or has his retirement income set because his comments on tanking to get the Connor McDavid draft pick ensure it will be a long time before he is hired to coach in the NHL again.

Sportsnet, on the other hand, played it straight. There were some light moments and some decent insights, such as former Pittsburgh Penguin Colby Armstrong talking about how he learned from his mother that he was traded off Sidney Crosby’s line to the sad-sack Atlanta Thrashers in 2008 and how emotional it was to watch from the stands as they played the Stanley Cup final. But for the most part it was the standard stuff from their panels as they waited for the blockbuster deals that never came.

However, this was not the fault of the Sportsnet broadcasters and producers. Their hands were tied once their corporate masters handed over $5.2-billion for a 12-year contract to become the Canadian national broadcast “partner” of the NHL. Being a partner of the NHL means never offending the league and never poking serious fun at it.

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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