The Confluence

NBC’s Penguins/Capitals Ratings Tie Season High

by Tony on 02/08/10 at 01:51 PM ET
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And boy doesn’t this tie into the last post.  From Puck the Media’s Steve Lepore:

According to Sports Business Daily (reg. required), NBC’s telecast of the Penguins/Capitals Sunday showdown scored a 1.3 overnight rating, tying the two weeks ago telecast of Pens/Flyers for the network’s best rating for an indoor game this season.  It’s also the best overnight rating to date for Pittsburgh-Washington, which the NHL has attempted to promote as it’s biggest rivalry.

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Assessing the NHL/NBC decision to play Pens-Caps on Sunday

by Tony on 02/08/10 at 01:45 PM ET
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Queue the “he’s only whining because the Penguins lost” tape (not that I agree with that).  From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Rob Rossi:

Reckless and disgraceful; no better words describe the NHL and NBC’s decision to have the Penguins and Washington Capitals play Sunday at Verizon Center.

From my dialogue over the weekend with folks at the NHL and with the Penguins and Capitals, I can deduce only one reason that the league would risk the safety of two teams, fans and arena workers – ratings, as in whatever Nielsen hits the NBC “NHL Game of the Week” could garner between the Super Bowl Sunday hours of 1-3 p.m.  That span of time represented treasured TV real estate, it was explained to me, because many Americans are searching for programming to fill the gap between the meat of Super Bowl pregame shows and the actual contest itself.  Plus, dare I forget to mention, Sunday was NBC’s only regular-season opportunity to broadcast a game featuring league top draws SIDNEY CROSBY and ALEX OVECHKIN. (An email to NBC was not returned Saturday.) To paraphrase what an agent once told me : This is a terrible, disgusting business; and we’ve all sacrificed something we would rather have back to be a part of it.

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Penguins re-assign forward Letestu

by Tony on 02/08/10 at 12:57 PM ET
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From the Penguins:

The Pittsburgh Penguins have re-assigned forward Mark Letestu to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League, it was announced by executive vice president and general manager Ray Shero.

Letestu recorded his first career NHL goal (and point) in Pittsburgh’s 5-4 victory over Buffalo Feb. 1. Letestu, who made his NHL debut Nov. 14 against Boston, has appeared in seven games this season for Pittsburgh.

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Penguins’ prospect Hanowski ties it up with .01 left

by Tony on 02/08/10 at 10:47 AM ET
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Stick-tap to Puck Daddy’s Ryan Lambert for the find:  Penguins’ 2009 3rd round draft pick Ben Hanowski scores to tie the game with .01 left on the clock for St. Cloud State vs. the University of Alaska Anchorage.

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Penguins’ new “Defy Ordinary” commercial

by Tony on 02/07/10 at 09:57 PM ET
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Here is the Pens’ new “Defy Ordinary” commercial, which debuted tonight during the second half of the Super Bowl in the Pittsburgh area:

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Penguins reassign forward Tim Wallace

by Tony on 02/07/10 at 10:34 AM ET
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Looks like Chris Kunitz will make his return today.  From the Penguins:

The Pittsburgh Penguins have re-assigned forward Tim Wallace from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League, it was announced by executive vice president and general manager Ray Shero.

Wallace, 25, played in Pittsburgh’s contest against the Montreal Canadiens Saturday afternoon, recording three hits in 5:50 minutes of ice time.

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Crosby, like Lemieux in 1987, gets his chance to be Canada’s hero

by Tony on 02/07/10 at 09:32 AM ET
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From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s Dejan Kovacevic (great to see Dejan writing hockey articles again):

By the time the torch is lit Friday to open the XXI Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the American narrative will have been foretold by a national media always seeking the next cereal-box icon: There will be superb skiier Lindsey Vonn, flamehaired snowboarder Shaun White and speedskating ace Apolo Anton Ohno.

Not in the eyes of the host nation, though.  In Canada, these will be the Sidney Games.  Sidney Crosby, perhaps the most precocious athlete in Pittsburgh’s history, captain of the Stanley Cup champion Penguins and the undisputed face of the National Hockey League, is about to go home and represent his country for the first time in major international competition.  And that home will be delighted to have him back.

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Possible change in start times at Penguins’ new arena?

by Tony on 02/07/10 at 09:26 AM ET
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Wanna pose a question for the Penguins fans who actually attend games on a regular basis.  John Mehno of the Beaver County Times opined yesterday that when the Penguins move across the street to the Consol Energy Center that the Pens may attempt to move the start times back from 7:30PM to 7PM local.  According to Mehno, the games were moved to 7:30 because “the downtown restaurant association whined that they were losing pre-game dinner business”.  Mehno believes the Pens might try to change it back to 7PM, since the new arena will have a variety of options to have a pre-game meal.

A quick glance at the NHL schedule shows that most of the teams in the NHL start their games at 7:00PM local.

So I ask those of you who are season ticket holders or attend many games during the year:  How much of a difference, positively or negatively, will changing the game start time back to 7PM make to you?

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Penguins faceoff with travel dilemma

by Tony on 02/06/10 at 10:18 PM ET
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UPDATE 10:16:  Penguins have landed in Newark, approx. 5 hour drive via bus to DC.  Also, per the Capitals, “As of 10 p.m. ET Saturday, the Washington Capitals vs. Pittsburgh Penguins game scheduled for 12 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 7, at Verizon Center remains as scheduled. The Penguins are en route to Washington, D.C., and are expected to arrive tonight.”

UPDATE:  From the Pittsburgh Tribune Review’s Rob Rossi’s Tweet,

Pens to fly into Newark, NJ tonight ... four hour drive to DC.

From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s Dave Molinari:

Washington is one of many cities in the East being battered by snow today, and reports this morning indicate that travel into and out of that area is treacherous, at best.  That’s an issue for the Penguins, who will face Montreal today at 2:08 p.m. at the Bell Centre but are scheduled to play Washington at the Verizon Center Sunday at 12:08 p.m.  Team officials still are trying to settle on the best way to get the team to Washington after the game against the Canadiens Because virtually all air traffic into that region has been stopped, one option might be to fly as close as they can, then take a train or bus the rest of the way.  Of course, that assumes that the trains are running or that the highways are passable.

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Destiny’s Child

by Tony on 02/06/10 at 08:30 PM ET
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From Sports Illustrated’s S.L. Price:

The signs got to him first. He was ready for the official one on the right there, just as they rolled past the town limit—COLE HARBOUR, HOME OF SIDNEY CROSBY—but then they kept coming, block letters slapped up on light boards at the businesses lining Cole Harbour Road: WELCOME HOME at the Petro-Canada station, HAPPY BIRTHDAY at Kyte’s Pharmasave, CONGRATS! at Chris Brothers Meats. And the thought began to rise: I didn’t dream this alone. They wanted it for me too....

Still, he was doing O.K., waving and flashing that boy-band grin from the antique fire truck, one hand on the massive silver prize. Indeed, this had pretty much been the plan when, just minutes after leading Pittsburgh to the 2009 Stanley Cup championship, the Penguins’ center had been the first to reserve—captain’s prerogative—his day with the legendary Cup: August 7, his 22nd birthday. His jersey number (87) and salary ($8.7 million) had been famously chosen to honor the 8/7/87 arrival of Canada’s Next One; it was only right—not to mention superstitious and relentlessly cute—that after fulfilling all the promise and hype, after proving himself the heir of Howe and Orr and Gretzky, Crosby would choose this day to bring the supreme token of success home to Nova Scotia.

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